In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of spending time in God's presence and seeking His will. He encourages the audience to take accountability for their spiritual growth by using a set of questions provided. The speaker also urges the audience to pray for their families and friends. He highlights the transformative power of God's Word and the Holy Spirit in prayer, leading to a deeper understanding of Christ and a changed life. The sermon concludes with the invitation to take the provided material and spend time alone with God, reflecting on the questions and seeking transformation.

I was reminded once reading about this old pastor in a church in the United States, and he was never able to get his people to come and sit in the front of the services. They always sat at the back. And so one Sunday morning he became so desperate that he took the pulpit and he put it in the back of the church and he asked them all to turn around. And so they walked out of his service with bended backs and bended necks, probably bended minds also for all you know. But we appreciate doing... You know, because we are involved in different countries on the subject of prayer, I sometimes come across some wonderful little things about prayer. And I was reading some time ago about this family that would have family prayers every day. And they had a wonderful dad. Every day when the dad prayed, there was something that he would thank God for that happened during that day. And so the children were always looking forward to when daddy's going to pray tonight. When they have family prayers, what is he going to thank God for today? And then one day, absolutely everything went wrong. I mean, nothing went right that day. From the morning, the moment that they woke up, right through the day until the evening, absolutely everything went wrong. And so the children were all excited and they said, now when dad prays tonight, what is he going to thank God for today? Because nothing went right. And so that day, that night when they prayed, the daddy said, Lord, I thank you that every day is not like today. So, then I was reading about these two elderly men who were praying. They used to pray together. And the one fellow, they would pray all over the world. And the one man would pray for different countries. And his prayer got so intense and so long that the man that prayed with him fell asleep. He just couldn't take it anymore. And when he closed his prayer, the fellow that was praying looked at him and he realized that he was asleep. So, he woke him up and he said, when did you fall asleep? And he said, I think it's when you were in India. So, there you are. We mentioned to you last night and yesterday in the sessions together that we have some great material that we would like to put into your hands. And if you have not taken one of these sheets on accountability, they really deal with four weeks that you can take five questions every week and just systematically go with them in your quiet times. And I would encourage you, if you haven't taken one, to make sure that you take one. And we've got quite a group of other material. We put them at the back and we would like you to take them if you will. We've got sheets of this if you are interested. When do you know when you have died to yourself? You know, the Apostle Paul said, I am crucified with Christ. And he said, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. And he said, the life which I now live in the flesh, how do I live it? I live it by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. It's quite significant if you go to the life of Christ and you study the teachings of Christ and look at every word that Jesus said and discover how much Christ said about faith. And then lay the foundation for the understanding of faith coming from the teachings of Christ, exploring the acts of the Apostles as it relates to faith. And then go to the Apostle Paul and his epistles and explore the understanding of faith, the general epistles and of course the book of Revelation. And you will discover three aspects of faith. Faith to be saved, faith to be sanctified and faith for service. And when you explore those three aspects of faith, you discover the secret of what the crucified life is all about. And so the Apostle Paul said, the life which I now live, which life is it? It's the crucified life. How do I live a crucified life? I live it by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and who gave himself for me. And then in Hebrews chapter 11, we enter into what we would consider as the heroes of faith. But when you study the New Testament epistles, you will discover that the majority of the New Testament epistles can be divided up into two sections. A doctrinal section and a practical application. And that's why we are so emphatic in saying to you that when it comes to the Christian life, that you cannot go from your experiences to the exposition of Scripture. You cannot interpret Scripture in the light of your experiences. Because you will isolate the Word of God. And as you isolate the Word of God, you will interpret God's Word in the light of your experience. That's why there are movements today, they are so experiential orientated. And everything is manifestations and experiences and all these kind of things. And brother and sister, they last for three or four or five years and then they blow up like a balloon. And you pick up these psychological, spiritual wrecks all alongside the road of the Christian life. And it takes them five or ten years to recover. Why is it? Because they've interpreted Scripture in the light of experience. I mean, this is my, if I may be allowed to say that this is my criticism of books on holiness. I mean, I probably have every book on holiness that you would be able to find the last hundred years or longer that has been written. And of all my books on holiness that I dearly love and appreciate, 70 to 80% of them are experiential orientated. And the problem is, you know, Christian maturity is not Christian purity. When God cleans us and fill us with the Spirit of God, it's going to take you a lifetime to develop Christian maturity. And one of my problems as a young Christian worker in Africa was that I listened to people who would speak on the subject of sanctification. And they would preach a message that took them 25 years to get there themselves. And I would sit there in the inadequacy of my simplicity, listening to this, and I said, Okay, if I need to trust God to cleanse me today and fill me with His Spirit, I need to experience what this man is speaking about tomorrow. He didn't realize that it took him 25 years to be able to get to that place in his relationship with God. And so what are we speaking about? You see, if God is dealing with us in a drastic way and He cleanses us and we surrender ourselves to God and He fills us with His Spirit, brother and sister, that's not a goal, that's a gateway. You see, a crisis without a process is an absence. And so in the Christian life, you will discover when you study the New Testament and we speak about surrender, and if I would be allowed to say this, and you say, why do you do that? You know, I've made a commitment in my life, and I'm not saying this to impress you, but I'm passionate about discovering what the Word of God is saying, and I've made a commitment in my relationship with God, and I've asked my wife to hold me accountable, that every 12 months, I say, Janice, I want you to help me. I want to go through the New Testament 35 to 40 times for the next 10 years. And I said, after those 400 times of systematically going through the Scriptures, writing the New Testament out about every 12 to 15 months, to come to grips with what God's Word is saying. And so that's what the New Testament is about. You study the word sinning, you need to ask yourself, what is the Gospel of Matthew saying about sin? What is Mark saying about sin? What is Luke saying about sin? What is John saying about sin? You say, how do you study this? When you look at that, you study the Gospel of Matthew together with the little epistle of James. You say, why do you do that? Because James is the commentary on the Sermon on the Mount. Those wonderful 105, 108 verses, and you put them with the 1071 verses of the Gospel of Matthew, you study them together. Then you take the Gospel of Mark. And how do you study the Gospel of Mark? Those 678 verses. You study the Gospel of Mark with 1 and 2 Peter. So why would you do that? Because theologically speaking, the Gospel of Mark had the relevant influence of the apostle Peter behind it. You say, to what degree? Because it relates in the Greek New Testament with 1 and 2 Peter. That's why the key word in the Gospel of Mark is the word eusis in the Greek language, which is the word immediately. That's why it's so difficult to analyze the Gospel of Mark. Because you discover how Peter, theologians are saying to us, dictated to Mark. And that's how the Gospel of Mark. So I study Mark with 1 and 2 Peter. And incidentally, I study it also with the first 12 chapters of the book of Acts. So why would you do that? Well, you see, the first 12 chapters of the book of Acts was dominated by the ministry of the apostle Peter. And then you study the Gospel of Luke. 1,151 verses with the Acts of the Apostles, which is 1,007 verses. And I study that with the Epistle to the Hebrews. And you say, why would you do that? Well, I'm not going to tell you, but that's the way I'm doing it. Because, let me just say this to you. If you study the Gospel of Luke in the Greek New Testament, you know Luke was a physician. And there are about 50 technical medical terms in the Gospel of Luke and in the Acts of the Apostles. Now, when you study the Gospel of Luke in the book of Acts in the Greek New Testament, and you study the Epistle to the Hebrews, you discover that in the Greek language there are deeply underlying corresponding concepts that are coming together that is unique in the style of those three New Testament books. And so you say, who wrote the Gospel of Luke? Who wrote the Epistle to the Hebrews? I'm not going to tell you, but I give you a piece of my mind that I can't afford to lose. So, I remember when I was a student, one of our professors said to us, I want you to find out who wrote the Epistle to the Hebrews. And so I had 50 arguments how I discovered that it was the Apostle Paul. And the morning when our professor asked us and said, So, who wrote the Epistle to the Hebrews? I was a very zealous student, you know. And I jumped up and I said, I know exactly who wrote the Epistle to the Hebrews. And so he said, who wrote the Epistle to the Hebrews? And I said, I have 50 arguments it was the Apostle Paul. And he just pointed his finger at me and said, you are absolutely wrong. And so I was kind of hurt in the arrogance of my young student days. And I jumped up again and I said, so who wrote the Epistle to the Hebrews? And he turned to me and he said, it was the Holy Spirit. Terror, wasn't he? He wasn't prepared to make a statement. I still believe it's Paul. You say, did he write it in Greek? I don't think so. You say, how did he do that? I think he wrote it in Hebrew. But someone translated it for him. And in the Acts of the Apostles, you come across the we sections. You know, Luke was the physician of the Apostle Paul. And from Acts chapter 16, three times you discover that he speaks of we, we, we. So you say, what happened? It's obvious that Luke must have been with him. And Luke became, I think, his personal physician. And so if you have an interest in the Greek language, and if you are interested, I can give you the Greek New Testament on audio. And I can give you the Greek New Testament in English. You say, what do you mean in English? They've translated the Greek New Testament from Koine Greek into English so that you look at the Greek words and they are spelled in English. Which makes it really easy to come to grips with it. And I like to do this when I sit in a plane. I sit with my Greek New Testament, and I sit with the English translation of the Greek New Testament. And I listen to it on audio. And it's just wonderful as you systematically. You know, there's only 5,250 words in the Greek language. And there are about 140 of those words that if you come to grips with it, they are the skeleton of the Greek language. You know, you all sit here this morning like a bunch of seminary students. I mean, Kevin, we can honestly give him an honorary doctorate for looking after all the sheep on the farm for all you know. Anyway, let me tell you something. Brother and sister, it's so rich. And you know, when you study the Scriptures, it's so wonderful. I mean, you know, it's just precious. You take one word, the word blood, in the Greek language. 99 times we find it. And you systematically go to the Bible. And you study it in its context. And you will never go wrong in your interpretation of Scripture. Because you always deal with the context of what Scripture is about. The work in the ministry of the Holy Spirit. 261 references in the Greek language speaking to us about the Holy Spirit. The word for sin. Which means missing the mark. In its different contexts, in its structures, in its tenses. And when you come to grips with it, you discover the fullness of what the Scriptures is all about. And so that's how you study the Word of God. And let it become part of your life. And when you pray, you know what the Holy Spirit does? He brings God's Word into your life. And you pray the Scriptures back to God. And you discover what does it mean to pray in the will of God. And systematically exploring what this is all about. So how do you know when you've died yourself? When you are forgotten or you are neglected. When you are purposely set at naught, and you do not sting and hurt with the insult or oversight, but your heart is counted worthy to suffer for Christ. That's when you've died to yourself. When your good is evil spoken of, when your wishes are crossed, your advice are disregarded, your opinions are ridiculed, and you refuse to let any form of anger rise in your heart, or even defend yourself, and you take it patiently and lovingly with silence, that is when you've died to yourself. When you lovingly and patiently bear any disorder, any irregularity, any unpunctuality, or any annoyance, when you stand face to face with waste, folly, extravagance, spiritual insensitivity, and endure as Christ endured it, that's when you've died to yourself. When you never care to refer to yourself in conversation, or to record your own good works, or each other's commendation, when you can truly love to be unknown, that's when you've died to yourself. When you are content with any food, any offering, any raiment, any climate, any society, any solitude, any interruption, by the will of God, that's when you've died to yourself. When you see your brother prosper, and you see how his needs have been met, and you can honestly rejoice with him in spirit, and feel no sense of envy, or never question God, while your own needs are far greater, and in desperate circumstances, that's when you've died to yourself. When you can receive correction, and reproof, from one of less stature than yourself, you can humbly submit, inwardly as well as outwardly, to that person, or to God, finding no rebellion, no resentment, rising within your heart, that's when you have died to yourself. So, are you dead? In these last days, the Spirit will bring us to the cross, that I may knowing, and being conformable to His death. So, we want to make sure that we are able to put these materials into... You know, Judson, the great missionary to Burma, he was one of the greatest men in the mission field, and they referred to him as the Apostle Paul of Burma. And so, when Judson came back from Burma to the United States, and there were many reports written about the great ministry that God gave him. And so, when he came back from the United States, and the ship that he was on came into Boston Harbor, when word came out that Judson was on the ship, many Christians, many, many Christians went because they wanted to meet this man that was so mightily used of God. And he didn't know what was happening. He was just coming home. He was old in life. He was coming to spend his last years back in the U.S. And so, when people came off the ship, Judson was there in his cabin. He was preparing and getting things together. And people were waiting, and somehow he didn't come. And they were looking for this man. They were looking for some marvelous spiritual giant that was going to come down from the ship. And so, he never came. He was just a small, little, inadequate, insignificant man. And eventually, they thought, well, maybe he's not on the boat. And so, they found out. And they said, no, he's in there. He's just getting his stuff together, and he's came out. And so, the reporters and Christian leaders who were so anxious to see him, they began to board the boat. And they said, we want to go and meet him, and we want to bring him down. And they came down, and he was in this cabin. And they just filled this cabin. And they were all there, and talking to him. And they said, oh, you are the modern Apostle Paul, and you are the great missionary to Burma. And he just broke, and wept, and wept, and wept. And he wouldn't even look at them. And so, when they got under the conviction of sin, because of what they were doing, he began to pray in their presence, you know. And he began to pray. And he said, God, I never wanted them to compare me with the Apostle Paul. But I always wanted to be like the Lord Jesus, you know. Well, I tell you, that got them out of the hurry, didn't it, you know. So, brother and sister, you know, we're really nothing. Don't you ever think, listen, you know what breaks my heart about the Christian life? And I'm so glad, you know, there's not a ton of people here these days, because it's wonderful, we can look one another in the eyes. But you know what breaks my heart about the Christian life? God don't need any one of us, you know. He don't need any one of us. Let me tell you something. God can do His work far better without us, you know. Far better without us. So, you say, why isn't He doing it? The angels would love to do what He's given us to do, but God wouldn't give them permission. And so, we are precious to God, and He wants to use us. And our lives are important to Him. Don't you ever sit there in a chair and think, you know, I'm just a little nothing. You are not a little. You're very, very important to God. But don't ever come to the place where you think you are indispensable. I always smile at the life of Elijah, you know. There at Mount Carmel, after three and a half years of preparation, and the fire of God fell upon the altar. And when the fire of God fell upon the altar, and devoured it, and God manifested Himself as the God of Israel, Elijah thought, you know, this is it. And it wasn't it. And he had to flit for his life. Hour after hour after hour. And then you know how God took him, and took him to this place all on his own. And then the voice came and said, what are you doing here, Elijah? And he said, I'm the only one left. I'm the only one left, you know. And you know, I wish I could translate to you the Hebrew understanding of that statement. Because you know what God said to him? So what? So what? You know what God said to him? You're not the only one left. There are many of them who have never bowed their knee to Baal. And Elijah, my work will just continue the way that it has, even if you're not there, you know. So don't you ever think that you are indispensable. You know, I'm amazed that God can use donkeys in Scripture. I tell you, God can use donkeys in Scripture. And by the way, you know, when Balaam talked to the donkey, the most incredible revelation, when the donkey spoke back to him, I mean, he was a donkey because he understood what the donkey was saying to him. It was amazing, you know. So just be, you, very careful, you know. We're precious to God. You're not indispensable. You say, so how does God use us? You know what? God used broken people. I've often said to my dear and my precious wife, I said to her, my darling, the day when I lose the brokenness of the Spirit of God in my life, will you have the courage to nail me in a corner and say to me, don't you ever go near ministry again? God used broken people. And if you don't serve God with a broken heart, you're not going to get far. You're going to get so hurt. You're going to get so offended. You're going to get so upset. You're going to become so bitter that no one would be able to get near you. You say, what are you talking about? You need to learn to kiss the hand that is holding the knife. And if you learn to kiss the hand that is holding the knife, you will never be able to look at people, you will always be able to look at people with the grace of God, and you will always be able to see yourself without the grace of God. And if you see yourself without the grace of God, and you see people with the grace of God, brother and sister, you never will be able to criticize people. Never. Never be able to criticize people. Because why? You see them with a heart that has become broken. I wonder this morning, you know, I tell you, it's such a blessing to be in Australia because I know there's a burden of God for this country. And it was amazing when I came into Sydney the other day. It was just like being here nine years ago. Because, you know, we've been praying. We've got around more than 500 people in different countries of the world who are praying for every one of these meetings. They don't know your faces, they don't know your names, but I tell you, these people are praying for you every day. And what a blessing to be in this country to sense the burden of God and to ask God to come and visit us with revival. So, let's spend some time in prayer together and then we're going to turn to the scriptures. If you are new with us this morning, we've been praying together at every one of these sessions. And this is what we are going to do. I want you to meet in groups of five and just get into a little circle. If there's something that you really want us to pray about, we want you to share it. So, what I want you to do is to look at the person and say, how can I pray for you? If it's a family member, if it's an issue at your church or whatever it is, we want to pray with you about it. You know, the longest that George Muller of Bristol prayed for someone was 63 years. You say, when did he become a Christian? Three weeks after George Muller died. The great Andrew Murray prayed around 400 of his descendants into the ministry. But you know what happened to Andrew Murray? Every one of his children found Christ, went into the ministry except one. He was the youngest boy. He was a rebel all his life. Never came to Christ. Andrew and Emma Murray prayed for him. God gave them promises. They sought the face of God. Stood upon the promises of God. But he never gave his life to Christ. The war broke out in South Africa. And when the war broke out, this young man in his thirties went to the war. Didn't know Christ. Andrew and Emma Murray prayed for him and prayed for him. Went to the war, totally lost. And you know what happened during the war? He was killed. And when he was killed, Andrew and Emma Murray said, We don't understand this, but we can't question the promises of God that He has given unto us that our son would come to Christ and that will be born of the Spirit of God. And they got the message that his son was killed in the war. And for six months they went through awful darkness. They never knew what happened to him. They didn't know if he came to Christ. All they had was the promises of God. No word about this youngest son of the Murrays. And do you know what happened? Six months later, a knock was at the door of a parsonage in Graf Rienet in South Africa. And Andrew Murray opened the door and a man stood in front of him and he said to him, Are you Dr. Andrew Murray? And he said, Yes. And he said, I need to talk to you. And Andrew Murray said, About what? He said, I need to talk to you about your son. He said, What do you mean? He said, Your son that went to the war. And Andrew Murray said, Come in. And they sat down and Emma Murray came in and he said to him, What is it about our son? And the man turned to him and he said, I was in the trenches right next to him when he was shot. And he said, He was wounded. And he said, He fell into my arms. And he said, For the last five minutes of his life, I held him in my arms. And he said, Sir, I need to tell you, I led him to Christ. In the last five minutes of his life, because I'm a born again Christian. And he got saved. Don't you ever give up, you know. Don't you ever give up, you know. And sometimes you know what we need to do? We need to confess and say, God, I've given up. But you've never given up on people. You've got family members this morning and they are lost. Don't you give up. You've got children and they are lost. Don't you give up. So why are you saying that? The tide goes out. And brother and sister, the tide turns and comes back. And people need to get bottom, hit bottom, before they turn. And things need to get worse before they're going to get better. And so he said, What is it? Don't you ever give up when it comes to prayer. So let's pray. Pray together in our little groups. And if you've got a family member that you want us to pray for, it would be a great time for us to do it. Find four or five people and just break up in little groups. And that's what we're going to do. Okay? This is a great time for us to pray for our families. And so why don't you just share about your family or some of your friends. And then we pray together. Oh, Heavenly Father, as we have bowed this morning in the greatness of your presence, has it been a tremendous encouragement for us to know that in thy presence there is fullness of joy, and at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore. We thank you that your word is set unto us, that they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings as eagles, they shall run and not be weary, and they shall walk and they shall not faint. And Father, we confess this Saturday morning that there is nothing that is so valuable to us, and there is nothing that is so refreshing to us to be able to linger in the presence of God and just to become conscious of the encouraging blessing of recognizing that the Lord is in the midst of His people. Father, I was reminded again of Solomon in the Old Testament when at the dedication of the temple, and how your word is set to us that when he came to the place and he prayed and he said, If my people which 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 we are so grateful this Saturday morning that we are thy people, that we have been called by thy name. And Father God, we want to humble ourselves before you. Your word said that you dwell with those who are of the humble and the broken heart and the broken spirit. And you said unto us, Humble yourselves unto the mighty hand of God. And Father, we confess today that in the best of our understanding and our comprehension and our perception of what humbling ourselves before God really means, is it still so inadequate in that which God really wants us to do. Lord, we thank you that Oswald Chambers said that we need to learn the secret that to humble ourselves before God is not just a discipline, but it needs to transform itself into a disposition and a lifestyle of an awareness of our inadequacy in the presence of God. And Father, we confess today that we have never learned the art that when you said to us, Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors, how we come to the understanding of how far we come short of the glory of God. And Lord, we are not speaking about unconfessed sin, but we are coming to grips with the depravity of sin and the fact that we are missing the mark and that we come so far short of the glory of God. And as we humble ourselves before you, that the Spirit of God is able to come and show us the unbelievable depth of our need in the presence of God. And Father, teach us the secret of what it means to sit in the dust before you, not in a sense of depression, not in a sense of introspection, not in a sense of being disillusioned, and not in a sense of discouragement, but in the consciousness that if you withdraw your presence from us for one split second, that we will simply disintegrate it in the greatness of the majesty and the centrality and the supremacy of the life of the Lord Jesus. And God, we pray that you will teach us these marvelous secrets. Lord, I've been so blessed in recent months by this little book by Andrew Murray on humility and how we expound the humility in the life of Christ and how the Son of God learned obedience by the things that He suffered. And how He said unto us, the Son can do nothing unless He sees the Father doing it. And how in His submissiveness to His Father He said unto us, My Father worked hitherto and so do I. And God, we confess this Saturday morning we don't know a thing because of the awfulness of sin and its impact upon our lives and what it has done to us that we do not know a thing about what it means to fast and pray and to come to grips with the Hebrew understanding of sitting in the very ashes and the dust before God. But I pray that you will teach us afresh this weekend that one of the greatest attributes and one of the most marvelous aspects of the sanctified life and one of the most beautiful consequences and characteristics of this fullness of the life in Christ in us is when you bring us to the place where we will be able to sing with the hymn writer of old when he said, Nothing in my hands I bring but simply to the cross I cling. Teach us humility, dear God, so that out of our purity and the cleansing efficacy of the blood will flow the vision of a risen Christ who submit himself, who became conformed to the image of man and who gave himself to us. And when you said unto us that you are in his love, not that we love God, but that he loved us and that he gave himself for us, and, Father, that we would recognize that the understanding of our surrender to God leads us to the comprehension of our depth of need and humility and brokenness and transparency and vulnerability and a total abandonment and being sold out to every aspect of what the life of Christ is all about. God, we confess that it is not these times that we are spending with you, but, Father, it is these times that you are spending with us. And help us never to lose the vision of the possibility that God has promised to us household salvation. Help us this morning never to lose the vision of the Christ that is sitting at the right hand of the throne of God and is ever interceding for us. Help us never to lose the understanding that we are not on our own, but that you have said unto us, my little children, these things I write unto you that you sin not. But, if any man sins, we have an Advocate to the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteousness. And he is the propitiation for our sins, and not just for our sins, but for the sins of the whole world. Help us never to lose sight of the fact that you said to us that we do not have a high priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but one who is touched in all points, just like us we are, and yet without sin. And help us never to lose sight of the fact that you said unto us, let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace and mercy, so that we might be able to receive mercy and grace in the time of need. And I am so glad, Father, that the Greek New Testament is really saying to us that God will step in in the nick of time, just when we need it. And you have said unto us that no temptation has taken you, but such as is common to man. But God is faithful that He will with a temptation make a way of His step. And He will not allow us to be able to be tempted about that which we are able to handle, but that He will with the temptation that He will make a way of His step. And God, I am so grateful today that our understanding of the temptation has been so warped and so misunderstood and the age has gone by. And how that word, parashah, was speaking to us about emotional suffering, mental suffering, the agony of our weaknesses as it relates to prayer, the reality of facing the sin of this world, and the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, and those five different meanings that God will not allow us to go above that which we will be able to handle. But God, that You will give us a way of escape. And I am so grateful this Saturday morning that the will of God will never leave us where the grace and the peace of God is not able to keep and sustain us in the Christian life. And that You have said unto us that I will keep Him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed upon Me. And You have said unto us that you shall hear a voice behind you saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, if you turn to the left or if you turn to the right. And God, we are so grateful that we have a passion in our hearts to simply walk in humility with the One that has given His life to us. And God, the burden of my heart in these days has been that You would come and that You would pour out upon us an unbelievable and an immense spirit of prayer. We know all this stuff in the Scriptures. We know it from cover to cover. Yet we have never experienced the reality of it. And that You will help us in a practical way to come to the realization that You said to us, I will not give you the land at once, but I will give you the land portion by portion. And that You will help us to be in step walking with God. And that we will become people intoxicated and saturated and immersed in the greatness of the baptism of brokenness that Father will chase us for time and for eternity. And I am so grateful I have never come or even considered to come to Australia because I had nothing else to do these days. Lord, we could have been in thirty other countries if we wanted to. But we have come these days because we really want to go deeper with God. And I don't care if it is five or ten or fifteen or twenty or a thousand or fifteen thousand people. God's numbers doesn't mean a thing. But what you are concerned about is that we will take one step at a time and that we will go so deep in the purity of God and in the understanding of the spirit of prayer that our lives will be changed for time and for eternity. Oh, we thank You for the spirit of prayer. We thank You for the freedom that I felt earlier this morning that I would have loved to take that little trailer and park it somewhere out there in a remote area of Australia and spend forty days and forty nights in a little trailer like that and just seeking God and fasting and prayer and praying for this country and praying for these people and seeking Your face. And we confess this morning that if we can't get through to God, how in the world will we ever be able to get through to the lives of people? And so You need to come to us in these days that we will be together. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. So, find your chair again if you will. And I want you to open your Bible. Two passages in the Old Testament. Genesis chapter 18 and then 1 Samuel chapter 1. Genesis chapter 18 and then 1 Samuel chapter 1. There are 18 classic prayers in the Old Testament that you will discover. I just want us to look at two of them as we explore the subject this morning and tonight. Genesis chapter 18 and then 1 Samuel chapter 1. Stand for the reading of God's Word. We've been sitting for quite some time. Genesis chapter 18, verse 16. And the men rose up from thence, and they looked toward Sodom. And Abram went with them and brought them on their way. And the Lord said, Shall I hide from Abram that thing which I do, seeing that Abram shall surely become a great and a mighty nation? And all the nations said, The earth shall be blessed in him. For I know him that will command his children and his household after him. And they shall keep the way of the Lord to do justice and to do judgment, that the Lord may bring upon Abram that which he hath spoken of him. And the Lord said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is so grievous, I will go down now and see whether they would have done altogether according to the cry of it which is come unto me. And if not, I will know. And the men turned their faces from thence and went toward Sodom. But Abram stood yet before the Lord. And Abram drew near and said, Will thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked? Peradventure there will be fifty righteous within this city. Will thou also destroy and not spare the place for the fifty righteous that are therein? That be it far from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked, and that the righteous should be as the wicked, that be it far from thee. Shall not the judge of all the earth do right? But the Lord God said to Abram, If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within this city, then I will spare all the place for their sakes. And Abram answered and said, Behold, now I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord, which I am but dust and ashes. Peradventure there shall lack five of that fifty righteous. Will thou destroy all the city for the lack of the five? And he said, If I find forty and five, I will not destroy it. And he spake unto him yet again and said, Peradventure there shall be forty found there. And he said, I will not do it for forty's sake. And he said unto him, Oh, let the Lord not be angry and I will speak. Peradventure there shall thirty be found there. And he said, I will not do it if I find thirty there. And he said, Behold, now I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord. Peradventure there shall be twenty found there. And he said, I will not destroy it for twenty's sake. And he said, Oh, let not the Lord be angry and I will speak yet this once. Peradventure there shall be ten found there. And he said, I will not destroy it for the sake of the ten. And the Lord God went His way as soon as He had left communion with Abram. And Abram returned unto his place. And then if you just turn over to 1 Samuel chapter 1, and just for the sake of our time let's read from verse number 9. 1 Samuel chapter 1 verse number 9. And so Hannah rose up after that, eaten and shallow, and after had drunk now, Eli the priest sat upon a seat by the post of the temple of the Lord. And she was in bitterness of soul and she prayed unto the Lord and she wept sore. And she vowed and she said, O Lord of hosts, if thou wilt indeed look upon the infliction of thy handmaid and remember me, and not forget thine handmaid, but will give unto thy handmaid a man child, then I will give him unto the Lord all the days of his life. And there shall no razor come upon his head. And it came to pass that as she continued praying before the Lord, that Eli marked her mouth. Now Hannah, she spoke in her heart and only her lips were moving. But her voice was not heard therefore, and Eli thought that she had been drunken. And Eli said unto her, How long wilt thou be drunken? Put away thy wine from thee. And Hannah answered and said, No, my Lord, I am a woman of a sorrowful spirit. I have drunk neither wine nor strung drink, but I have put out my soul before the Lord. Do not count thy handmaid for a daughter of Belial, for out of the abundance of my complaint and grief have I spoken hitherto. Then Eli answered and said, Go in peace. And the God of Israel granted thy petition that thou wast asking. And she said, Let thy handmaid find grace in thy sight. So the woman went her way and did eat. And her countenance was no more sad. And they rose up in the morning early and worshipped before the Lord, and returned and came to their house to Ramah. And Elkanah knew Hannah his wife, and the Lord remembered her. Wherefore it came to pass that when the time was come about after Hannah had conceived that she bear a son, and she called his name Samuel, saying, Because I have asked him of the Lord. And the man Elkanah and all his house went up to offer unto the Lord the yearly sacrifice in his vow. But Hannah did not go up, for she said unto her husband, I will not go up until the child be weaned. And then I will bring him that he may appear before the Lord and there abide forever. And Elkanah her husband said unto her, Do what seems to be good. Tarry until thou hast weaned him. And the Lord established his word. So the woman abode and gave her son. Suck until she weaned him. And when she had weaned him, she took him up with her with three bullocks and one ephah flower and a bottle of wine, brought him unto the house of the Lord, when the child was young. And she slew a bullock and brought the child unto Eli. And she said, O my Lord, as thy soul liveth. My Lord, I am the woman that sleep by thee praying unto the Lord. For this child I prayed, and the Lord hath given me my petition, which I asked of him. Therefore I have also lent him unto the Lord. As long as he liveth, he shall be lent unto the Lord and he will worship him there. You may be seated. You know, the medical profession is giving unto us a wonderful example and an illustration. And they are saying unto us that when a child is born in a house, that during the first six months of the life of his child, is it possible for us to say that this baby would found itself being exposed to many, many thousands of different noises and sounds that is taking place in the average household. And they would say that during the first six months of the life of a child, is it possible to say that for approximately 16 or sometimes 18 hours of the day, will that baby be able to be exposed to all the voices that is taking place in the average household, the noises of animals, music and radio and the news, and that the first six months of the life of that child is that process that is taking place in the life of the baby. And then they are saying to us that after that period of six months, that child will be able to respond to those different voices, but the first two words that will come from the lips of that baby will be the words Mommy and Daddy. Why is that taking place? Because the mother and the father are the two that will spend the most time with that little life. And so what is taking place is that a process is taking place in the life of this child. And this process that is taking place has brought this child to the place where he will be able to begin to respond and utter the names of the mother and the father. You see, my brother and sister, if a baby is born in a house and you and I would be able to say that during the first six months of the life of the child there is not going to be any sound that is taking place and we would anticipate that after that period of time, that way baby will be able to say Mommy or Daddy, if there has been no sound in that house, it's just not going to happen. But there is a process that is taking place in the life of that child. And the medical profession has given that process a definition. And they refer to that as the process of saturation. That child has been saturated and those voices and those noises and the combination of all of that which has taken place has brought that baby to the place where he is able to utter those first two words that would come from his lips. Why do I use this scenario with you this morning? You see, when we are speaking about prayer and when we come to the place where you and I as a Christian wants to learn the language of prayer, my brother and my sister, the only way that that is going to take place is when God would bring us to the place where that which He is saying to us in His Word about prayer, when that becomes part of my relationship with God. And when that becomes part of my relationship with God, that brings me to the place in my walk with God when I pray when I don't feel like it. That brings me to the place of a relationship with God where prayer becomes almost like breathing. And when the apostle Paul comes to us in the New Testament and he said unto us pray without ceasing, is he not saying to us that he developed or cultivated a life of prayer where he spent 24 hours a day praying to God, but where he has developed a lifestyle where upon his relationship with God is there a spirit of prayer? People often ask me and say, how do you know when there is a spirit of prayer resting upon your life? And I would say to them, one of the ways that I know that is when anyone can ask me any time of the day or the night to pray with them and I will not feel uncomfortable. And so you see, when we begin to study the Scriptures, in fact, if I may be honest with you this morning and I won't be anything else, but to me, brother and sister, prayer is like breathing. You know, the reason why you and I are breathing this morning is because of the fact that there is pressure that is upon our lungs and that pressure that is upon our lungs because of the atmosphere in which we are. You and I do not have an option but to breathe. But I mean, you didn't come in here this little gathering this morning and turn to me and say, you know, Gerard, I've had such a difficult time breathing today. You didn't do that. Because it's just natural, you know. Our daughter Monica and myself when she was younger, if you ever come to Western Canada, we are in what we would call the Switzerland of the country of Canada. It's a large, marvelous country. If you want to drive from the east to the west, you need about five, six, seven days of driving between seven and ten hours every day. So, we are living on the west coast of Canada and because of that, we don't get all the snow that they get in the other provinces in Canada down at the coast where we are, with tons of rain. But then if you go into the interior of British Columbia, we are dealing with the Rocky Mountains. And when you go through the Rocky Mountains, there are brutal avalanches every year. I mean, people are getting killed with these avalanches on a consistent basis. And as a result of that, we have tunnels through the mountains sometimes and man-made tunnels that they have made so that when these avalanches come down, that it doesn't destroy the vehicles and the people, but it comes over these man-made tunnels and it goes down into the valleys. And if you drive up to the city of Calgary, you go through numerous of these tunnels. You know, when Monica was younger, she and myself, we had this game that we used to play when we go through the tunnels. And we would come to the tunnel and I would take my watch off and I said to Monica, it's time for us to play our little game. And so my wife would sit next to me, I would be driving, and the game that we played was we were trying to find out who was able to hold his breath the longest. And so we would come to the entrance of this tunnel and I would slow down as much as I possibly can and I would look at my watch and I would say, Monica, it's time to start. And she would be at the back seat and I would look at her in the mirror. And the moment we would come to the tunnel, we would take all the air that we can in our lungs and we close our noses like this and I would slow down as much as I can. And so then we would be able to see who was able to hold our breath the longest. Now because of the fact that I was doing the driving, I was looking in the mirror to see if trucks would come from behind, I was slowing down and I had all those other responsibilities. There were moments that my one nostril was open and I took a little bit of air. But man, I wish you could have seen my daughter. I mean, you know, brother and sister, she's just a block of absolute determination. I sometimes say to my wife, you know, I think Monica, someone will say to her one day, the only reason why Rome wasn't built in three days is because she wasn't around. I mean, she's just an absolute block of determination. And she would hold the air as much as she can and those little cheeks would be like apples and she would turn almost blue in her face and I would slow down as much. I think the record was about a minute and ten seconds. And my wife would turn to me in agony and say, God, you're going to kill her! You're going to kill her! You're going to kill her! And then we would get through the tunnel. But you know, brother and sister, praying to me is like breathing. You see, it's a relationship that we have with God. And so, as you explore the Scriptures, and you know, I wish we would have been somewhere out here in the mountains. I guess there's not many mountains in Australia, but we would have been able to find them. And we'd go for a week and all that we were to do is for me to be able to spend a week with you in prayer. And day by day, all that we will do is to systematically go through the Scriptures and ask God to teach us how to learn the language of prayer. How can that which God is saying to us in His Word, as it relates to prayer, because God is building up Christian character and He's using His Word, how that will be able to become part of my relationship with God. And so that when it becomes part of my relationship, it's a relationship where I don't spend these times with God, but brother and sister, where a transformation has taken place. Where God is coming to my Christian life and God is spending time with me. I remember those six black African pastors that I learned to pray with and they became my mentors. And they will go to this little mountain in our farm and spend 40 days in prayer and fasting. All that they would do is to take a canister of water and a blanket and their Bibles and they would spend days lingering in the presence of God. And in the inadequacy of my ignorance, when I began to pray with them and I would say to them, how do you spend 21 days in prayer? How do you learn this? How do you do this thing? How do you cultivate a spirit of prayer? And then I would ask them and say to them, how many hours do you spend in prayer? And they would turn to me in agony. They didn't want to answer those questions. And in the ignorance of my zeal as a young evangelist, I would pursue it and say, how many hours do you spend in prayer? And they would turn to me and they would say to me, we have no idea how many hours we spend in prayer. But we do know that we very seldom would go through an hour without praying. You see, brother and sister, that's what's the difference. Now you say, what is the Bible saying to us about prayer? Let me just give you a little bit of an insight and then I want us to launch the rest of our time today and this evening into four aspects of Old Testament prayer. If you and I would have had time to explore this, you and I would have been able and if we were this morning in a Bible college or in a seminary, one of the things that I would have done is I would have taken you to 11 words of the Old Testament that is speaking to us about prayer and the Hebrew language. And I would have been able to put every one of those 11 words down like this. And I would be able to say to you, allow me to take you to the Old Testament and step by step, we are going to discover how many times this word is found in the Old Testament. And we will step by step go through those 11 words and we will look at the 5 books of Moses. We will look at the 12 historical books in the Old Testament. We will look at the books of poetry in the Old Testament. And we will look at the major prophets and the minor prophets. And I would be able to take you to that one word and we will explore the whole of the Old Testament. Now this is the problem. If I would be able to take one of those words and say, let's just look at this word, you will discover that from that one word in the Hebrew understanding of prayer and the Old Testament, sometimes my brother and my sister, there could be 5 or 6 or 7 other Hebrew words that found themselves flowing from this one word. They are not directly speaking to us about prayer, but they are interrelated to this word. And it gives you a network. It's like a river that films many little streams and creeks as it would develop itself into the language of prayer. And so when you take those 11 words and I would take you through all those 39 Old Testament books, you and I would be able to explore as many as 800 to 1,000 possible Old Testament passages that is relating to the concept of prayer. That's just one aspect of Old Testament prayer. You say, what else is there that you would be able to do with me, Gerard? I would be able to take you to those 16 moral imperatives of God as they relate to prayer. And we will discover that He is the One that initiates prayer. And we will discover His righteousness as it relates to prayer. We will discover His holiness as it relates to prayer. We will discover the attributes of God as they relate to the understanding, brother and sister. You say, is that all that we will discover? No, no. I will be able to take you to the different kinds of Old Testament prayer. And there are five different kinds of Old Testament prayer. And we will systematically be able to explore what they are all about. And then I will be able to take you to all those prayers in the Old Testament. And there are more than 400 of those Old Testament prayers. And I would be able to say to you, listen, when you study those prayers in the Old Testament, you will discover every aspect of the life of God. And you will discover every aspect of the will of God. And you will discover every aspect of interceding in what it is in the Old Testament. You will discover what it means to persevere in prayer. You will discover what it means to prevail in prayer. You will discover what it means to agonize in prayer. And then we will be able to say to ourselves, we discovered three things. We discovered what God is saying about prayer. We discovered how it's affecting man as He was praying. We will discover the consequences. You see, brother and sister, when you study the 18 classic Old Testament prayers, one of the mistakes that we make in our understanding and our studying of prayer, is that you and I go to those prayers in the Old Testament, and brother and sister, we study them. And you would come to me and you would say, isn't it an amazing blessing to study those prayers? And I will be able to turn to you and say, listen, you missed 75% of the vote. And you will say to me, what do you mean that I missed 75%? I say, listen, if you want to understand this Old Testament prayer, first of all, you need to go back into the Old Testament and you need to discover the relationship that those people that pray those prayers had with God. And when you discover and when you study their relationship, brother and sister, that they had with God, you will discover that the consequences of that relationship was simply because there was a revelation from God. And when they had this revelation from God, this revelation from God brought those people to a moment when they had a personal encounter with God. And when they had that personal encounter with God, something happened to those people and the consequences of the revelation that they had with God and the personal encounter that they had with God brought them to the place where they had a burden and they wanted to do something for God. And when you study those three aspects of what that was about, it brings you to their prayer. And when it brings you to their prayer, in their prayer, you know what their prayer does, brother and sister? Their prayer takes you back to their revelation of God. That prayer that they pray takes you back to their encounter and experience with God. That prayer that they pray takes you back to that which they accomplished for God. And it gives you the full understanding of Old Testament prayer. I don't have time this morning, but boy, I tell you, I would have loved to do it. The prayer of the prophet Elijah in 1 Kings 18, when James would come to us in the New Testament and what did he say to us? He said, the prayer, the effectual fervent prayer of the righteous man abated much. And then he said to us, Elijah was a man just like us we are. So what did Elijah say? The Bible says he prayed. What happened when he prayed, brother and sister? The Bible says for three years and six months. Now, the Old Testament doesn't say that, but the New Testament says for three years and six months, the Bible says there was no rain. Then the Bible says Elijah prayed again. And so when the Bible says Elijah prayed again, there was rain. And then the Bible comes to us and it says, the prayer of faith shall save us. And you discover the prayer of faith. Now, how do you understand the prayer of Elijah? Those 56 words in the Hebrew language in the Old Testament. You know what? You need to go right back into 1 Kings and you discover the revelation of God to Elijah. And when God revealed Himself to Elijah, He took him from one place to the other for a period of three years and six months. And brother and sister, when He brought up, He brought Elijah to where He did something for them. What did He do? He brought the people of Israel together. He built the altar of God. He brought those prophets of Baal. And He did that. And after He did everything, He prayed. And so after He prayed, the fire of God came in His fire. You see, the immensity of this is absolutely unbelievable, you know. And so you find all these prayers in the Old Testament. And every single one of them are based upon the revelation of God. Every single one of them are based upon an encounter with God. Every single one of them are based upon exploits that men and women did for God. And every single one of them, when they came to the prayer, it was the building up of those three things. And if you want to understand their prayers, you need to understand what God did for those people. You say, you know, it works like that in our lives. I only need to spend five minutes with someone in prayer and I've got an absolutely clear idea where He is with Christ. Absolutely clear idea what's going on in this relationship with God. Because, brother and sister, the way that we pray is an indication of my revelation of God. The way that we pray is the consequences of my experience of God. The way that we pray is a reflection of the things that I've been doing for God. And it brings me to this concept where I study that which is prayer about. So you say, what about it? It's absolutely incredible. Now, let me tell you something. If you study everything that the Old Testament is saying to us about prayer, listen, I mean everything. The distinction between prayer and the first five books of Moses, and the historical books of the Old Testament, and the books of poetry in the Old Testament, and the prophets, and you bring all of it together, you know what you discover? Everything that the Old Testament is saying to us about prayer, brother and sister, was manifested and fulfilled in the life and the ministry of the Lord Jesus. You say, how do you know that? I tell you, if you and I would have had time to explore it, it would become one of the greatest blessings and revelations of your own relationship. Everything that the Old Testament is saying was manifested and fulfilled in the life of God. Why? Because He became the Word of God. He became God manifested in the flesh. And brother and sister, when Christ came, and may I say to you this morning, you will never be able to understand the teachings of Christ as it relates to prayer if you have not come to grips with His prayer life. You will never be able to understand it. But when you study His prayer life, and you go to those 19 active references in His prayer life in the four Gospels, and then you study His teachings, you know what you will discover in His teachings? It's unbelievable. There are eight principles that are coming to the surface in the teachings of Christ. And brother and sister, when you study those eight principles, you know what you will realize? Those eight principles are based upon eight Hebrew words in the Old Testament. And those eight Hebrew words are based upon the understanding of waiting upon God. And so the life of Christ as it relates to prayer, was a life where He was lingering in the presence of His Father. That's what it is about. Now, I am not sure if you are still with me. And if you are not with me, I will not blame you. Because sometimes I am not with myself either. Let me encourage you this morning. Because we are going to go deep here. Get those CDs and systematically listen to them, brother and sister. Not because it's me. I mean, I am just a poor, poor little thing here. But listen, just explore the greatness of the Scriptures. So let me take one or two aspects of Old Testament prayer. You know, prayer is initiated by God. Do you know what I mean? God is the one that initiates prayer. Brother and sister, forgive me, maybe this sounds terrible for me to say this to you, but I need to tell you something this morning. God has got a far greater interest to spend time with you than you would ever have an interest to spend time with God. Far greater. You say, why do you say that? Because we are His creation. That's why He said in the book of Genesis, let us make man after our image and after our likeness. And so you remember when He created Adam and Eve, what did He do? He placed them in the Garden of Eden. And He gave them a responsibility, you know. And He said to them, you can eat of any other tree, any other fruit of the tree, but I don't want you to eat of the fruit of the tree of life. You see, because when that happens, you are going to die spiritually. Now, before sin came into the world, what happened in the Garden of Eden? Well, you know, God came. God came. How did He come? He came in the cool of the evening. And as He came in the evening, what did He do? He had communion with Adam and Eve. Brethren and sisters, the closest that you and I will ever be able to understand this is when you study the prayer life of Christ in the Gospel of John. That's the closest yet that you will be able to understand it. When you discover the life, the relationship between the Son and the Father, that's the closest that you will be able to understand the relationship that God had with Adam and Eve before sin came into the world. And so God came in the cool of the evening. I love that word, you know. It's the word for the word spirit. It's the word ruach. And so God came and He was the one that initiates prayer. He was the one that came to spend time with us. He was the one that came to have fun. Why was it? Brethren and sisters, they were His creation. You see, He had a responsibility. He created them. He created them after His image, after His likeness. He put them in the Garden of Eden. And I could sense the desperateness and the longing of the heart of God if I would be allowed to take into the realm of that uncertainty of the intimacy of spirituality and this sense of God coming. And He came and He had fellowship with Adam and Eve. That's what He did. He's the one that initiated prayer. So what happened? They were walking with God. You remember in the Old Testament this marvelous example that we find of this man in Genesis. And his name was Enoch. And in fact, I was with a group of pastors out in western Canada and they flew me in from Vancouver to the city of Calgary just for one morning. I mean, that's what they do in that country. Got on a plane and sat for two hours in this plane. Came into the city of Calgary. We speak up at the airport and spent the whole morning with quite a large group of pastors. And they wanted me to speak to them about prayer. And I got up that morning and I said to them, Gentlemen, I've got the 90 minutes that you have given me and I'm going to take the next 90 minutes to speak to you about the prayer life of Enoch in the Old Testament. You know, these poor guys just flipped because first of all, they don't know a thing about the Scriptures. And secondly, they've hardly heard about Enoch. And I could see the wheels turning and they must have thought, you know, which translation of the Bible is he trying to pluck this out? And I said, we're going to spend 90 minutes on the prayer life of Enoch. And I began to explore it. We prayed together. And I took him to this word in the Old Testament, Enoch, walk with God. It is the Hebrew word halak. And I brought him into the New Testament, eight references to Enoch in the Scriptures, and brought him into the New Testament, because the epistle to the Hebrews made the statement and said, by faith Enoch was translated, that he should not see death, because God translated him. And before his translation, he had this testimony that he pleased God. And I said, now, let's explore this. Why was it that this man walked with God? Why was it that the Bible said God took this man? Because he walked with God. What is the understanding of this word halak in the Old Testament? And how does it relate to the life of Christ in the New Testament? And brother and sister, for 90 minutes, in fact, we probably could have had three hours, and we still wouldn't have been able to get through it. But for 90 minutes, all I did was exploring this understanding, by faith Enoch was translated. And we began to explore the biblical doctrine, the theology of being changed by God in prayer. And we discover that this word translated is the same word that we found in the life of Christ. That at the Mount of Transfiguration, when He took Peter and John up to the Mount of Transfiguration, and the Bible said that Christ was transfigured. Christ was transformed. And as He was transformed and He spent time with Moses who represented the law, and Elijah who represented the prophets. And we talked about this transformation. And then I took them right into the New Testament again. And I took them to Romans 12. It was saying unto us, He said, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God. And here comes the word again in the Greek language. He said, And be not conformed, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what He said, good and perfect and the acceptable will of God. And then I took them into 2 Corinthians 3. When the apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 3 given to us the life of Moses, and he's explaining about the glory of God upon the life of Moses, and how Moses, when he came down from the mountain, that they had to put a veil in front of his face because the glory of God was so relevant. And he was transfigured, and he was changed. And he did not know that his face was shining because of the greatness of the glory of God. And then the apostle Paul came and he made the statement, and let me translate it to you from the Greek language if I would be allowed to do it. This is what Paul said in 2 Corinthians 3. He said, As we in a glass or in a mirror... Now why did he use that illustration? Brother and sister, he used it because the women at Corinth made these little mirrors with their hands. And the apostle Paul took the language, or rather an example, and an illustration, and he said to them, You know how these women make these mirrors? And he used that illustration and he said to the Corinthians, he said, As we in a glass or in a mirror are in the process, it's in the present imperative mood, are in the process of beholding the glory of the Lord, he said, We are changed. And this is what it says in the Greek language. We are changed. Again, it's present imperative. We are changed from one degree of glory into another as by the Spirit of the Lord. And you know, for 90 minutes we explore the ways that God is able to change us. As we relax to pray. Can I ask you this morning, you know, there's a sense in which we don't know one another. I saw, we saw, some of us here, we saw one another nine years ago. I went kangaroo hunting one night with Bruce out there in the Boca Boca land to the boonies of the sticks of the farm. And I went back to Canada and told the Canadians and I mean, they just about were ready to throw me in prison because of the animal activists. And I said to them, You come with me and you jump like a guru and you get a bullet for your own head. You just watch it. And I remember that night when I was with Bruce, you know, this poor kangaroo, I mean, this thing didn't know what hit him. I'm so glad he didn't know what hit him because otherwise he would have remembered it. You know, we didn't know what hit him. And you know, we were together nine years ago, many of us. Hey, I need to ask you a question, you know. Have you been changed the last nine years? Are we closer to God this morning than we were nine years ago? You know? Has God been working in our lives? Or you know, has the Christian life been like this? Up and down and up and down. That's not how God wants it to be, brother and sister. I mean, there are times that we go through difficulties but the values can't be more than the consistency of growing in our relationship to God. God is able to change us, you know. He's changing us. And so, when the writer to the Hebrews said, By faith Enoch was translated. That's the basis of understanding the transformation of God when it comes to this place of prayer. If you know anything about communism in Eastern Europe, you know, a number of years ago in Hungary, there was a man with the name of Thomas Boras. And you say, who was Thomas Boras? When communism came into Hungary, he was against communism. And you know what happened? He was about 20 years old when they threw him in prison in Hungary. And Thomas Boras went to prison because he was against communism. And you know what happened to Thomas Boras? He spent 50 years in a cell in Hungary. Locked away for 50 years. And 50 years after 50 years, communism fell apart in Hungary. And Thomas Boras spent 50 years in prison and when communism fell apart, they found this man who went to prison when he was only 20 years old. And now he was 70, 70, 25 years old actually. Now he was 75 years old. And he spent 50 years in prison. And when they found him in his cell, he couldn't speak the language anymore. And you say, what happened? He was not able to communicate. Or they gave him food and all this kind of stuff. And for all those 50 years, he sat in prison. And all he was able to do, brother and sister, all he was able to do, he was able to speak a gibberish. It was a kind of a Hungarian dialect. And they all think that this man is a total mental disaster. And the best thing that they can do with him, now 75 years old, the best thing that they can do with him is that they can put him in a mental institution for the rest of his life. And you know what happened in Hungary? There was a psychiatrist. And he said to the government, he said, I want to see this man. And he went into the cell with this man who's been in the cell for 50 years. And he said, there was nothing. He couldn't speak the language anymore. But this psychiatrist came out and he came to the government and he said, I want to spend time with this man. And they said, you know, there's no hope for him. And he said, no, I don't believe that. And they said, what do you want? He said, I just wanted to give me 90 days with him. And they said, what are you going to do? He said, we're going to keep him in his cell, but I'm going to go into his cell and I'm going to spend time with him on a consistent basis. And you know what happened, brethren and sisters? He went and he spent time with this man, Thomas Buras, and slowly but surely as he was spending time with him, he was bringing him back into what society was all about. And he was figuring it out. And they said, what about this gibberish? What is he doing? He said, no, no, I know exactly what he's doing. He's speaking a Hungarian dialect. That's all that he's able to do. But he said, give me time. And he spent 90 days with him. And they slowly began to bring him out. And after 90 days, he was ready to come back into society. He was able to come back into the language. He was able to come back into everything. And you know what happened after 90 days? They did everything they can for him and they brought Thomas Buras. Now remember this, he went to prison when he was 25 years old. Now he was 75 years old. And here was this man who came out. And you know what, brother and sister? For 50 years, he never saw himself in a mirror. Never. You say, what happened? When they brought Thomas Buras out and when the psychiatrists brought him out, and there were all these psychologists and psychiatrists in Hungary, and then there was the general public and the cameras and all those kind of things. And they brought this man out. Now he went to prison when he was 25. And so for 50 years, he sat in a prison cell and he never saw his face. And when he sat there, the psychiatrist said to him in the Hungarian language, he said to him, Thomas Buras? He said, yes. He said, how are you doing? He said, I'm fine. He said, how are you doing with the language? He said, I'm fine. And he had a conversation with him and everything was fine. And he said, Thomas Buras, what is the greatest desire of your heart? What is the thing that you really would like to do right now? And Thomas Buras turned to him in the Hungarian language and he said to him, my greatest desire is to see a mirror. A mirror. He hasn't seen himself for 50 years. And they were astonished. And so they brought in this mirror. It was about 6 feet by about 24 inches. And someone brought in this mirror and they said, Thomas Buras, we brought the mirror and they said, what do you want to do? And he said, I want to see my own face that I haven't seen for 50 years. And they brought this mirror and he was sitting in this chair like that in front of all these people. And he was sitting like this. And they brought this mirror and they put it in front of him. And the psychiatrist said, Thomas Buras, there is a mirror in front of you. And he looked up until the first time in 50 years he saw his own face. And the moment when he saw his face, the last time he saw himself he was a beautiful young man of 25 years old. Now, he was 75 years old. Spent 50 years in prison. And the moment when he looked up and he saw his face, he just collapsed. And for 9 hours he was weeping. They couldn't do a thing. It was like a bundle of flesh and bone who disintegrated into a corner. And he sat in that corner and he wept and he wept and he wept for 9 hours. And he got up and he said, I am ready to go back into society. He hasn't seen his own face for 50 years. Do you know, I've met Christians just like that. They've never seen themselves in the light of the greatness of God's Word. So, let me ask you this morning, do you know anything about the changing, transforming power of God, the Holy Spirit, as it relates to prayer? Transformed. Becoming more like the Lord Jesus Christ. Discovering the greatness of what the life of God is. Discovering the fragrance. Discovering the brokenness. Discovering the submissiveness. Discovering the purity. Discovering the passion. Discovering the power. Discovering the fullness. Discovering Christ sitting on heavenly places with Him. You say, what is it? It's been changed. Changed. How? To the image of Christ. What does it cost? It costs you absolutely everything in your relationship with God. I'm going to close in prayer and I know we're only scratching the surface, but there's something that I'm going to ask you to do and what I would like you to do is we want to give you some material. I want someone to stand there at the door and what that person is going to do is to give you two sheets like this. And on these sheets there are questions that I want you to look at in your relationship with God. Questions 1 right through to 23. And I want you to take these two sheets like this and I want you to go and find a place alone with God. I want you just to try and forget about lunch for an hour or so for a beautiful place here. Maybe you can take a chair and go and sit under a tree. And all I want you to do is to look at these questions. 1, 2, 23. Just take your time. Read through the passages and I want you to answer them. And that's the way we're going to close this morning's session as we will be together. So I wonder, Ron, if you could help me. I want you to stand there at the end. And you need to get questions 1 to 23. So it's pages like this. You'll see the first and the second. So everyone needs to go through this. I just want you to go and take some time and spend some time alone with God. So, why don't we close in prayer while Ron goes. And as you go out, take those two pages with you. Heavenly Father, we thank You for the greatness of the unfolding of Your plan. And I know as we spend this day trying to explore the understanding of prayer and the possibilities of what this is all about, there is so much. And yet, God, You've been working in our hearts. Maybe there are only 40 or 50 of us here today. And those of us who are campers, dear God, I want to pray that as we do this, that God the Holy Spirit will just come and minister to us and break our hearts and search us in every aspect of our relationships with You. And we thank You for that in Jesus' name. Amen.