Heaven Pounding Prayer

I believe, friends, one of the main reasons the Church lacks authority today and influence upon society is because we've lost our purpose in prayer. We killed off the weekly prayer meeting and replaced it with self-help groups, but prayer is the mainspring of the work of the Church. E. M. Bounds, in his great work, Preacher in Prayer, wrote, and I quote, No man can do a great and enduring work for God who is not a man of prayer, and no man can be a man of prayer who does not give much time to praying.

And I believe that's true, friends. We should each strive to have a prayer life that pounds heaven with prayer. The title of my message today, friends, is Heaven Pounding Prayer, and my text can be found in the Book of James, in chapter 5. You can turn in your Bibles there now, friends.

We will be in verses 16 through 18. Here now is the word of God. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.

Elijah was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain, and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months, and he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit. Elijah impacted his generation for God because he was a man of prayer. I don't believe we know how to pray as we ought and pray as we should in this sad day of spiritual declension in the church, friends.

I was in the city of St. Louis just a few months ago, and as I walked through the old part of town where meetings were held by Sam Jones and D.O. Moody and Gypsy Smith and E.M. Bounds, I was humbled to realize that God used these men of prayer in a remarkable way. I have a copy of a prayer by E.M. Bounds printed in the St. Louis Dispatch newspaper that he prayed in a St. Louis church with D.O. Moody standing beside him. Moody was about to preach, and Bounds was given the opening prayer, and I want to read you E.M. Bounds' prayer right now, friends, and please listen to how men of old addressed the ancient of days and pled for the power of the spirit to have influence with man.

Here is E.M. Bounds' prayer for D.O. Moody. Our Father, help us to come before Thee with humility and reverence, with some realization of our sinfulness, our guiltiness in Thy sight, some sense of Thy holiness and the demands of Thy law. And, O, give us a simple and childlike faith in Jesus Christ, and let Him be made unto us this evening, wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, and in and through the merits of His blood, may we have that approach to God, the forgiveness of all our sins and the sanctification of our natures.

Breathe upon us this evening the Holy Ghost, our Heavenly Father, as the gift of Thine infinite love and the gift of our exalted and princely Savior. Let Thy Spirit be poured upon us very richly, that it may solemnize our minds, that it may carry conviction and stimulate our consciences into activity, that it may change by the power and authority of Thy Word and its own divine operation, the current of our natures, and turn us back strongly to God, to serve and love and honor Him. Bless Thy servant greatly, who shall speak to us this evening.

Let Thy Spirit attend his words, and the divine unction rest upon him, and may the words reach our consciousnesses and our hearts. I will pause there, friends. Men like Ian Bounds knew how to pound heaven with their prayers.

I've had the great high privilege to pray with men of prayer. I'm thinking now of the precious time in prayer that I had with Dr. Stephen Oldford, who was first and foremost a man of prayer. I recall I was to address a group of pastors, and I was nervous about it, so I went to Stephen Oldford and asked him to pray for me.

He laid his hands on me and prayed. He prayed, Lord Jesus, be with my dear brother as he preaches Your Word, in the power of Thy Spirit, for the good of Your people and for Your great name's sake. Amen.

And then I remember when Dr. Oldford was in the hospital towards the end of his life, I went to visit him in his hospital room, and we chatted for a while about revival. Then he looked tired and said, Well, brother, let us pray. And I held his hand, and he was silent.

I thought he was going to pray, but he needed me to pray for him as he lay there. Never in my life did I feel so inadequate than when I had to pray for a man like Dr. Stephen Oldford. And, oh, how I've asked God through the years to make me a man of prayer.

He has done it on his terms and by his means in answering that prayer of my heart. Let me ask you, friend, do you wish to become a better person of prayer if God grants your request and allows you to wrestle with Him in prayer like Jacob of old, or are you prepared to limp through the rest of your life if necessary? The text in Genesis reads, Jacob halted on his thigh. Oh, friends, to be mighty in prayer and to have a supernatural walk with God through which the world feels that power and heaven feels its influence.

Joseph suffered in a pit and a prison, but then saved a nation from starvation. Elijah shut up the heavens with his heaven-pounding prayer. Oh, friends, beg God to make us men of prayer, to give us men of prayer at this desperate hour who will stand in the gap for this sinking nation.

Faith and prayer can shake a continent for God. John Song shook all of China for God before burning out at 42. George Whitefield shook two continents for God before wearing out at 55.

Don't let the best years of your life, friend, be spent in vain on the vanity of this passing world. Live for eternity and the spread of the gospel with the strength you still have in you. All that matters is what's done for Christ.

After all, what he did for us will matter for all eternity. Let us pray.