Praying Heaven Down

I don't think we pray as we should, and if we were honest with ourselves, friends, we would be ashamed of our lack of real, vital, prevailing prayer. I believe if we took the time to honestly evaluate our prayer life before God, we would hang our heads in conviction and in shame for our lack. It's been said the average pastor only spends 10 minutes a day in prayer.

Most churches are prayerless and have no power with God nor influence in the community. The weekly prayer meeting has been relegated to the ash heap, along with all the old hymns on the blood. But when I was a little boy, it was not uncommon to walk down the hall of a church and stumble into a prayer meeting where the broken-hearted people of God were prostrated on their faces before God, crying out to Him in desperate prayer to save the lost and their families, to save the lost and their community, to turn the tide of a nation.

How can we even call ourselves a church if the carpet in the sanctuary isn't wet with the tears of soul-burdened saints weeping over the lost? I believe the main hindrance to revival in our churches today is the prayerlessness of the church. I want us to look at two men today, friends, who were men of prayer. One is found in my Bible, and the other is found as a figure of the Second Great Awakening.

The title of my message today, friends, is Praying Heaven Down. My text can be found in the book of James. You can turn in your Bibles there now, friends.

We will be in chapter 5 and in verses 16 through 18. Here now is the Word of God, and may the Spirit of the Lord be pleased to attend the reading of His Holy Word. Confess your faults one to another, that ye may be healed.

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. I will stop there, friends.

Here was a man of God who was a man of prayer. Although Elijah was a man subject to passions like the rest of us, he put us to shame with his fervent prayer life that was both earnest and effectual. This prophet of a man literally prayed heaven down when he commenced to pray.

I know a lot of preachers, and it's marvelous when I come across one who is also a man of prayer. I received a text today from a pastor friend who told me he just prayed for me and lifted me up to God in prayer. Why, that made my day.

Don't you need prayer warriors to pray for you, friend? We all need prayer to live the Christian life in a way that's pleasing to God. Well, this man Elijah was a praying man, and when he prayed, he prayed heaven down. And there was a man who lived during the time in America unknown as the second great awakening.

This man wrote 25 articles on the subject of prayer, and they were published in the leading Christian journal of that day. But he was so humble, he sent them to the magazine editor anonymously. He served God in his day as a man of prayer as he labored with his friend Charles Finney in revival after revival in the state of New York.

This man was Daniel Nash, also known as Father Nash by Finney. I want to read you, friends, an excerpt from Finney's memoirs about the prayer life of Daniel Nash because I want you to see, friends, what God can do with a person who takes God seriously and who shuts himself up to God in prayer. During the second great awakening in the year 1826, there was a group of young atheists who were standing in the way of a revival that was occurring in a certain village in New York where Charles Finney was laboring.

Here now is that story of Daniel Nash as related by Charles Finney. A set of young men joined hands to strengthen each other in opposition to the work. Brother Nash and myself made up our minds that the thing must be overcome by prayer.

We therefore retired to a grove and gave ourselves up to prayer until we prevailed and we felt confident that no power, which earth or hell, could interpose would be allowed to permanently stop the revival. Brother Nash gave himself up almost continually to prayer. We met at five o'clock in the church for a prayer meeting.

The meeting house was filled and near the close of the meeting, Brother Nash arose and addressed that company, a young man who had joined hand in hand to resist the revival. Brother Nash addressed them in a very warm manner and pointed out the guilt and danger of the course they were taking. Toward the close of his address, he waxed exceedingly warm and said to them, Now mark me, young man, God will break your ranks in less than one week either by converting some of you or by sending some of you to hell and he will do this as certainly as the Lord is my God.

He brought his hand down on the top of the pew before him so as to make it thoroughly jar. He sat immediately down, held his head and groaned with pain. The house was as still as death and most of the people held down their heads.

I could see that the young men were agitated. On Tuesday morning of the same week, the leader of these young men came to me in the greatest distress of mind. He broke down like a child, confessed and manifestly gave himself to Christ.

Then he said, What should I do, Mr. Finney? I replied, Go immediately to all your young companions and pray with them and exhort them at once to turn to the Lord. He did so and before the week was out, nearly if not all of that class of young men were hoping in Christ. Well, I like that story about Daniel Nash and his boldness and effectual prayer.

We must ask ourselves, is our prayer life even close to that? If not, is it because we spend so little time in prayer? Most church folks today would rather be out on the golf course or out fishing or at a ball game or laughing their heads off while watching TV rather than go out to the woods like Finney and Nash and stay there all day on their faces before God until they prevailed with God for the lost to be saved. We just don't want to make the effort. That's the only reason why there are so few men like Daniel Nash today.

I know some in a prayer who are friends of mine and I treasure their prayers and friendship. But listen to me, friend. If you want to become a person of prayer, if you get serious with God, friend, he will get serious with you and make you a person of prayer.

Let us pray.