The Hidden Life of Prayer

I believe one of the greatest ministries God can give a servant of his is the hidden life of prayer. I say hidden because a prayer life must not be on display to impress men but to please only a holy God. The saints of God in our Bibles have been men and women of prayer.

When I look at the life of Hannah, I see a woman who prayed so passionately for a son that she seemed to be as one drunk. At least that is what the priest Eli thought of her. But she was drunk, all right, but not drunk on wine, but she was drunk on the presence of God through prayer.

The apostle Paul was a man of prayer and he was intoxicated with Jesus Christ. When I study the lives of men and women whom God has used to impact their generations with the gospel of the Son of God, there's a common denominator between each one of them and that is they each had a hidden life of prayer. Let me ask you, how did John Song shake China for God? It was said of John Song that he was the human means of over 200,000 Chinese souls coming to Christ.

Well, if you read his diaries, you will find that his daughter Levi said of her father, and I quote, my father read 11 chapters of his Bible every day and condensed each chapter into one key sentence. He would kneel and pray every night, even after a long and grueling day. During his period of convalescence at Franklin Hills, he would pray on his knees for hours after Bible study.

Five hours at a stretch were not too long for him. He would kneel on one knee when he found his wounds too painful to do so on both. And when I look at the life of E.M. Bounds, I see a man who was called to a hidden life of prayer.

His most effectual ministry was not so much conducted in the pulpit, but on his knees. His daughter Mary said of her father that he would rise at four o'clock each morning and pray until breakfast at seven. In his later years, she said he would rise at three o'clock.

Do you, dear friend, wish to shake your generation for God? Then be a person of prayer. God will honor a sacrificial life of prayer. When D.O. Moody first went to England, he was preaching in a North London church where revival broke out, and it mystified him.

Moody later told his son that the very atmosphere of the church was charged with the Spirit of God. And when Moody gave the invitation to those who desired to become Christians, he asked them to stand. Several hundred people rose to their feet.

Moody knew it wasn't his preaching alone that accounted for such a move of God, so he investigated further. Moody said, I wanted to know what this meant. I began making inquiries and never rested until I found a bedridden girl praying that God would bring me to that church.

He had heard her and brought me over 4,000 miles of land and sea in answer to her request. It seems that in 1872, there was a bedridden young girl who was a member of the church Moody preached at, and although she'd never been able to come to a service because of her painful physical condition, it was said her body was twisted and distorted by suffering. This girl's name was Marianne Adlord, and she spent hours daily in prayer for her church.

Well, one day she read a newspaper article about a Christian man from America by the name of D.O. Moody who worked among Chicago's poorest children. She saved the article and placed it beneath her pillow and prayed to God to send that man Moody to her church. And this bedridden invalid was the main human instrument of that revival, for she had a hidden life of prayer.

The saintly G. Campbell Morgan, years later, became the pastor of that same North London church where revival had broken out under Moody's preaching. And one day on a pastoral visit, he went to see this bedridden member of his church. This is a story about how G. Campbell Morgan visited Marianne Adlord that particular day.

These are Campbell Morgan's words. When in 1901, I was leaving England for America, I went to see her. She said to me, I want you to reach that birthday book.

I did so, and turning to February the 5th, I saw in the handwriting I knew so well, D.O. Moody, Psalm 91. Then Marianne Adlord said to me, he wrote that for me when he came to see me in 1872, and I prayed for him every day till he went home to God. Now will you write your name on your birthday page, and let me pray for you until either you or I go home.

I shall never forget writing my name in that book. To me, the room was full of the presence. I've often thought of that hour in the rush of my busy life, in the place of toil and strain, and even yet by God's good grace, I know that Marianne Adlord is praying for me.

These are the labors of force in the fields of God. It's the heroes and heroines who are out of sight and who labor in prayer, who make it possible for those who are in sight to do their work, and when the force of it is such that are called to exercise this ministry, it can never be measured. I agree with G. Campbell Morgan's comments, friends, that those rare individuals who are called to a hidden life of prayer are the true forces of good in this world.

Imagine that crippled, bedridden Marianne Adlord prayed for D.O. Moody faithfully every day for 27 years. How soon will yourselves get discouraged in prayer when we don't see immediate results? Deep revivals where God has shaken an entire community were sown with the seeds of importunate prayer. In fact, friends, when you study historical revivals as I have, you will soon discover that many revivals began with the praying saint almost infirmed physically but mighty in the power of prayer.

This was true of the Lewis revival in Scotland under Duncan Campbell, where the two Smith sisters were the human instruments of prayer for that revival, Peggy and Christine Smith. They were both in their 80s. One was bent over with arthritis and the other one blind.

But they laid hold of God and desperate and believe in prayer that God would visit the island with revival. And God showed up in a powerful spiritual awakening where a God consciousness gripped the entire island. Let me read you, friends, the following account of that remarkable revival on the Isle of Lewis.

A solemn hush came over the church. The following night, when Duncan Campbell turned this time to the foolish virgins, the service closed in a tense silence and the building emptied. Just then the door opened and an elder beckoned, come and see what's happening.

The entire congregation was lingering outside, reluctant to disperse. Others had joined them, drawn from their homes by irresistible power they'd not experienced before. There were looks of deep distress on many faces.

The awful presence of God brought a wave of conviction, a sin that caused even mature Christians to feel their sinfulness, bringing groans of distress and prayers of repentance from the unconverted. Strong men were bowed under the weight of sin and Christ's mercy were mingled with shouts of joy from others who had passed into life. That revival, friends, was bathed and birthed in prayer.

The hidden life of prayer of the Smith sisters won a victory for the kingdom of God. My message today, friends, is entitled The Hidden Life of Prayer and my text can be found in 1 Kings in chapter 17. You can turn in your Bibles there now.

We will be in verses one through nine and this passage of scripture deals with the hidden life of prayer of the prophet Elijah. The apostle James had this to say about Elijah's prayer life. 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. Well, I want us to take this time now, friends, to look in our text from 1 Kings and see this hidden life of prayer in the prophet Elijah. I want us to take note that in this striking passage of scripture, God tells the prophet to go hide himself in a time of solitude and prayer.

Elijah had nothing to do during that time of his retirement at the brook careth but to meditate and pray and let us look at this portion of scripture and see how this played out. And Elijah the Tishbite who was of the inhabitants of Gilead said unto Ahab as the Lord God of Israel liveth before whom I stand there shall not be dew nor rain these years but according to my word and the word of the Lord came unto him saying get thee hence and turn thee eastward and hide thyself by the brook careth that is before Jordan and it shall be that thou shall drink of the brook and I have commanded the ravens to feed thee there so he went and did according unto the word of the Lord for he went and dwelt by the brook careth that is before Jordan and the ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning and bread and flesh in the evening and he drank of the brook and it came to pass after a while that the brook dried up because there'd been no rain in the land and the word of the Lord came unto him saying arise get thee to Zarephath which belongs to Zidon and dwell there behold I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee I will stop there in this passage friends we find the prophet Elijah standing boldly before a king and proclaiming a judgment of God upon him and his kingdom Elijah tells Ahab of a common famine for which a provoked God will bring upon Israel for punishment of their sins and we see a sovereign God tell his prophet to go hide thyself where God could preserve him and communicate with him at this place of solitude in this case of brook and it is during this time of hidden prayer in the life of Elijah that he learns his dependence upon his God for his sustenance and he hears the voice of God clearly through this time of solitude and prayer let me ask you friend have you ever hid yourself at your own brook careth have you brother pastor ever shut yourself up with God in prayer for a prolonged season many you will say you don't have time for that but you find plenty of time to go play golf or go to a ball game but you can't find time to shut yourself up with God in prayer uh yet you still want power in the pulpit i'll never forget the offer i made a minister years ago and he didn't take me up on it i had the money at the time and i offered to pay all the expenses of this man so he could hold up with God at a lakeside retreat in a private cabin for almost a week i offered to set him up in there so he could be alone with God to hear the voice of God for direction for future ministry but this man declined the offer and said he was too busy to do that and since that time i've witnessed the power of God go out of that man's ministry it's sad but true how in the world can we expect to live above the world and to have any success in fighting battles against satan and his kingdom if we are not men and women of prayer listen friends we don't need more personalities in the pulpit we don't need more man-centered methodologies to win the lost we don't need bigger buildings or redecorated sanctuary to attract the lost i will tell you what we need friends i'll tell you what we need at this sad and tragic hour uh the greatest need in our land today is a prophet a man sent from God God's man who will stand in the gap between heaven and earth uh between mortal man and almighty God a holy man who is so wholly sold out to God so intoxicated with Christ and so consumed with eternity that his very footprints leave a smoky trail of the lingering fire of God a man whose desperate life of prayer has left fingerprints on the horns of the altar and glory a man whose emboldened faith and enoch-like walk with God moves mountains of resistance and proves that the God of the Bible is alive and interested in the most minute requests of man God will always raise up an Elijah whose prayers impact a sleeping nation the church in each generation has had individuals who live upon their knees whose prayers reach heaven with a holy violence india had her pray and hide china her hudson taylor england her puritans scotland her covenanters america her fiery em bounds of voices which gained the attention of the throne room a startled angels and shook the gates of hell making even the demons quake and tremble with their desperate prayers and let us take this time now friends to go to our knees and go to our God in prayer