Quote from Forum Archives on May 13, 2002, 4:41 pm

Posted by: jmichaelwalls <jmichaelwalls@...>

SOME OF THE OLD WARRIORS OF THE FAITH ON THE SUBJECT OF PRAYER
A.W. TOZER (1897-1963)
"IMPLICATIONS OF INTERCESSION"
How many Christians are there who pray every Sunday in church, "Thy
kingdom come. Thy will be done!" without ever realizing the spiritual
implications of such intercession! What are we praying for? Should we
edit that prayer so that it becomes a confrontation: "My kingdom go,
Lord; let Thy kingdom come!" Certainly His kingdom can never be realized
in my life until my own selfish kingdom is deposed. It is when I resign,
when I am no longer king of my domain that Jesus Christ will become king
of my life. (1)
I have met Christians who insist that it is wrong to pray for the same
thing twice, the reason being that if we truly believe when we pray we
have the answer the first time; any second prayer betrays the unbelief of
the first! There are three things wrong with this teaching. One is that
it ignores a large body of Scripture; the second is that it rarely works
in practice, even for the saintliest soul; and the third is that, if
persisted in, it robs the praying man of two of his mightiest weapons in
his warfare with the flesh and the devil--intercession and petition. For
let it be said without qualification that the effective intercessor is
never a one-prayer man, neither does the successful petitioner win his
mighty resources in his first attempt! (2)
(1) A.W. Tozer, WHO PUT JESUS ON THE CROSS? (Camp Hill, PA: Christian
Publications, 1975, 1996), 173-174.
(2) A.W. Tozer, THAT INCREDIBLE CHRISTIAN (Harrisburg, PA: Christian
Publications, 1964), 61.
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OSWALD CHAMBERS (1874-1917) ON "THE SELFLESS MINISTRY OF THE INTERIOR"
Are we prepared to leave ourselves resolutely alone and launch out into
the priestly work of prayer? The continual grubbing on the inside to see
whether we are what we ought to be generates a self-centered, morbid type
of Christianity, not the robust simple life of the child of God. . . .
Launch out in reckless belief that the Redemption is complete, and then
bother no more about yourself, but begin to do as Jesus Christ said--pray
for the friend who comes to you at midnight, pray for the saints, pray
for all men. Pray on the realization that you are only perfect in Christ
Jesus, not on this plea--"Oh, Lord, I have done my best, please hear me!"
. . . There is only one place where we are right, and that is in Christ
Jesus. When we are there, then we have to pour out for all we are worth
in this ministry of the interior.
Oswald Chambers, MY UTMOST FOR HIS HIGHEST (New York, NY: Dodd, Mead and
Company, 1935), 173.
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ANDREW MURRAY (1828-1917) ON "THE PRIESTLY MINISTRY OF INTERCESSION"
A priest is a man who does not live for himself. He lives with God and
for God. His work as God's servant is to care for His house, His honor,
and His worship, making known to men His love and His will. He lives with
men and for men. His work is to find out their sins and needs, bring
these before God, offer sacrifice and incense in their names, obtain
forgiveness and blessing for them. . . . This is the high calling of
every believer. . . .
As the blood of Christ gives the right, the Spirit gives the power for
believing intercession. He breathes into us the priestly spirit and a
burning love for God's honor and the saving of souls. . . . The more a
Christian is truly filled with the Spirit of Christ the more spontaneous
will be the giving himself up to the life of priestly intercession.
Andrew Murray, WITH CHRIST IN THE SCHOOL OF PRAYER
(Springdale, PA: Whitaker House, 1981), 225, 228, 229.
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CHARLES H. SPURGEON (1834-1892) ON "AN EXHORTATION TO INTERCESSION"
Intercessory prayer is the sweetest prayer God ever hears. . . . The more
your prayer is like Christ's, the sweeter it will be. . . . Intercessory
prayer exceedingly prevails. What wonders it has wrought! It has stopped
plagues, . . . healed diseases, . . . raised the dead. . . . There is
nothing that intercessory prayer cannot do. Believer, you have a mighty
engine in your hand--use it well, use it constantly, use it now with
faith, and you shall surely prevail. . . . Never give up anyone for
spiritually dead until they are dead naturally. . . .Let your prayers
unite with one heart and soul to plead with God for your neighborhood!
Carry the names of your neighbors written on your breast just as the high
priest of old carried the names of the tribes. Mothers, bear your
children before God! Fathers, carry your sons and daughters! Let us
intercede for a wicked world and the dark places full of cruelty! Let us
cry aloud . . . until He establishes His church as a praise in the earth!
Wake up watchman on the walls; renew your shouts! The cloud hangs above
you--it is yours to draw down its sacred floods in pleasant showers by
your earnest prayers.
Charles H. Spurgeon, THE POWER OF PRAYER IN A BELIEVER'S LIFE
(Lynnwood, WA: Emerald Books, 1993), 127, 128, 132.
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E.M. BOUNDS (1835-1913) ON "THE WEAPON OF PRAYER"
The soldiers in the warfare against the devil must know how to wear the
armor of "all prayer" (Ephesians 6:12). . . . Prayer must deepen and
intensify into supplication. The Holy Spirit will help us into this kind
of mighty praying and clothe us with this resistless power of prayer.
This intense conflict with the devil requires sleepless vigilance,
midnight vigils, and a wakefulness that cannot be surprised. It also
requires a perseverance that knows neither halting, fainting nor
depression. This kind of praying knows by clear spiritual intelligence
what it needs.
This kind of praying holds itself in loving sympathy with the entire
family of God, making their conflicts, dangers and needs their own. . . .
It takes on their enemies, their safety and their dangers. "Supplication
for all the saints" (Ephesians 6:18) gives victory to every saint.
E.M. Bounds, WINNING THE INVISIBLE WAR (Springdale, PA: Whitaker House,
1984), 150.
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R. A. TORREY (1856-1928) ON "THE POWER OF CONCENTRATED INTERCESSION"
Up in a little town in Maine, things were pretty dead some years ago.
There were a few godly men in the churches, and they said, "Here we are,
only uneducated laymen, but something must be done in this town. Let us
form a praying band. We will all center our prayers on one man; who shall
it be?" They picked out one of the hardest men in town, a hopeless
drunkard, and all centered their prayers on him. In a week he was
converted. They centered their prayers on the next hardest man in town,
and soon he was converted. Then they took up another and another, until
within a year, two or three hundred were brought to Christ, and the fire
spread out into the surrounding country. Definite prayer for those in the
prison of sin is the need of the day.
R.A. Torrey, cited in "Released by Prayer," KNIGHT'S MASTER BOOK OF
NEW ILLUSTRATIONS , compiled by Walter C. Knight (Grand Rapids, MI:
Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1956), 325.
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ANDREW MURRAY (1828-1917) ON "CHRIST OUR INTERCESSOR"
In His high-priestly prayer (John 17), Jesus shows us how and what He has
to pray to the Father, and what He will pray when He ascends to heaven. .
. . It is the sight of Jesus in His intercession that gives us power to
pray in His name. All right and power of prayer is Christ's; He makes us
share in His intercession . . . . A substantial life-union is also a
prayer union. What He prays passes through us, and what we pray passes
through Him. . . .
Our faith and prayer of faith is rooted in His. If we pray in and with
the Eternal Intercessor, abiding in Him, "ask whatsoever ye will, and it
shall be done unto you" (KJV). . . . As long as we pray chiefly for
ourselves, the promises of the last night must remain a sealed book for
us. . . .
Andrew Murray, WITH CHRIST IN THE SCHOOL OF PRAYER
(Springdale, PA: Whitaker House, 1981), 193, 195, 196.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
REES HOWELLS (1879-1950) ON "THE NEED FOR SPIRIT-FILLED INTERCESSION
AFTER THE WELSH REVIVAL"
The intercession of the Holy Spirit for the saints in this present evil
world must be made through believers filled with the Holy Spirit. . . .
Many blamed young converts for backsliding, but we blamed ourselves,
because we were not in a position to pray them through to victory. Oh,
the tragedy, to be helpless in front of the enemy, when he was sifting
young converts like wheat! In Isaiah 59 we read that God saw there was no
man, and wondered that there was no intercessor, and this was just our
case. Many of us felt the need of being "endued with power from on high."
Cited by Norman Grubb, REES HOWELLS INTERCESSOR (Ft. Washington, PA:
Christian Literature Crusade, 1952), 34.
GEORGE D. WATSON (d. 1924) ON "HANDS ON THE THRONE OF GOD"
Because of the hand that was on the throne, that is, because the hands of
Moses were held up in prayer, and those hands were laid on the throne of
Jehovah and prevailed with God in getting the victory. . . . It is
because the hands of the man Christ Jesus are on the throne that His
prayer prevails, and through Him we lift up our hands and place them on
the same throne, that we may prevail against all our enemies. . . . And
when we, like Moses, lift up our hands and through Jesus lay them on the
throne of grace, it is then we gain the day, . . . the Amalekites were
conquered because the hands of a man were upon the throne.
George D. Watson, BRIDEHOOD SAINTS (Cincinnati, OH: God's Revivalist,
n.d.), 117-118, 120-122.
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Pastor Mike Walls
Freedom Baptist Church Smithfield, NC
All scriptures are King James Bible
Isa. 41:10