Welcome, friends, to the Line of Fire broadcast.
This is Michael Brown. Class is in session in the School of Prayer, and by God's grace, you will be infused with faith and truth and courage to help you stand strong on the front lines. Remember that every one of these broadcasts is now available as a podcast, iTunes, Spotify, wherever you get your podcasts.
It's available. Just search for courage in the Line of Fire because we're covering a lot of material. We did a whole month on getting to know the Holy Spirit. We have archives of more than 2,000 live radio broadcasts before that, all under the heading Courage in the Line of Fire. Or if you go to our YouTube channel, and by the way, if you get the podcast, make sure you subscribe. And then if you're blessed by it, encourage others to listen, post a positive review if you're blessed. It just gets the podcast out to more people. Or you can subscribe at YouTube. So the Line of Fire YouTube channel, you can go ahead and subscribe there.
And make sure you click the bell to be notified when new videos are uploaded. All right. Today, we're going to talk about persuading God through prayer. Persuading God through prayer. I want to just throw out a few thoughts in advance and then explain what do I mean by persuading God through prayer? Is that a biblical concept? Is that in keeping with who God is in his sovereignty and power? Do we actually persuade him? I'm going to explain that. And explain why I'm using those words.
But just some introductory thoughts. Hudson Taylor said, And we should pray in each of our lives, God, make me usable. There's no person in the body of Christ who does not have a purpose and a function. And all of us are called to devote our lives to prayer. All of us are called to have prayer lives.
All of us are called to the highest ministry of all, the ministry of intercession at the throne of God. So why do I say persuading God with prayer? Let me just throw a few things out to you as I talk about praying with intensity and praying with perseverance. Praying with intensity and praying with perseverance. Many times our prayers are just casual.
God, I'm just going through a rough day and just could use a little extra help. Or just, Father, what's a weird situation? I've never walked through this before. Just kind of talking to the Lord in the course of your day. It's just normal. It's like breathing. And sometimes just worshiping, praising, thanking, and other times just, Lord, you're beautiful.
Just kind of bask in his presence. But there are times where we've got to break through. There's a real need. The thing's not moving.
The thing's not changing. We pray with intensity and perseverance. So I want you to consider prayer as persuading God to do what he has promised. Because remember, he can work without prayer. He can do things without prayer. Even if it's not done anyway, we'll recognize it was God.
That's complete nonsense. It's completely contrary to scripture. Prayer affects God because that's how he set it up. Prayer moves God because that's how he set it up. Just like he set it up to bring the gospel to human beings through people. His primary way of saving people is not just preaching from heaven.
It's through a human being. So that's how God chooses to say that we share the good news with someone. To give that person a choice to say yes or no to the gospel, to receive his grace or reject his grace, as Moses told the children of Israel, I said before you, life and death. Choose life.
So here it is. Joshua, to his people, choose this day whom you're going to serve. Jesus saying to the crowds, enter through the straight gate. So he gives us choices because he chose to do it like that.
He chose to set it up like that. He has chosen to move through prayer. And he has chosen to move as we pray. In certain ways, for example, if we pray in unbelief, he doesn't answer because the whole purpose of prayer is coming to him and trusting him, coming to him and leaning on him, coming to him and believing in and on what he says. So I want to encourage you to pray as if your life depended on it because it does.
Let me say it again. Pray as if your life depended on it because it does. A great prayer warrior of the late 1800s, early 1900s used to pray, oh God, give me souls or I die.
It wasn't hyperbole. He was so desperate as a missionary in India to see these Indian people come to the Lord. It moved him to the depths of his heart. John Knox, how did he pray?
God, give me Scotland or I die. No, not all prayers are prayed at that level. Not all prayers are prayed with that intensity.
But this should be something that is not foreign to us in times of crisis, in times of pain, in times when we have to have a breakthrough. When we're like Jacob in Genesis 32, left alone. Jacob left alone with God. That's when he wrestles with the divine angel.
That's when he says I won't let you go until you bless me. Sometimes that is how we have to pray. Some things are so valuable and precious, God will not give them to us as we relax. It will take intensity and prayer. It will take intensity and prayer.
Look, if getting a nice physique is important to you, you're not going to get it laying down in bed eating potato chips. It's not going to happen like that. If you want to become a compassionate person, there will be suffering and pain that God brings you through to teach you compassion. If you want to be a person of faith, your faith will be tested and tried. And some of the greatest things that come out of lives come out of the hardest seasons.
I can personally say that the hardest seasons in my life that I hope with all my heart I never, ever, ever have to go through again have been the greatest times of my life and that they brought about profound change and drawn me to a deeper place in Him. So we approach God with reverence. We are dust.
He's the creator of the universe. And yet we pray with intensity and importunity. We pray with boldness. We are bold enough to go to God and hold Him to His word. We are bold enough with reverence and fear and trembling to go to God and appeal to His character. So God can do whatever He wants, however He wants. He's sovereign. He doesn't need you to pray or me to pray.
And yet that's the way He has set things up. And when we ask God for something, we should do it in a way that shows that we really mean it. I want you to consider something. Maybe you're a married couple and maybe, husband, you never thought you'd marry someone like your wife. And she was very popular in school and all the guys liked her and she was very picky and very choosy. And for someone to gain her confidence, for someone to get her to the point where she would open up to share her heart, that didn't come easily.
And even in your own life, it took some time before that relationship was built and you cherish it to this moment. Well, how much more God? It's not a matter of just flippant prayers being thrown up while you're watching the latest football games, whatever, just, oh, yeah, God, that's right, you know, you really could use some help with our finances. Oh, what a score! Oh, what a pass!
Incredible! And I'm not saying God will never answer a prayer like that, but He wants our communion. He wants our attention.
He wants our devotion. And sometimes, here's how you need to pray. God, over here! Over here, Lord!
Picture yourself stranded on the desert island, right, you know the picture, stranded on the desert island, deserted, not a desert, it's not a desert island, a deserted island, sorry about that, stranded on a deserted island and there's a rescue plane flying overhead. Over here! Over here! We're over here! Or you hear, you know, noise in the background. Okay, you put out, you try to spell something out with pieces of wood on the ground so they see it and you're all standing there waving your hands.
Sometimes, that's the way we should pray. God, over here! Look here!
Look here! You know, in a different context, I've often quoted 2 Chronicles 16, 9. It's in the midst of a rebuke verse, but it's a beautiful promise. I quote it to you in Hebrew. His eyes go back and forth through the whole earth.
Why? He's looking, he's looking, he's looking. That he may stand in strong support of those whose hearts are fully his. Yes! Yes! Yes! That's the purpose.
He's looking not to destroy. Who can I bless? Who can I stand with?
Who can I help? And sometimes I've been in meetings where we just, we're freshly surrendering our lives to God for the mission field or for service or something and we're saying, Lord, over here! Over here! Over here, Lord! If you're looking for someone to use, over here! If you're looking for someone to bless that will serve you, over here!
So, in the same way, and right now, some of you, if you're driving in your car, if you're alone at home, maybe jogging and listening and you can do this, pray, God, over here! Over here! I have some needs! My family has some needs!
Over here! I know he sees and knows everything. Yes, I understand that. But he's looking at our heart. He's looking at the condition of our heart. Daniel, chapter 9, verse 18. Daniel, chapter 9, verse 18. Daniel prays this incredible, reverential prayer, confessing the sins of the nation. We've rebelled, we've been evil, we've, you know, he confesses the sins of the nation even though he himself is a righteous man.
And he's praised for the restoration of Jerusalem and the end of the exile. But look at how he prays, Daniel 9, 18. Give ear, our God, in here. Open your eyes and see the desolation of the city that bears your name. He's asking God, who sees and knows all, God, listen, listen. God, look, take a look. Give ear, our God, in here.
Open your eyes and see the destruction of the city that bears your name. We do not make requests of you because we're righteous but because you're a great mercy. God, over here, over here, look, listen. We need your help.
We're going through a crisis that's too big for us. Isaiah 37, 17. Isaiah 37, 17. Give ear, Lord, in here. Open your eyes, Lord. And see, these are biblical prayers. Listen to all the words Sennacherim has sent to ridicule the living God. This is a king praying. Lord, listen. Lord, open your eyes. Look, over here, we have a need.
Friends, God loves it when you pray like that. We'll be right back after this important announcement. Let's hear what TriVita customers are saying. Dr. Bronner, I can't wait to tell you, those supplements are absolutely amazing. My strength has gone up. I was doing weight that I haven't done since my 20s. I usually ride my bike to the gym and then on the way back after I've done my weight training, I'm huffing and puffing. And on Sunday, I rode my bike there and back and I had so much energy. I'm telling you, the combination of the nitric oxide with the mild health, amazing. I can't believe it. Just how much strength I have right now.
Those supplements are absolutely amazing. Thanks, friends, for joining us here on The Line of Fire. The Lord is gracious and faithful and good and merciful.
It is our joy to pour into you five days a week. And I hope you are growing right now in our school of prayer, talking about persuading God through prayer. God, over here, look, there's a need. There's a need. Prayer holds God to his character.
We say that again. Prayer holds God to his character. When we pray, we're holding God to his character, his reputation and his word.
We normally look at it on our end, what we need for our crisis or even with compassion for the people who are suffering. But we need to remember the main reason he wants to pray is to relate to him. He is good and he wants to do the good things we are praying for.
So let me say this again. When we pray, we're holding God to his character, reputation and his word. We normally look at it in our end, what we need in our crisis, even with compassion for the people who are suffering. But we need to remember the main reason he wants to pray is to relate to him.
He is good and he wants to do the good things we are asking for. Now we'll look at some biblical examples of this. But first, let me take you to the Hebrides revival, 1949 to 1952. There were nameless, faceless people praying behind the scenes that helped bring this revival to pass. The principal figure, public figure that God used in this was Duncan Campbell. But if he would tell you, and in his accounts, he does mention the names of some of these people.
Otherwise, they would have been unknown to history. Just elderly people, working people, shut in, different ones, just seeking God in prayer, crying out, pastors, others. God heard their prayers and sent a move that is historic, the Hebrides revival, 1949, 1952. To read about it, the principal figure God used, Duncan Campbell.
Campbell tells this amazing story. They had gone into a new area to minister. The church building was packed, but that is because people had come from all over the islands hearing about what was happening.
Coming to those meetings at the church. Locally, there was a lot of resistance. Locally, in fact, there was so much resistance that ministers from Edinburgh, Scotland were invited over to speak against the revival. You have a lot of Christians from that village, that particular area. They are in another church service or services where other leaders are speaking against the Hebrides revival.
Campbell is in a meeting where the place is packed, but not from local people. After the meeting, he suggests they go and pray. They go into a house, a barn. The room they were in was granite. This is an important part of it. It was stone. They are praying extensively.
It gets to be about midnight. Campbell feels directly to ask the blacksmith to pray. He proceeds to pray for about 30 minutes. One of the things he says, God, I don't know anyone's character. I don't know what is in people's hearts.
Not even Mr. Campbell. I don't know what is in his heart. He now appeals to God for himself. God had given the prayer warriors there, Isaiah 44, I believe the third verse, where God says that he will pour out water on the thirsty land.
It was a promise to Israel, but a promise that they took on spiritually as well. What happened was this brother begins to pray, the blacksmith. He says, God, you promised to pour out water on the thirsty land and you are not doing it. He was praying with tremendous reverence. This was not some flippant prayer of some shallow believer. This was the deep reverential prayer of someone who feared God and loved God. He had truly believed that God had given them a promise and he said, you promised to pour out water on the thirsty land and you're not doing it.
And then he paused. And then he said these words which so move me. He said, don't you know that your reputation is at stake?
What? What kind of prayer is that? Don't you know that your reputation is at stake? Think of Moses going to God when he says, for example, in Numbers 14, after the children of Israel rebel and they rebel against the command of God about going in the promised land, full of unbelief. Now they're just going to go on their own and God says, I'm going to wipe the nation out. And Moses says, but the Egyptians will hear. The Egyptians will hear. What about your reputation?
What about your great name? And the nations will all say, oh, well, he brought them out of Egypt, but he wasn't powerful enough to save them. Or he brought them out of Egypt, but he let them die in the wilderness because he didn't have enough power to save them or bring them into the promised land. Moses immediately appeals to the reputation of God.
But the Egyptians, everybody's going to be speaking negatively about you. So this blacksmith says those words. Don't you know that your honor is at stake? Then he pauses and then he says, I challenge you to keep your covenant commitment. Now, friends, this is a prayer that can only be prayed with massive fear and trauma. This is a prayer that can only be prayed when you shake at the very thought of saying those words. This is a prayer that can only be prayed by someone who recognizes who God is and who we are.
It is bold, but it is holy and it must be prayed with humility and the fear of the Lord. And at that moment, Campbell says the place was shaken. People thought an earthquake.
Remember, they're a stone building. People thought it's an earthquake. The building literally shook. And Campbell immediately thought of Acts 4.31, when they prayed, the place was shaken. The place was shaken. You know, Leonard Ravenhill used to say in the early church, when they prayed, the place was shaken. In the modern church, when we pay, the place is taken. A little bit of a change.
And what happens? Campbell said they laid on their faces until two or three in the morning in the presence of God. He said when they got up to go to their homes, to their shock, the Spirit had fallen in the village.
He said every house they passed. Now remember, the people there were bitter against the Gospel. The people there were certainly bitter against the revival. They were hardened towards what the Holy Spirit was doing.
He said now, in every house as they're walking back, no one's preached. Just the Spirit fell. And God came. And these Scottish people in the Hebrides, this was really something important to them because they were not into hype. A lot of what would be normal in the American church would have scandalized them as just emotionalism or hype or carnality. God's sovereignty was very important to them. God had come down in power. And as they walked home to their respective places, Campbell said lights were on in every house and people were pleading for mercy. You could hear them weeping and pleading for mercy. Others were walking towards the church building. Remember the service ended hours ago. Walking towards the church building carrying chairs.
They're now going to sit out front of the building all night into the morning waiting for the next service to take place. God came. When you hear Campbell say it, and God came to the Hebrides. Oh, you feel the weight of it.
One of my friends in England, a few years older than me, he said his mother was a hairdresser and she knew Duncan Campbell. And my friend said, because he'd heard him speak, he said when he said the word God, you trembled. God came to the Hebrides that night in power.
What happened? Someone persuaded God through prayer. Someone held God to his character and to his word and to his promise. And God loves it when you say to him with tears or with boldness or with faith or with importunity and boldness, you say, God, you promised with passion, with brokenness, but God, you said it here in your word, you promised.
What kind of God would you be if you didn't keep your promise? He loves when we pray like that. I'm trying not to be preaching to you, but I'm so moved by this as I speak. I hope your heart is being moved as well and that maybe today is the day for the breakthrough.
You pray like you've never prayed before and God comes suddenly unexpectedly. Hey, we would love to pour into you on a regular basis. Once a month, we send out absolutely free digital, our frontline newsletter. It is something that is full of great content. It's digital. You can read it on any platform.
And again, it's absolutely free. It comes out once a month. We'd love to send it to you. To get it, go to thelineoffire.org, thelineoffire.org and click subscribe.
This is Dr. Michael Brown. Thanks so much for tuning in. Just a reminder that we are listener supported. If we have been a blessing to you, if you're being enriched in the word and prayer and your own walk with God through this broadcast, then stand with us so that we can reach many, many more and bless many, many more. Together, friends, we're making a difference. So go to thelineoffire.org, thelineoffire.org and click donate.
