Welcome, friends, to the line of fire.
Michael Brown. Class is in session. We continue in the school of prayer today talking about the power of persevering prayer. We talked about the need to persevere in our last broadcast, but I want to focus on the power of persevering prayer. I'm going to do something I hardly ever ever do, but I want to read extensively from what Andrew Murray wrote about this very subject. It's just kind of a mini, mini, mini book. I recently just downloaded on Kindle an e-book collection of his 21 works. I saw Power of Persevering Prayer and I thought, okay, this is interesting. It's got a whole book on it. No, it's this mini, mini message on it. I hardly ever just read extensively what others have written on the air. You just read that elsewhere, but I want to read this in comment.
It's so rich. So, Andrew Murray says this, and hang on, as I'm sitting here, it just scrolled away, so we go back to the beginning. There we go. So, Jesus says, Luke 18, he teaches his people, his disciples, he gives them a parable to teach them that people ought always to pray and not faint.
In Greek, you could translate not faint, not cave in, not lose heart. Why are you telling me this parable, Jesus? Because sometimes in prayer you're going to want to cave in. You're going to want to quit. You're going to want to throw in the towel.
What's the use? I think of the Justice House of Prayer in D.C. for 18 years. Luke 18, right?
18 years in rain, in sun, in snow, in heat. They were in front of the Supreme Court in D.C. with red tape of the word life written over their mouths, appealing to the courts of heaven in silent intercession for the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Now, there are many, many, many forces involved in the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Political, social, spiritual, so many on so many levels.
Educational, but they played a role in it 18 years. It's got to be discouraging, but the prayer was answered. So Jesus says, there was in a city a judge which feared not God, neither regarded man. There was a widow in that city and she came to him saying, avenge me of my adversary.
And he would nod for a while. Remember, he doesn't fear God, doesn't care about men. She has no power. She has nothing on him. He doesn't care what people think. He doesn't fear God. She has no sway. She can't offer him bribes, nothing.
So she kept saying every day, look, I got a legal case here. I need you to avenge me of my adversary. And he would nod for a while. But afterward, he said within himself, no, I don't fear God. I don't regard man. Yet because this widow is troubling me, I'll avenge her, lest by her continual coming she wears me out.
She wears me out. Isaiah 62, where God says to the intercessors, disappointed on the walls of Jerusalem, give yourselves no rest and give God no rest, day or night, until he makes Jerusalem the praise of all the earth. And that prayer continues for Jerusalem. This has been a prayer for over 2,500 years that will continue until the Lord returns and establishes his kingdom in Jerusalem.
So he's like, okay, he's going to wear me out. That's the only thing she could do, was keep asking, asking, asking. And the Lord said, Jesus said, hear what the unjust judge says, and shall not God, who is not an unjust judge, shall not God avenge his own, which cried day and night to him, though he bear long with them. So there is day and night prayer. He will act, but sometimes the answer is delayed and delayed, especially the bigger things you're praying for. If you're praying for the salvation of one relative of yours who was raised in the faith and is really open and really sensitive and okay, that might be a quicker prayer answered than if you're praying for 10 drug dealers in your city to get saved. Or if you're praying for a national reformation to sweep the country, right? There are many things we're praying for that are big, that involve a lot of things falling into place and may take years to pray through. But then he says, I tell you that the Lord will avenge his people speedily.
They cry out day and light. It's a long time, but somehow he acts speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, shall he find faith on the earth? So will Jesus find people truly trusting and believing?
Even though he does come through, will we drop out along the way? So Andrew Murray writes this, of all the mysteries of the prayer world, the need of persevering prayer is one of the greatest. That the Lord, who is so loving and longing to bless, should have to be asked time after time, sometime year after year before the answer comes, we cannot easily understand.
So my comments here, yeah, it doesn't seem to make sense in terms of who he is and his promises and how we would respond. He said, it's also one of the greatest practical difficulties in the exercise to believe in prayer. When after persevering pleading, our prayer remains unanswered, it is often easiest for our lazy flesh and has all the appearances of pious submission to think that we must now cease praying because God may have his secret reason for withholding his answer to our request. In other words, I prayed, I asked, I prayed, I asked, obviously God said no.
Now there are times he says no. There are times he answers prayer by saying no, that's not my will, that's not my plan. Paul pleads three times with the Lord in 2 Corinthians 12 for the Lord to take this terrible thorn away.
I believe severe, intense, unusual persecution that would come his way in overwhelming measure. And he asked the Lord three times, take it away. And the Lord said, my grace is sufficient for my powers made perfect in weakness.
So God gave him a means to cope with and even taught him something great and dramatic out of it that was ultimately for Paul's spiritual good and the good of the world. Sometimes he says no, but many times it's just easy for us to think, well, I guess God's just not answering, so I'll quit. Andrew Murray says, God may have his secret reason for withholding his answer to our request. It is by faith alone that the difficulty is overcome. When one's faith is taken to stand on God's word in the name of Jesus and has yielded itself to the leading of the spirit to seek God's will and honor alone in its prayer, it need not be discouraged by delay. It knows from scripture that the power of believing prayer is simply irresistible. Real faith can never be disappointed.
Those are Andrew Murray's words, but truer words have not been spoken. Real faith can never be disappointed. It knows that just as water to exercise the irresistible power it can have must be gathered up and accumulated until the stream can come down in full force, so there must often be a heaping up of prayer until God sees that the measure is full when the answer comes. It knows that just as the peasant farmer has to take his 10,000 steps to sow his tens of thousands seeds, each one a part of the preparation for the final harvest, so there is a need for often repeated persevering prayer, all working out some desired blessing. In other words, something's happened when we're praying, something's taking place when we're praying, and there will be the cumulative effect of all of our prayers coming together, and the answer will be glorious. Andrew Murray says, it knows for certain, speak of real faith, that not a single believing prayer can fail of its effect in heaven, but has its influence, and is treasured up to work out an answer in due time to him who perseveres to the end.
It knows that it has to do not with human thoughts or possibilities, but with the word of the living God. And so, even as Abraham through so many years who against hope believed in hope, Romans 4 18, and then followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises, Hebrews 6 12, we will then be like Abraham 25 years before he saw the answer of Isaac's birth, but that was the promised seed ultimately through whom the Messiah came. Murray writes, to enable us when the answer to our prayer does not come at once, to combine quiet patience and joyful confidence in our persevering prayer, we must especially try to understand the words in which our Lord sets forth the character and conduct, not of the unjust judge, but of our God and Father, toward those whom he allows to cry day and night. I tell you, Luke 18 8, he will avenge them speedily. He will avenge them quickly, the master says. The blessing is all prepared. He's not only willing, but most anxious to give them what they ask.
Everlasting love burns with the longing desire to reveal itself fully to its beloved and to satisfy their needs. God will not delay one moment longer than is absolutely necessary. He will do all in his power to expedite and rush the answer. Okay, then why is it delayed? Think of it like this, you're 10 years old and your dream, you're a girl, you're 10 years old, God's shown you're going to have a big family, so your dream is to meet the right man, godly man that'll love you, love the Lord, love his kids, and he's shown you, six of your kids are going to go on the mission field or in the medical field, and you have a vision of what's going to happen.
Well, you're 10 years old, it's going to take decades before that all comes to pass, before you meet the right person, then you have kids, and then you raise kids, then your kids go on to their careers, and prayers you've prayed for decades will be answered over a period of decades. Murray says, but why if this is true, in other words, God's doing whatever he can do to expedite the answer, whatever he can do in his righteous principles and according to his character to expedite the answer, why if this is true and his power is infinite, does it often take so long for the answer to prayer to come? And why must God's own elect so often in the middle of suffering and conflict cry day and night? He is waiting patiently while he listens to them. James, Jacob, chapter 5 verse 7, behold the husband then waits for the precious fruit of the earth and has long patience for it until he received the early and latter rain. The farmer does indeed long for his harvest but knows that it must have its full amount of sunshine and rain and he has long patience. A child so often wants to pick the half ripe fruit. The farmer knows how to wait until the proper time. Man, in his spiritual nature too, is under the law of gradual growth that reigns in all created life.
It is only in the path of development that he can reach his divine destiny and it is the father at whose hands are the times and season who knows the moment when the soul or the church is ripened that a fullness of faith in which it can really take and keep the blessing. I'm going to stop here, come back on the other side of the break and continue sharing with you from Andrew Murray. 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.
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1-800-771-5584 or online at trivita.com. Thanks friends for joining us on the line of fire. I hope you're being as edified as I am or even more by reading these comments from Andrew Murray about persevering in prayer. I was just thinking, reading what he was saying about God waiting for us to get into the right place. So many prayers I prayed for ministry in life if God answered them earlier would have been a disaster, disaster.
I wouldn't been ready for it. That would have been the man he wanted me to be and I'm sure there are prayers I prayed for decades that are still not ready to be answered because I have to keep growing and becoming more like his son. It is the father in whose hand are the times and seasons who knows the moment when the soul or the church is ripened to that fullness of faith in which it can really take and keep the blessing. Like a father who longs to have his only child home from school and yet waits patiently until the time of training is completed, so it is with God and his children.
He is the patient one and answers quickly. The insight into this truth, Murray says, leads the believer to cultivate the corresponding dispositions, patience and faith. Waiting and anticipating are the secret of his perseverance, of our perseverance. By faith in the promise of God we know that we have the petitions we have asked of him. Faith takes and holds the answer and the promise as an unseen spiritual possession, rejoices in it and praises for it. But there is a difference between the faith that thus holds the word and knows that it has the answer and the clearer, fuller, riper faith that obtains the promise as a present experience. It is in persevering, not unbelieving, but confident and praising prayer that the soul grows up into that full union with its Lord in which it can enter upon the possession of blessing in him.
There may be in these around us. There may be in that great system of being of which we are part. There may be in God's government things that have to be put right through our prayer before the answer can fully come. The faith that has, according to the command, believed that it has received can allow God to take his time. It knows it has prevailed and must prevail. In quiet, persistent and determined perseverance it continues in prayer and thanksgiving until the blessing comes.
And so we see combined what at first sight appears contradictory. The faith that rejoices in the answer of the unseen God as a present possession and the patience that cries day and night until it be revealed. The quickness of God's patience is met by the triumphant but patient faith of his waiting child.
So I just want to add some of my own comments here. There are situations God wants to take us through where we really learn to trust him. And unless we're stretched, unless we come to the end of the rope, unless it looks like everything is going to cave in on us, many things we don't really learn. Many things we don't really grow into. Many things we don't really experience. I've said this before.
I'll say it again. There are experiences I've been through. I hope and pray that I will never have to go through them again. They were brutal. They were difficult. They were painful. They brought me to the end of myself. But what I learned about God through them, how he changed me in them, they are priceless and I would not exchange them for anything.
And I would say absolutely without question it was worth going through it. Murray writes, our great danger in the school of answer delayed is the temptation to think that after all it may not be God's will to give us what we ask. If our prayer be according to God's word and under the leading of the spirit, let us not give way to these fears. Let us learn to give God time. God needs time with us. If only we give him time, that is time in the daily fellowship with himself for him to exercise the full influence of his presence on us and time day by day in the course of our being kept waiting for faith to prove its reality and to fill our whole being. In other words, we need to give God time by being with him and pouring our hearts out to him and letting him work on us and then the time that he will take to carry out the answer to the prayers. Because again, if your prayer is Lord, I want to be a mature servant of the Lord.
All right, well that can become mature in a day. That's a process. Murray writes this, he himself will lead us from faith to vision. We shall see the glory of God. Let no delay shake our faith.
Of faith it holds good. First the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear. Each believing prayer brings a step nearer the final victory.
Again, it's just like chopping down a giant tree. Each blow of the axe brings you closer to that tree falling. Each believing prayer brings a step near the final victory. Each believing prayer helps to ripen the fruit and bring us nearer to it. It fills up the measure of prayer and faith known to God alone. It conquers the hindrances in the unseen world.
It hastens the end. Child of God, Murray writes, give the Father time. He is patiently listening to you. He wants the blessing to be rich and full and sure.
Give him time while you cry day and night. Only remember the word. I tell you that he will avenge them speedily.
Luke 18. Lord, it's taking time but I know you're gonna avenge speedily. I know you're gonna work speedily. I know you're gonna do it. It's a long process but I know you're gonna move further.
You're gonna move quickly. Seems contradictory to us but it's at that right moment God's ready to move. Again, just look at it not in a works righteousness way but from a spiritual perspective that yet you're filling a bucket and you know the rain's dripping, dripping, at a certain point the bucket starts to overflow. At that moment when God sees the situation is right, the fruit is ripe, the prayers have reached their goal.
At that moment God acts speedily. The blessing, he writes, Andrew Murray, of such persevering prayer is unspeakable. There is nothing so heart searching as the prayer of faith. It teaches you to discover and confess and to give up everything that hinders the coming of the blessing, everything there may that may not be in accordance with the Father's will. It leads to closer fellowship with him who alone can teach us to pray, to a more entire surrender to draw near under no covering but that of the blood and spirit. It calls for closer and more simple abiding in Christ alone. Christian, give God time. He will perfect that which concerns you.
Let it be thus, whether you pray for yourself or for others. All labor, bodily or mental, needs time and effort. We must give ourselves up to it. Nature discovers her secrets and yields her treasures only to diligent and thoughtful labor.
However little we can understand it, in the spiritual farming it is the same. The seed we sow and the soil of heaven, the efforts we put forth and the influence we seek to exert in the world above, need our whole being. We must give ourselves to prayer. But let us hold firm the great confidence that in due season we will reap if we don't give up. And let us especially learn the lesson as we pray for Christ Church.
She is indeed like the poor widow. In the absence of her Lord, apparently at the mercy of her adversary, help us to obtain restitution. Let us, when we pray for his church or any portion of it, under the power of the world, asking him to visit her with the mighty workings of his spirit and to prepare her for his coming, let us pray in the assured faith, prayer does help. Praying always and not stopping will bring the answer. Only give God time and then and then keep crying out day and night. Luke 18 6 and 7.
And the Lord said, hear what the unjust judge says, and shall not God avenge his own elect which cried day and night unto him though he bear long with them. There are so many things in my life that I prayed for for many many years but I want to share one precious with you. The bass player, the band where I got saved, Jonathan, the guitarist, Carrie, they're my best friends. They got saved right before I did. I went to church first August of 71 to pull them out of the church for their attending. God ended up saving me later that year, 1971. We were super close friends. I was best man in John's wedding.
He was best man in my wedding. We started preaching. He preached his first sermon August 7th, 1973. Carrie August 14th, 1973. Me August 21st, 1973. We're in this together but after a few more years John fell away from the Lord and he was away from the Lord for well over 40 years.
Well over 40 years. And when I would come to mind sometimes I'd just break down crying for him. I'd be so burdened and many years would go by without any contact. I didn't even know how to find him. I couldn't even get his number. And every so often we'd talk but he was away from God.
And a few years back, it was right before COVID, kind of came to the end of himself. He'd lost everything and talked to me and just needed some funds. We lent him some money and then Nancy and I just felt, I'll just give it to him.
You know, let's try to help him out. And God started working fresh in his life. I remember he called me, he said, Mike, I'm doubting my doubts. He's a very smart guy, very cerebral.
Mike, I'm doubting my doubts. And he said, I'm starting to read the Bible because of course I don't believe everything in it but you know, I'm reading the Bible again. And then he starts devouring the Word. He didn't have anywhere to live. He came to stay with us.
It was going to be a few days, ended up being a few months during COVID. In the Word prayer daily, survived cancer recently and last year and he's on fire. He's on fire for Jesus. And when I talked to him in the hospital when he had the cancer scare, he said, Mike, you prayed me back. You prayed me back. Of course, others prayed too, but what an answer. Well, over 40 years.
But God is faithful. Don't give up hope. Oh, that's about the longest answered prayer I've had over 40 years.
Some 10 years, some five years, some six months. Persevere. Keep knocking.
God will be faithful. 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 the line of fire dot org, the line of fire dot org and click Donate.
