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Power from on high: Prevailing Prayer (by Charles Finney)
Prevailing
prayer is that which secures an answer. Saying prayers is not offering
prevailing prayer. The prevalence of prayer does not depend so much on
quantity as on quality. I do not know how better to approach this
subject than by relating a fact of my own experience before I was
converted. I relate it because I fear such experiences are but too
common among unconverted men.
I do not recollect having ever attended a prayer meeting until after I
began the study of law. Then, for the first time, I lived in a
neighborhood where there was a prayer meeting weekly.
I had neither known, heard, nor seen much of religion; hence I had no
settled opinions about it. Partly from curiosity and partly from an
uneasiness of mind upon the subject, which I could not well define, I
began to attend that prayer meeting. About the same time I bought the
first Bible that I ever owned, and began to read it. I listened to the
prayers which I heard offered in those prayer meetings with all the
attention that I could give to prayers so cold and formal. In every
prayer they prayed for the gift and outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Both
in their prayers and in their remarks, which were occasionally
interspersed, they acknowledged that they did not prevail with God. This
was most evident, and had almost made me a skeptic.
Seeing me so frequently in their prayer meeting, the leader, on one
occasion, asked me if I did not wish them to pray for me. I replied:
"No." I said: "I suppose that I need to be prayed for, but your prayers
are not answered. You confess it yourselves." I then expressed my
astonishment at this fact, in view of what the Bible said about the
prevalence of prayer. Indeed, for some time my mind was much perplexed
and in doubt in view of Christ's teaching on the subject of prayer and
the manifest facts before me, from week to week, in this prayer meeting.
Was Christ a divine teacher? Did He actually teach what the Gospels
attributed to Him? Did He mean what He said? Did prayer really avail to
secure blessings from God? If so, what was I to make of what I witnessed
from week to week and month to month in that prayer meeting? Were they
real Christians? Was that which I heard real prayer, in the Bible sense?
Was it such prayer as Christ had promised to answer? Here I found the
solution.
I became convinced that they were under a delusion; that they did not
prevail because they had no right to prevail. They did not comply with
the conditions upon which God had promised to hear prayer. Their prayers
were just such as God had promised not to answer. It was evident they
were overlooking the fact that they were in danger of praying themselves
into skepticism in regard to the value of prayer.
In reading my Bible I noticed such revealed conditions as the following:
(a) Faith in God as the answerer of prayer. This, it is plain, involves the expectation of receiving what we ask.
(b) Another revealed condition is the asking according to the revealed
will of God. This plainly implies asking not only for such things as God
is willing to grant, but also asking in such a state of mind as God can
accept. I fear it is common for professed Christians to overlook the
state of mind in which God requires them to be as a condition of
answering their prayers.
For example: In offering the Lord's Prayer, "Thy kingdom come," it is
plain that sincerity is a condition of prevailing with God. But
sincerity in offering this petition implies the whole heart and life
devotion of the petitioner to the building up of this kingdom. It
implies the sincere and thorough consecration of all that we have and
all that we are to this end. To utter this petition in any other state
of mind involves hypocrisy, and is an abomination.
So in the next petition, "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven,"
God has not promised to hear this petition unless it be sincerely
offered. But sincerity implies a state of mind that accepts the whole
revealed will of God, so far as we understand it, as they accept it in
heaven. It implies a loving, confiding, universal obedience to the whole
known will of God, whether that will is revealed in His Word, by His
Spirit, or in His providence. It implies that we hold ourselves and all
that we have and are as absolutely and cordially at God's disposal as do
the inhabitants of heaven. If we fall short of this, and withhold
anything whatever from God, we "regard iniquity in our hearts," and God
will not hear us.
Sincerity in offering this petition implies a state of entire and
universal consecration to God. Anything short of this is withholding
from God that which is His due. It is "turning away our ear from hearing
the law." But what saith the Scriptures? "He that turneth away his ear
from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be an abomination." Do
professed Christians understand this?
What is true of offering these two petitions is true of all prayer. Do
Christians lay this to heart? Do they consider that all professed prayer
is an abomination if it be not offered in a state of entire
consecration of all that we have and are to God? If we do not offer
ourselves with and in our prayers, with all that we have; if we are not
in a state of mind that cordially accepts and, so far as we know,
perfectly conforms to the whole will of God, our prayer is an
abomination. How awfully profane is the use very frequently made of the
Lord's Prayer, both in public and in private. To hear men and women
chatter over the Lord's Prayer, "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on
earth as it is in heaven," while their lives are anything but conformed
to the known will of God is shocking and revolting. To hear men pray,
"Thy kingdom come," while it is most evident that they are making little
or no sacrifice or effort to promote this kingdom, forces the
conviction of bare-faced hypocrisy. Such is not prevailing prayer.
(c) Unselfishness is a condition of prevailing prayer. "Ye ask and
receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your
lusts" (James 4:3).
(d) Another condition of prevailing prayer is a conscience void of
offense toward God and man. 1 John 3:20, 22: "If our heart (conscience)
condemn us, God is greater than our heart and knoweth all things; if our
heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God, and
whatsoever we ask we receive of Him, because we keep His commandments
and do those things that are pleasing in His sight."
Here two things are made plain: first, that to prevail with God we must
keep a conscience void of offense; and, second, that we must keep His
commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight.
(e) A pure heart is also a condition of prevailing prayer. Psalm 66 18:
"If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me."
(f) All due confession and restitution to God and man is another
condition of prevailing prayer. Proverbs 28:13: "He that covereth his
sins shall not prosper. Whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall find
mercy."
(g) Clean hands is another condition. Psalm 26:6: "I will wash mine
hands in innocence, so will I compass thine altar, O Lord." I Timothy
6:8: "I will that men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands, without
wrath and doubting."
(h) The settling of disputes and animosities among brethren is a
condition. Matthew 5:23, 24: "If thou bring thy gift to the altar, and
there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee, leave there
thy gift before the altar and go thy way. First be reconciled to thy
brother, then come and offer thy gift."
(i) Humility is another condition of prevailing prayer. James 4:6: "God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble."
(j) Taking up the stumbling-blocks is another condition. Ezekiel 14:3:
"Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their heart, and put
the stumbling-block of their iniquity before their face. Should I be
inquired of at all by them?"
(k) A forgiving spirit is a condition. Matthew 6:12: "Forgive us our
debts as we forgive our debtors"; 15: "But if ye forgive not men their
trespasses, neither will your Heavenly Father forgive your trespasses."
(l) The exercise of a truthful spirit is a condition. Psalm 51:6:
"Behold, Thou desireth truth in the inward parts." If the heart be not
in a truthful state, if it be not entirely sincere and unselfish, we
regard iniquity in our hearts; and, therefore, the Lord will not hear
us.
(m) Praying in the name of Christ is a condition of prevailing prayer.
(n) The inspiration of the Holy Spirit is another condition. All truly
prevailing prayer is inspired by the Holy Ghost. Romans 8:26, 27: "For
we know not what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit itself
maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And
He that searcheth the heart knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit,
because He maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of
God." This is the true spirit of prayer. This is being led by the Spirit
in prayer. It is the only really prevailing prayer. Do professed
Christians really understand this? Do they believe that unless they live
and walk in the Spirit, unless they are taught how to pray by the
intercession of the Spirit in them, they cannot prevail with God?
(o) Fervency is a condition. A prayer, to be prevailing, must be
fervent. James 5:16: "Confess your faults one to another, and pray one
for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a
righteous man availeth much."
(p) Perseverance or persistence in prayer is often a condition of
prevailing. See the case of Jacob, of Daniel, of Elijah, of the
Syrophoenician woman, of the unjust judge, and the teaching of the Bible
generally.
(q) Travail of soul is often a condition of prevailing prayer. "As soon
as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children." "My little
children," said Paul, "for whom I travail in birth again, till Christ be
formed in you." This implies that he had travailed in birth for them
before they were converted. Indeed, travail of soul in prayer is the
only real revival prayer. If anyone does not know what this is, he does
not understand the spirit of prayer. He is not in a revival state. He
does not understand the passage already quoted, Romans 8:26, 27. Until
he understands this agonizing prayer he does not know the real secret of
revival power.
(r) Another condition of prevailing prayer is the consistent use of
means to secure the object prayed for, if means are within our reach,
and are known by us to be necessary to the securing of the end. To pray
for a revival of religion, and use no other means, is to tempt God.
This, I could plainly see, was the case of those who offered prayer in
the prayer meeting of which I have spoken. They continued to offer
prayer for a revival of religion, but out of meeting they were as silent
as death on the subject, and opened not their mouths to those around
them. They continued this inconsistency until a prominent impenitent man
in the community administered to them in my presence a terrible rebuke.
He expressed just what I deeply felt. He rose, and with the utmost
solemnity and tearfulness said: "Christian people, what can you mean?
You continue to pray in these meetings for a revival of religion. You
often exhort each other here to wake up and use means to promote a
revival. You assure each other, and assure us who are impenitent, that
we are in the way to hell; and I believe it. You also insist that if you
should wake up, and use the appropriate means, there would be a
revival, and we should be converted. You tell us of our great danger,
and that our souls are worth more than all worlds; and yet you keep
about your comparatively trifling employments and use no such means. We
have no revival and our souls are not saved." Here he broke down and
fell, sobbing, back into his seat.
This rebuke fell heavily upon that prayer meeting, as I shall ever
remember. It did them good; for it was not long before the members of
that prayer meeting broke down, and we had a revival. I was present in
the first meeting in which the revival spirit was manifest. Oh! how
changed was the tone of their prayers, confessions, and supplications. I
remarked, in returning home, to a friend: "What a change has come over
these Christians. This must be the beginning of a revival." Yes; a
wonderful change comes over all the meetings whenever the Christian
people are revived. Then their confessions mean something. They mean
reformation and restitution. They mean work. They mean the use of means.
They mean the opening of their pockets, their hearts and hands, and the
devotion of all their powers to the promotion of the work.
(s) Prevailing prayer is specific. It is offered for a definite object.
We cannot prevail for everything at once. In all the cases recorded in
the Bible in which prayer was answered, it is noteworthy that the
petitioner prayed for a definite object.
(t) Another condition of prevailing prayer is that we mean what we say
in prayer; that we make no false pretenses; in short, that we are
entirely childlike and sincere, speaking out of the heart, nothing more
nor less than we mean, feel, and believe.
(u) Another condition of prevailing prayer is a state of mind that assumes the good faith of God in all His promises.
(v) Another condition is "watching unto prayer" as well as "praying in
the Holy Ghost." By this I mean guarding against everything that can
quench or grieve the Spirit of God in our hearts.
Also watching for the answer, in a state of mind that will diligently
use all necessary means, at any expense, and add entreaty to entreaty.
When the fallow ground is thoroughly broken up in the hearts of
Christians, when they have confessed and made restitution, if the work
be thorough and honest, they will naturally and inevitably fulfill the
conditions, and will prevail in prayer. But it cannot be too distinctly
understood that none others will. What we commonly hear in prayer and
conference meetings is not prevailing prayer. It is often astonishing
and lamentable to witness the delusions that prevail upon the subject.
Who that has witnessed real revivals of religion has not been struck
with the change that comes over the whole spirit and manner of the
prayers of really revived Christians? I do not think I ever could have
been converted if I had not discovered the solution of the question:
"Why is it that so much that is called prayer is not answered?"
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