Title: Pray for the Power of the Living God Meta: We are to have the power of the living God upon us. And when we proclaim the Word, we are proclaiming words to dead men! And it must be the Spirit of the Living God who comes and raises them from the dead. Tags: prayer, power, Holy Spirit, intercession, believe, faith, conversion, salvation, revival 1 00:00:05,092 --> 00:00:09,372 There is absolutely 2 00:00:09,372 --> 00:00:14,652 nothing withheld from God's beloved, 3 00:00:14,652 --> 00:00:17,102 from Christ's beloved. 4 00:00:17,962 --> 00:00:24,622 There is no spiritual blessing withheld from you 5 00:00:26,702 --> 00:00:32,962 There is no measure of His presence that He will deny you, 6 00:00:32,962 --> 00:00:37,752 but you have not because you ask not! 7 00:00:38,962 --> 00:00:40,422 Oh dear brother, 8 00:00:40,422 --> 00:00:47,872 what a banquet, what an abundance, what a sea 9 00:00:47,872 --> 00:00:50,822 of joy in His presence. 10 00:00:51,552 --> 00:00:57,882 And power to minister as though we were carried by another. 11 00:00:58,932 --> 00:01:02,272 And be very, very careful. 12 00:01:02,272 --> 00:01:07,452 Although I do believe I am saying something you need, some of you are so worried 13 00:01:07,452 --> 00:01:10,262 and will even say when you leave this building, 14 00:01:10,262 --> 00:01:14,962 "Well, he didn't even open up his Bible until the first 15 minutes." 15 00:01:14,962 --> 00:01:22,062 Can't you not hear that God is speaking Biblical things are being told to you at this moment? 16 00:01:22,062 --> 00:01:25,285 I am not a great systematic theologian. 17 00:01:25,285 --> 00:01:28,288 I know my limitations. 18 00:01:28,288 --> 00:01:30,319 I am not a scholar. 19 00:01:30,319 --> 00:01:32,656 I will not stand in seminaries. 20 00:01:32,656 --> 00:01:36,133 And I so appreciate men who do. 21 00:01:36,133 --> 00:01:39,662 If it weren't for them, I don't know where the direction of my life would have gone. 22 00:01:39,662 --> 00:01:41,838 I so need brilliant men. 23 00:01:41,838 --> 00:01:45,814 I am not one of those, but the one thing I can tell you 24 00:01:45,814 --> 00:01:51,712 is that all my life I have been needy and I have been weak, 25 00:01:51,712 --> 00:01:59,562 and I have been slow, and I have been afraid, but it caused me to run to Him! 26 00:01:59,562 --> 00:02:04,292 And in running to Him, there is such glory! 27 00:02:04,302 --> 00:02:06,532 There is such power! 28 00:02:06,532 --> 00:02:09,012 There is such life!(P) 29 00:02:09,722 --> 00:02:14,792 You see it's not just "They need correct thinking." 30 00:02:14,802 --> 00:02:19,202 For men to even be able to grasp with their mind, 31 00:02:19,202 --> 00:02:26,122 it must be a thing of Ezekiel, 'Can these dead bones live?' 32 00:02:26,122 --> 00:02:30,372 You see, we are to be scholars 33 00:02:30,372 --> 00:02:33,312 but we are also to be prophets. 34 00:02:33,312 --> 00:02:37,672 We are not to be business men and administrators. 35 00:02:37,672 --> 00:02:43,482 We are to have the power of the living God upon us. 36 00:02:43,482 --> 00:02:50,472 And when we proclaim the Word, we are proclaiming words to dead men! 37 00:02:50,472 --> 00:02:55,122 And it must be the Spirit of the Living God who comes 38 00:02:55,122 --> 00:02:58,132 and raises them from the dead. 39 00:02:58,132 --> 00:03:03,532 And then when they are raised from the dead, 40 00:03:03,532 --> 00:03:07,692 b ut not yet mature, they need Christ formed in them. 41 00:03:07,692 --> 00:03:14,252 They need to reach the full stature of Christ and that 'requires' knowledge. 42 00:03:14,252 --> 00:03:17,152 Again, our people perish for lack of knowledge. 43 00:03:17,152 --> 00:03:21,252 Oh my dear God, lift up your pants and show me your knees. (P) 44 00:03:24,142 --> 00:03:28,052 Was Paul not an intercessor? 45 00:03:28,052 --> 00:03:33,932 Was he not? Oh my dear brother, listen to me. 46 00:03:33,932 --> 00:03:39,232 There is nothing impossible 47 00:03:39,242 --> 00:03:40,772 in prayer. 48 00:03:41,062 --> 00:03:45,452 There is nothing impossible. 49 00:03:47,002 --> 00:03:50,262 There are so many believers with 50 00:03:50,262 --> 00:03:53,678 besetting sins in their life 51 00:03:53,678 --> 00:03:59,204 and they think that literally that's just always the way it's going to be. 52 00:03:59,204 --> 00:04:04,052 So content with slavery, 53 00:04:04,052 --> 00:04:10,552 instead of going to their knees and crying out to God until they're delivered from that sin. 54 00:04:12,062 --> 00:04:16,298 As pastors, we preach, and we preach, and we preach, 55 00:04:16,298 --> 00:04:20,074 but where's the demonstration of power? 56 00:04:20,074 --> 00:04:22,922 Yes, men are changed through preaching, 57 00:04:22,922 --> 00:04:30,782 but have you ever seen men changed through your prayer life. 58 00:04:30,782 --> 00:04:36,982 Have you ever silently labeled a few men that you were going to focus your prayer life upon 59 00:04:36,982 --> 00:04:41,792 and hit your knees and fought and fought and wrestled and wrestled 60 00:04:41,792 --> 00:04:44,592 until Christ is formed in them 61 00:04:44,592 --> 00:04:49,842 and you saw a maturity and a glow and a life that was absolutely unexplainable 62 00:04:49,842 --> 00:04:53,822 apart from the power of the living God?(P) 63 00:04:56,990 --> 00:05:02,520 You are a man of God! 64 00:05:02,520 --> 00:05:07,330 That should mean that you dwell with Him 65 00:05:07,330 --> 00:05:09,970 in secret prayer... 66 00:05:09,970 --> 00:05:11,650 secret prayer... 67 00:05:11,650 --> 00:05:13,620 secret prayer. 68 00:05:16,320 --> 00:05:19,200 Is the presence of God 69 00:05:19,200 --> 00:05:22,410 a reality in your life? 70 00:05:23,580 --> 00:05:28,260 Even that statement sent some of you trembling and afraid. 71 00:05:28,260 --> 00:05:30,230 Will he go off on us? 72 00:05:30,230 --> 00:05:32,680 Is he really not of our camp? 73 00:05:32,680 --> 00:05:37,760 Is he a little bit too, well, given to experience. 74 00:05:37,770 --> 00:05:39,210 Again, 75 00:05:39,210 --> 00:05:44,000 go back and read those old books of yours. 76 00:05:44,010 --> 00:05:46,450 Find those men.(P) 77 00:05:48,730 --> 00:05:54,000 Oh brothers, we are more than administrators. 78 00:05:54,000 --> 00:05:58,950 We are more than mere scholars. 79 00:05:58,950 --> 00:06:05,380 We are men who dwell in the presence of the Most High. (P) 80 00:06:06,090 --> 00:06:09,160 Every conflict in your life, 81 00:06:09,160 --> 00:06:12,450 every brokenness in your body, 82 00:06:12,450 --> 00:06:15,010 has one purpose. 83 00:06:15,810 --> 00:06:19,120 It's to send you to your knees. 84 00:06:19,120 --> 00:06:21,700 Every conflict, every battle- 85 00:06:21,700 --> 00:06:26,170 today, there's no battle fought in this pulpit 86 00:06:26,940 --> 00:06:32,310 It was fought this morning at 5 o'clock. 87 00:06:32,320 --> 00:06:34,990 It's not fought here. 88 00:06:35,000 --> 00:06:38,100 It's fought in prayer. 89 00:06:38,100 --> 00:06:40,770 It's won in prayer. 90 00:06:40,770 --> 00:06:43,940 The thing is done in prayer.(P) 91 00:06:48,389 --> 00:06:50,690 I always tell young men 92 00:06:50,690 --> 00:06:54,018 who have not given themselves much to prayer- they say, "How should I pray?" 93 00:06:54,018 --> 00:06:56,204 I say "Pray, 94 00:06:56,204 --> 00:07:02,938 fight until you can honestly say with that hymn writer "Sweet hour of prayer, 95 00:07:03,882 --> 00:07:06,720 sweet hour of prayer. 96 00:07:06,720 --> 00:07:11,866 I will give the Lord my first hour, sweet hour of prayer." 97 00:07:11,866 --> 00:07:13,640 And then, 98 00:07:13,640 --> 00:07:15,344 you see, 99 00:07:15,344 --> 00:07:22,526 praying is an amazing thing in that the less you pray, the more difficult it becomes to pray. 100 00:07:22,539 --> 00:07:29,228 The more you pray, the more you're carried in prayer. 101 00:07:29,228 --> 00:07:37,318 Brothers, you can pray until you think 'What has happened to the time? 102 00:07:37,318 --> 00:07:40,966 I set my knee at 5. It's already 8:30. 103 00:07:40,966 --> 00:07:43,494 There's things that... what happened?" 104 00:07:43,494 --> 00:07:47,082 Oh, brother's, please! 105 00:07:48,497 --> 00:07:50,996 Give yourselves to prayer. 106 00:07:50,996 --> 00:07:55,115 There is absolutely no obstacle 107 00:07:55,115 --> 00:08:00,244 that cannot be overcome in prayer. 108 00:08:00,244 --> 00:08:04,679 We are not men who simply give into the darkness 109 00:08:04,679 --> 00:08:06,311 and write a label on it saying 110 00:08:06,311 --> 00:08:08,773 "It's because of the sovereignty of God". 111 00:08:08,773 --> 00:08:13,295 We are men who fight that darkness! 112 00:08:13,295 --> 00:08:17,603 You going to blame this whole mess on God? 113 00:08:17,603 --> 00:08:21,623 Do not use the sovereignty of God as an excuse! 114 00:08:21,623 --> 00:08:25,006 We are men who believe God! (P) 115 00:08:25,286 --> 00:08:26,411 Know this, 116 00:08:26,411 --> 00:08:29,288 there is no place in Scripture where it says 117 00:08:29,288 --> 00:08:34,647 that in my lifetime, I cannot see countries come to Christ. 118 00:08:35,520 --> 00:08:37,741 Why not? 119 00:08:38,849 --> 00:08:40,768 Why not? 120 00:08:43,301 --> 00:08:46,280 Why can I not see India fall 121 00:08:46,280 --> 00:08:49,100 and a banner for Christ be on every hill? 122 00:08:49,100 --> 00:08:51,945 God never told me that. 123 00:08:51,945 --> 00:08:56,399 Why must I accept America just getting darker and darker? 124 00:08:56,399 --> 00:08:59,376 God never told me that. 125 00:09:01,629 --> 00:09:04,457 You may disagree with the post millennialist, 126 00:09:04,457 --> 00:09:08,190 but I'll tell you what, they accomplished a lot more, 127 00:09:08,190 --> 00:09:10,600 didn't they? 128 00:09:10,608 --> 00:09:13,921 They believed God was going to do something. 129 00:09:15,182 --> 00:09:18,525 Regardless of your eschatology, 130 00:09:18,525 --> 00:09:22,880 unless you've got a word from Him that none of the rest of us know about.(P) 131 00:09:23,809 --> 00:09:27,951 Look, we plant our feet 132 00:09:27,951 --> 00:09:32,068 and we fight in prayer, 133 00:09:32,068 --> 00:09:35,227 and we fight in the pulpit. 134 00:09:37,332 --> 00:09:39,322 That's what we do. 135 00:09:41,500 --> 00:09:45,912 We expect God to do something.(P) 136 00:09:49,715 --> 00:09:54,258 "Brother Paul, why are you sad?", my translator asked me in Holland, 137 00:09:54,643 --> 00:09:56,560 "Why are you sad tonight?" 138 00:09:56,560 --> 00:10:01,052 I said, "No one was converted tonight!" 139 00:10:03,400 --> 00:10:05,988 We must believe...(P) 140 00:10:05,988 --> 00:10:09,262 Gentlemen, the promises, 141 00:10:09,262 --> 00:10:11,856 not just the precepts. 142 00:10:11,856 --> 00:10:13,910 The promises, 143 00:10:13,910 --> 00:10:16,104 the promises. 144 00:10:16,104 --> 00:10:17,632 They're here in the Bible. 145 00:10:17,632 --> 00:10:22,390 "Light shining in the darkness and the darkness could not overcome it." 146 00:10:22,390 --> 00:10:25,450 The power of the gospel. 147 00:10:25,450 --> 00:10:27,893 I believe that one of the greatest demonstrations 148 00:10:27,893 --> 00:10:30,216 if not the greatest demonstration 149 00:10:30,216 --> 00:10:33,978 in all of time, is not the creation of the world, 150 00:10:33,978 --> 00:10:37,530 but the creation of the new man. 151 00:10:37,530 --> 00:10:41,503 The work of regeneration which has been lost in our time 152 00:10:41,503 --> 00:10:44,769 is the most powerful demonstration of the power of God. 153 00:10:44,769 --> 00:10:48,296 He made this world out of nothing and that is amazing. 154 00:10:48,296 --> 00:10:52,801 But He creates a man anew from a massive depraved humanity. 155 00:10:52,801 --> 00:10:54,500 That is power! 156 00:10:54,500 --> 00:10:59,152 Why would I not believe that God wants to demonstrate such power 157 00:10:59,152 --> 00:11:01,658 in the conversion of men. 158 00:11:01,658 --> 00:11:04,893 Let's wrestle for the conversion of men. 159 00:11:04,893 --> 00:11:09,090 Let's wrestle for the establishment of Biblical churches. 160 00:11:11,582 --> 00:11:13,351 Let's fight on our knees 161 00:11:13,351 --> 00:11:15,236 and let's believe God. 162 00:11:15,236 --> 00:11:17,871 Let's believe Him. 163 00:11:17,871 --> 00:11:20,138 There's so much to believe.