PRAYER

^[p. 115] PRAYER

Mark 1: 35; Judges 6: 36 - 40; 1 Chronicles 4: 9, 10

In reading these Scriptures, judging that three should be sufficient for such ministry, I have in mind to speak about prayer. It is a very wide subject, and therefore I do not intend to attempt to cover the ground indicated by the word, but rather to look at specific prayers, which I apprehend should mark us. We are apt to say prayers, formal prayers, and to limit ourselves to them. God does not grow weary of prayers, even although they be repeated; at the same time I apprehend that He looks for variety in our prayers, and that He looks for sympathy with Himself in our prayers. The exercises entering into prayer and the service of God are many and varied, so that fresh thoughts are in order in our prayers. I only need to recite Solomon’s prayer to indicate how varied prayers may be. It was a very long prayer, but I do not at all advocate long prayers in public, audible prayers, but prefer brief ones covering what may be urgent at any given time, and as covering what is urgent our prayers should include current events in the whole world, current happenings in it.

Now I turn to Mark, although seeing it was the subject of prayer it might be thought that I should turn to Luke, because Luke is more priestly, if I may say so. He affords us more detailed instruction as to prayer than any of the evangelists; in fact he is the one, and the one only, who tells us of the disciples who asked the Lord to teach them to pray. We are told in Luke 11 that the Lord was praying in a certain place. This is quite in keeping with general scriptural facts, that prayer should be at a certain place or certain places, and so it is that the brethren with whom we are walking together have on our ^[p. 116] Monday evenings special prayers, and the Lord blesses these, for as I know, the brethren always leave the room refreshed. That is to be expected because God makes us joyful in His house of prayer. He makes us joyful at other times too, but He does so specially in His house of prayer. It is Luke who tells us that at Philippi there was a place where prayer was accustomed to be made; it was by a river.

I cite these matters, because they are actual examples, and it is always important in ministry to base what one says on Scripture. Every Scripture is inspired of God and is profitable, and now as I am speaking about prayer, Scripture certainly is profitable for our instruction as to prayer. So Philippi is noted in that sense, and we get a word by Luke again in the book of Acts, that a certain man of Macedonia was heard by Paul in a vision to say, “Come over into Macedonia, and help us”, Acts 16: 9. We cannot say what the ‘us’ covers, but it is what I would call a prophetic voice in prayer, and one to be examined and followed. If here in Durban there is need in any particular way, and it may be there is need of help in some matter that should be attended to, then I would urge the brethren to pray about that matter, and to say to someone who can help, and has perhaps helped before, ‘Come over to Durban and help us’. You will get an answer, although you may have to wait for it. Paul did. The man in Macedonia did not appear right away to him, but he did appear, and appeared in most remarkable circumstances too, when Paul and Silas were in the deepest sufferings, their feet fast in stocks, put on by the jailor, and they were suffering, but they were praising God in their sufferings. You may be sure that God will have respect not only to our prayers, but to our praises, as He had respect to the praises of Paul and Silas. They were praising God in the ^[p. 117] jail. The jail was turned into a temple at that time. God knows how to do those things too. God would show us how powerful He is, and what He can do, what His people can do too, even although the circumstances be unusual and perhaps not suitable. I suppose this hall in which we are gathered was never so good as it is tonight with the saints in it.

God can turn uncomfortable places into comfort. It would result from prayer for whatever may be needed, and consequent praise. So Paul was praying in the jail, but in praying he praised God; he knew how to turn from prayer to praise. It is a great matter, because praise is for God, prayer too. God has pleasure in our prayers, but praise is especially for God. The Lord Jesus Himself said, “In the midst of the assembly will I sing thy praises”, Hebrews 2: 12, the very best place you could think of. I do not know of any other place so suitable for praise to God as His assembly. Everything in it is sympathetic normally; it is the place for prayer, too. There is plenty of sympathy in it for prayer, as we prove every Monday night, but there is also sympathy with God for praise, and that was what Paul and Silas yielded to Him, perhaps unexpectedly to themselves, but certainly it was yielded, for in their prayer they praised God, and the prisoners were listening to them. Some of us have been on board ship for about twenty-six days, and we have had prayer together almost every Monday night, we have had readings of the Scriptures, too. I must confess that sometimes we found the place not quite suitable, but last Monday night, especially, it was turned into a temple, a temple of prayer. We were joyous in it, too, but then Paul and Silas found the jail turned into a temple too. God found that there. One might perhaps venture to say that it would be difficult to find an incident more interesting to heaven than that incident was, of prayer and praises. The priests ^[p. 118] were Paul and Silas, suffering brothers, their feet were fast in the stocks when all this went on. What a pleasure to God! I am sure, dear brethren, you will all sympathise with me when I say that God is looking for, and is entitled to look for from us at all times, sympathy with Himself. We may look to Him for sympathy. He is the God of all comfort; remember that. You cannot add to all, it is the completeness of the thought, and God is the God of that, He is the God of all comfort.

I come now to Mark. As I said, I passed by Luke, but I was compelled to refer to him two or three times. I want to speak now of the Lord praying, not only praying in a certain place, but praying at a certain time. Mark says, “And in the morning, rising up a great while before day”. The Lord at such a time, we are told, “went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed”, Mark 1: 35. You can picture the position, dear brethren, and, of course, the heart is always alert normally in thinking of the Lord Jesus in any circumstance in which He was pleased to be, but especially so when He is pleased to be in prayer. The servant in Luke 11 saw the Lord praying, I should judge. Luke says He was praying in a certain place. We are not told whether it was morning, evening or night, but that it was in a certain place. The idea of place has to be observed because it really enters into the local assembly, as stated in Paul’s epistle to the Corinthians, “in every place”, where believers “call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ”; that is where the local assembly is to be found, and calling on the Lord is characteristic of the local assembly. We have been praying together in the ship, as I have said, and reading the Scriptures, but we have not broken bread there, for I do not gather that a ship is exactly a place in the sense in which the Spirit of God speaks of those who “in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ”. The character of a place is that it is a fixed position, even as the place where the prayer was carried on in Philippi; it was regular and it was a fixed position. It was a place where prayer was wont to be made, so I think that enters into the local position, but a ship does not cover the scriptural idea, hence I certainly would have no part in the breaking of bread on a ship. You may think it a small matter, but I am just seeking to illustrate what I am saying, so that we can have things right in our hearts, as to where things are to be done.

Now I am thinking of ‘where’, there is the idea of ‘where’ here; there is a desert place, and rising in the morning, long before day, the Lord went out and went away into a desert place. The word ‘desert’ there would signify that the place was devoid of anything that would be attractive to man naturally, not that the Lord could not enjoy things, in nature, in the creation. He never made much of it, but at the same time He was not dead to the excellencies of creation. The Lord said, “Consider the lilies ... how they grow”. He knew more about the lilies than even Solomon did, for He created them, but He did not occupy Himself much with these things. Presently, as the Son of man He will put His right foot on the sea and His left foot on the land, and He will cry as a lion roars, meaning that He has power, has a right to exercise power in all the earth. “The earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof”. It is His, and He made it, but He is not occupied with it just now. He is occupied with the assembly, dear brethren, I might say exclusively.

You may say, He is occupied with the gospel. He is, but that is just a means to an end, to bring about the material for the assembly, and the Lord has the assembly in mind. He loves it. He is going on with it: “he is as a bridegroom going forth from his chamber”, we are told in Psalm 19, and “rejoiceth ^[p. 120] as a strong man to run the race”. If He goes forth “as a bridegroom”, of what is He the Bridegroom? You may say, that may be Israel, but I think the Spirit of God would direct us to the assembly. The Israelitish bride will exist, of course, but I do not think it will be an eternal thought, but the assembly will be, and that is the thing for us to get a hold of, that we belong to what is eternal. We are not simply those who know about it, who read about it, but we belong to it. So the Lord going into the desert here would imply that He selected a place where He would not be diverted, not that He would be diverted in a wrong sense, of course, God forbid that I should have even a shade of a thought as to it, but at the same time there were things that the Lord would avoid at certain times, and we should learn to avoid them too; they may be right in themselves, but we should learn to avoid them at certain times especially. So when the Lord selected a desert place, early in the morning, to go out and pray, we want to see just what is meant in all that, and whether it has any application to ourselves in this matter of prayer. Another matter that comes up in relation to it is. Do we know anything about fasting? I quite freely say, dear brethren, that I am not very accustomed to it, but I do see that the Spirit of God would lay upon our hearts to learn how to fast.

The Lord says of a certain difficulty, “This kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting”, Matthew 17: 21. A special kind of power comes through fasting as allied to prayer too; and I think this is something which we should have laid on our hearts, dear brethren, this matter of fasting. Perhaps we shall get more answers to our prayers, realise more power in them, if we do. Of the Lord here, it is said, “In the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place,

and there prayed”. It is a special selection. You can see the Lord looking for the place, and He found it, and He went to it, and then He kneeled down. I verily believe all these things are true. The attitude of prayer would be seen too, for we are told that He kneeled. I do not say that we should always kneel, because we are told to stand praying sometimes, but I can visualise that the Lord of glory allowed Himself to be written about in this sense, that He went out early in the morning, got up from His bed wherever He slept. He was at Bethany, and in the morning there was a fig tree there and there were no figs on it, and He cursed it. It shows what circumstances would lead the Lord to do. Are we accustoming ourselves to get the manna before the sun is up? The Lord went out, according to Mark, and selected a certain time early in the morning to pray. We are not told how long He spent in prayer. In Luke we are told on one occasion that He prayed all night.

I want to go on to Judges 6. I am singling out first the Lord Himself, then Gideon and then Jabez. Gideon’s is specific prayer. I would urge the young people to pray specifically, not just going over your usual prayer. Our lives and circumstances change, and change comes of necessity into our prayers. Gideon was engaged in the Lord’s work, which was most strenuous. I could say much about Gideon. I think the allusion in 2 Corinthians 4: 7 is to Gideon. The breaking of our earthen vessels, our bodies, which are liable to die, corresponds with Gideon’s pitchers. Our earthen vessels are broken through discipline and death; perhaps through age or sickness or whatever it may be that weakens us, but the light shines. One would not simply suppose that his light shines merely because he is an old person. It is as the earthen vessel is broken, that the light will shine, and the point is to disallow all that pertains to ^[p. 122] mere nature in the body, which hinders the light. Gideon is an example of this, and now he is in a strait, and in his strait he has a specific prayer, and it is this: “Gideon said to God, If thou wilt save Israel by my hand, as thou hast said, behold, I put a fleece of wool on the threshing-floor; if dew shall be on the fleece only, and it be dry upon all the ground, then shall I know that thou wilt save Israel by my hand, as thou hast said”, Judges 6: 36, 37. God had said He would do this, and Gideon was moving on that principle, that God was helping him, and using him, and his prayer is just to implement what is going on. God was helping him in what he was doing, and he was doing a great work. We are engaged in a great work, and however small we may be in it, beloved, the work is great nevertheless; it is of God, of Christ, of the Spirit. As Solomon says, it concerns a great people, too, not that we should eulogise ourselves, save in the light of what I am saying, of what the saints are as the handiwork of God, they are a great people in that sense, and God so regards the saints.

So Gideon was in a strait, and he thought he would prove God. Apparently his faith was not just as strong as it might be, and who is ready to say that his faith is always as strong as it might be; we read of great faith. We have spoken of it elsewhere; one ought to covet that, and great faith at all times, but especially at specific times, and this is the point with Gideon; he had faith, but he wanted great faith. Gideon said unto God, very simply, “If thou wilt save Israel by my hand, as thou hast said, behold, I put a fleece of wool on the threshing-floor; if dew shall be on the fleece only, and it be dry upon all the ground, then shall I know that thou wilt save Israel by my hand, as thou hast said”. He had a good basis for his prayer, for God had said He would do it. In order that the testimony may go on ^[p. 123] we may be sure that God will do what He has said. Gideon was concerned that he might be in the thing thoroughly, and not be fearful in it. He was a man of great courage, but he is relying on God and what He had said. “As thou hast said”, is the ground he is on with God and he tells Jehovah what he would like to be done, that is to say, that there should be dew on the fleece only and it be dry on all the earth beside. “Then shall I know that thou wilt save Israel by my hand, as thou hast said. And it was so”.

Now, dear brethren, I want you all to take that into your hearts, that it was so. Gideon simply asked God to do this, and it was so. The matter happened, and why should it not happen in my case; in any specific cases? One could mention specific cases in one’s history, but I do not want to do that, for there is not one here who could not also mention specific matters in his history when God has answered. It is a question of what may be needed, and whether we get to God, so that the thing may happen. I want you to weigh that over. Get to God, as Gideon did; whatever it be that you are urgently in need about. Gideon is an example for us; he is set down as a man of faith, as the writer of the Hebrews says. “Time would fail me to tell of Gedeon” (chapter 11: 32); he had others also in mind, who, as Gideon, acted by faith. He was one of the men of faith, who did things for God. God acted to confirm his faith, so that, as he asked God for something, it was so. What he asked for, that there should be dew on the fleece only, would mean that the blessing was limited to Israel; that fact was seen in the history; for years and years, the blessing of God was on Israel. God had been with Israel and the nations were left out.

The woman in Matthew 15 who cried to the Lord for her daughter was one of the nations, and the Lord did not listen to her. He did not answer a ^[p. 124] word. Later in answer to her urgent appeal He says, “It is not well to take the bread of the children and cast it to the dogs”. Now that was the position of Israel, and the nations. In Israel the blessing of God was known, and will be again too, presently; it is not there now, far otherwise. “I will hide my face from them”, God said, and He is hiding His face from them, but presently God will unveil His face to them, and will cause His face to shine on Israel, but He is not doing it now. Gideon asked Jehovah to do this to the fleece, and God did so. But Gideon says. “Let not thine anger be hot against me, and I will speak but this once! Let me prove, I pray thee, but this once with the fleece; let it, I pray thee, be dry upon the fleece only, and upon all the ground let there be dew”. This speaks of what has come to pass, the blessing of God has gone out to the gentiles, and it has departed from Israel, and things have gone on those lines ever since the rejection of Christ by Israel until now. It is a gospel text truly and rightly so used. The present is a time of blessing for the gentiles. Gideon’s second prayer, which also happened, was that the fleece should be dry, and that the earth should be blessed. “Upon all the ground let there be dew”, that is the present time, and it says: “God did so”. These are specific cases, and it is for each of us to prove that. Firstly, “it was so”, and secondly, “God did so that night”.

The passage in 1 Chronicles 4 says that Jabez was more honourable than his brethren. If a brother today is more honourable it means that he is more devoted, and God will not fail to honour devotedness in a brother or a sister. “And Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, Oh that thou wouldest bless me indeed, and enlarge my coast, and that thine hand might be with me, and that thou wouldest keep me from evil, that it may not grieve me!”. In this case it is directed to the God of Israel. Today He is the “God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” who raised Christ from the dead, and has chosen us in Him. That is the present time. Elijah said to Elisha, “Thou hast asked a hard thing, if thou see me when I am taken from thee, it shall be so to thee”, 2 Kings 2: 10. He had asked for a great thing and he got it. So it is here. He says: “Oh that thou wouldest bless me indeed ... And God granted him that which he requested”. He was specific, and he got his request that he should be blessed richly. He was not small in his thoughts. The Lord said to His own, “Ask, and ye shall receive”. Let us learn to ask, especially in specific matters, because God will answer us. He knows the agony of soul and what you want to have, and He will give it to you.

I hope what I have said will bear fruit, for these services are nothing if they do not bear fruit. We are to be attentive while the ministry is going on, and if we lay it to our hearts, the blessings will come. Let specific prayer be in relation to the assembly, and what God and Christ and the Spirit are going on with. We can hope to get answers to all specific requests on those lines.