Bill Johnson - Pray Without Ceasing
America shall be saved! Why don’t you say that with me? America shall be saved! Now say it again: America shall be saved! One more time! Turn to your neighbor and tell them to put on their seatbelt. For some, it’s already too late. Before we get into the Word, why don’t you stand? You’ve been sitting for so long—at least two minutes! This is the home of Christian aerobics. When Jesus said, «Walk and pray,» we felt He was serious, so we keep you on your feet. Or was I watching? I was watching, but never mind. How many of you have family members that just need to get right with God? They just need to get rid of sin. That looks like just about everybody! In fact, put your hands down. Is there anyone who would say, «I can’t think of one family member that needs to get right»? I’m serious! We have one back here; that’s awesome! Let’s just have you pray for all of us. There’s just an anointing for evangelism—not just altar calls but a spirit of evangelism. Christ has really released it, and largely, the women got hit with that one, which makes me a little bit nervous, in a really good way. Some of the most powerful ministries in history have been led by women who laid their lives down.
So here’s what we’re going to do: find at least one person’s name who needs to get right with God from the person on your right and the person on your left. Do that quickly, then we’re going to pray together. Give them at least one name, okay? You should have the entire family history by now! Let’s do this. I like to do symbolic—or what we call prophetic acts. Prophetic acts have the power of prophecy, but they’re natural acts that have no natural correlation to the answer. Like when the prophet threw a stick in the water and the axe head swam—it was a prophetic act of obedience, but God responded and accomplished the impossible. I want you to take your hands as though you’re bringing people before the Lord, and I want you to literally bring before Him at least one individual in your heart and one of your neighbors. Lift them before the Lord and say, «Lord, I bring these to You. I declare forgiveness over them. Draw them to You.»
Lift your voices and pray! Please do not pray quietly in your hearts. Let’s pray evangelistic prayers! God, we join their names with the name of Jesus right now! We join the name of John with the name of Jesus right now! Sally, Brian to the name of Jesus, Julie to the name of Jesus! Draw them near, God! Draw them near! We bring them to You; we lift them before You, God! Save these friends, these family members! Save them! Lord Jesus said, «Whoever you forgive, I forgive.» So I want you to declare your forgiveness over these individuals. Declare that no matter how badly they’ve messed up, we hold nothing against them. We declare the forgiveness of our own hearts and the forgiveness of the Lord over these people right now, in Jesus' mighty name! Jesus' mighty name! Amen! Amen!
All right, well, why don’t you hug a few necks and be seated? Go on, hug somebody! You know, ever since I was a child, I’ve always had a fear of someone being under my bed at night. So I went to a psychiatrist and told him, «I’ve got problems! Every time I go to bed, I think there’s someone under it. I’m scared. I think I’m going crazy!» He responded, «Just put yourself in my hands for one year. Come talk to me three times a week. We should be able to get rid of those fears.» «How much do you charge?» I asked. «Eighty dollars per visit,» replied the doctor. «I’ll sleep on it,» I said. Six months later, the doctor met me on the street and asked, «Why didn’t you come to see me about those fears you were having?» I responded, «Well, 80 bucks a visit, three times a week for a year is over twelve thousand dollars! My neighbor cured me for free!» I was so happy to have saved all that money, I went and bought a new pickup truck. «Is that so?» the psychiatrist responded with a bit of an attitude. «And how may I ask did your neighbor cure you?» I replied, «He told me to cut the legs off the bed! Ain’t nobody under there now!»
Oh goodness! All right, all right. Several weeks ago, during a message, I took a little detour for a few minutes and talked to you about the high price of prayerlessness. Of course, I would never mean this to be a shameful message or some harsh exhortation, but instead an appeal that we could live sober-minded and realize that Jesus gives us this overall commission in command, and it has to do with our relationship with Him—that it’s the invitation to pray at all times, to pray without ceasing. I personally like to think that prayer without ceasing is the substance of prayer, and the hour or whatever you take is like icing on the cake. The real substance of prayer is the fact that it is continuous fellowship with God. And prayerlessness has effects on our lives that are very, very sobering.
So what I want you to do is I’ve got six stories I want to tell you—not sure if I have time for all of them, but there are six passages that we’ll read, and if we don’t, I’ll just do it another time. Let’s go ahead and start with the first one. I want you to go to the Gospel of Luke chapter 22. We’re going to read a portion where Jesus is praying in the garden. This is where His sweat became like drops of blood. The anguish of His own prayer time was physically having an effect on Him, where sweat became blood. I don’t think it was watered or wine type thing; I think it was such pressure on Him in prayer that He physically manifested blood as sweat on His forehead. Right before this, Jesus and the disciples had a conversation, and in this conversation, Jesus announced to them that they were all going to fall away. Peter made the statement, «They might, but I won’t.» Jesus then said, «As a matter of fact, Peter, you’re going to deny me three times.» This is the prayer meeting that followed that warning Jesus gave him.
If you look at this with me, let’s jump to verse 43. Then an angel appeared to Him from heaven, strengthening Him. And being in agony, He prayed more earnestly. Then His sweat became like great drops of blood falling to the ground. When He rose up from prayer and had come to His disciples, He found them sleeping from sorrow. Then He said to them, «Why do you sleep? Rise and pray, lest you enter into temptation.» That is a stunning moment to me in Peter’s life, that Jesus announced to him that he was about to deny Him, and yet He gave him access to a strength. Jesus would have been wrong; He invited him into a time of prayer. Had Peter pursued prayer, he would never have entered into temptation.
Temptation is an interesting thing because God never puts us in a position to be tempted. The real issue of temptation is that it’s the individual’s heart that translates a circumstance and makes it a temptation. An illustration I give frequently is let’s say Brian and I are going to lunch. Let’s say he’s doing really well with the Lord, his finances are in order, and he’s living in a great victory, while I’m living in great fear. I’m having a hard time, afraid I’m not going to be able to pay my bills; I’ve got this anxiety fear thing going on. So we sit down at the restaurant, and right next to the salt and pepper shaker is a hundred-dollar bill folded up. The waitress doesn’t see it when she cleans the table. Brian excuses himself to wash the fellowship off his hands before we have a meal together. When he goes, I spot the hundred-dollar bill, and it crosses my mind that I could take it because she doesn’t even know it’s there. Then I resist the temptation. I think, «That’s just totally wrong! What am I thinking?» I repent for even having the thought and don’t take it.
Brian comes back and sits down. He notices the hundred-dollar bill and calls out the waitress by name, «Hey Sandy! Look, somebody gave you a really good tip!» It never crossed his mind! Now, neither of us took the money, but one of us was tempted. The heart condition turned a circumstance and made it a temptation. There are circumstances in life—like doors on a stage—and what prayerfulness does is give you discernment on the nature of the door. You don’t even fall into a situation. You’re not exposed in your weak place because prayerfulness has heightened your awareness of what’s behind the door. Without prayerfulness, you may open the door. You may fall into temptation and may successfully resist it, but the point is you want to go through life without facing things for which you have no grace.
It doesn’t mean you can’t muster up the strength to say no to that temptation—of course you can! We all have a will and can choose. But what’s tragic is some people, because of prayerlessness, live in a battle with circumstances they never should have had to face. It depletes, robs strength, creativity, and authentic expression of who we are because we’re fighting battles we were never designed to fight. So He said pray that you wouldn’t even enter through the doorway of what would be appealing to you at some weak place in your life.
I remember years ago, Paul Manwaring, who used to run a prison in the UK— a highly decorated prison warden— would remind himself he had the same potential to be where the prisoners were as they did. He would remind them they had the same potential to be where he was. It’s all grace. What prayerfulness does is it makes us aware of unseen things that are more real than what is visible. We’re not talking about a land of make-believe or just the power of suggestion. We’re talking about drawing upon strength that is superior to everything else we could possibly muster up, and prayerfulness unclutters our eyes to see what is real.
Turn in your Bibles to the book of Matthew, chapter 5. You guys still alive? That’s good! I hate it when people die in the meeting; it’s just so depressing. Matthew 5— I have an interesting verse here in verse 43. I want you to look at it with me. «You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, 'Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven.'» Let’s take that last phrase: pray for those who persecute you and spitefully use you. Pray for them—not against them, pray for them—so that you will be a son or daughter of God. Now are you thinking there’s an exhortation to pray? I don’t believe He’s saying pray for those who oppose you and then you’ll be born again. We become sons and daughters of God through our faith in Christ—that’s what causes us to be born again.
What He’s declaring, though, is that when you pray, when you exercise your right to come before Almighty God and actually pray on behalf of someone who has opposed you, it becomes clear to you and to the entire spirit realm that you are a child of God. Why? Because you’re using your authority to come before a perfect Father to pray positively for someone who has opposed you, and your identity in Christ becomes manifested. This is interesting because we don’t have time for it tonight, but this will trigger something. Some of you remember in Romans 8, it says that all of creation groans. That’s creation praying! All creation groans, travailing, waiting for the sons and daughters of God to be manifested. What is this saying? When you pray for those who have opposed you, pray for those whom others would consider your enemy, to pray for their blessing, their welfare, and you do this as a perfect Father would pray.
Then your identity becomes established, firm, and revealed. There are certain things being withheld from the purposes of God in the earth, and they will only be released to a people manifested as the sons and daughters of God. It is essential we step into our identity, and one of the clearest ways to do that is to pray for those who are opposed to you. There are realms in God—realms in the manifestation of presence and kingdom power—that are withheld, only willing to release them upon a people manifested as sons and daughters of God. This creates a domino effect that positions us correctly as identified from Heaven. You say, «Well, I was identified when I was born again.» He says, «Do this so that you’ll be identified as a son or daughter of God.» Something happens in the unseen realm that doesn’t happen any other way.
Some of you were here when I did teachings on communion. Benny and I like to take communion every day, which means almost every day. Sometimes we do it together; sometimes individually. I take supplies with me when I travel on the road. Just last week, I was in Indonesia and took communion before the Lord. There are a number of things I do, and I won’t take a long time to mention this. When I hold the bread, I make a confession: «By His stripes, I was healed.» I pray for those who need a miracle because the payment is in my hand. It’s the torn flesh of Jesus that was torn in the beating He suffered. «By the stripes of Jesus, I was healed,» is what the scripture says.
Benny, actually, a friend of hers was dying and had seven different diseases. She was in the hospital, and she wrote Benny. Benny wrote her back a text or email saying, «Take communion every day,» and gave her some instruction. Within, I don’t know how long, I think it was within a month, all seven diseases were gone! She was completely healed! There’s something about coming before the Lord with what He paid for you and for me. So by His stripes, I was healed! When I take the cup, I pray over every family member. I pray for my son Eric and his wife Candace, for Kennedy and Salah. I pray for Brian and Jen and Haley and Taya, Braden, Moses. I pray for Gabe and Leah, my daughter and son-in-law, and I pray for their four kids: Judah, Diego, Bella, and Cruz. I pray over them each by name, that God would help them to know His ways, that they would hear His voice, each one! God has no grandchildren; each one needs to be summoned by the Father to Himself.
I pray this prayer out of Jeremiah 24 that I actually started praying for my children before I even found it in the Bible. When I found it, I thought, «It’s legal! It’s a legal prayer!» I got so happy, and I’ve been praying for them since they were very little children: «God, give them a heart to know You!» So I pray that over every family member. I pray that God helps them to hear and know His voice, to be summoned to Him. When I’m through praying for my family—which I just enjoy so much—what I do is I make a confession: «By His stripes, we are healed.» When I hold the blood before the Lord, I make the confession: «As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord!» I declare every family member will serve You with purity, with power; we will do so with passion and great zeal; we will withhold nothing from You!
It’s the great privilege of prayer. But as soon as I’m through praying for my family, I pray for three people that are international and two that are not who have taken a position to oppose me as an individual—to write against me, to hold conferences against me, and to do videos and write books that sort of thing. I bring their names to the Lord. You see, what they’re doing takes great zeal and great courage. Do I think they’re accurate? No, of course not! But they are offering something to the Lord out of an offering of great courage and risk; they suffer for their decision. I don’t support the decision, but I support them. So what I do is I bring their names before the Lord and I ask Him, «Please cause them to prosper—spirit, soul, and body. Cause them and this is my big prayer: cause them, all of their children and all of their grandchildren to serve You with great zeal and joy! I want them to know the pleasure of having children that serve God and grandchildren. I don’t want any of them to fall away. I don’t want any of them to become complacent or cold-hearted.»
And so I bring them before the Lord. See, this is what Jesus said. He said, «When you pray for those who spitefully use you, when you pray for on behalf of those, who persecute you, you manifest as a son.» What else is there? Okay, I’m going to be a son today. I was before I prayed, but something becomes pronounced and manifest when I begin to pray with earnestness from my heart: «God, cause these people to prosper; bless them.» I don’t pray that God would change their minds; I don’t pray, «Oh God, expose the error of their way.» I don’t pray any of those things. You never criticize a servant to its master. Proverbs warns against criticizing a servant to its master— that is forbidden territory.
They are not my servant! We had situations go on here at Bethel many, many years ago, and people would come to me. They’d say, «Well, what do you think about this?» and I would tell them, «No one can force me to have an opinion. I am unwilling to take mental energy and put it into a situation for which I have no responsibility.» You do not criticize a servant to their master. Jesus reveals in this passage one of the greatest things we need right now. How many believers are there in the world? It’s an extraordinary number—hundreds of millions. I wonder what would happen to their posture before kings if they simply gave themselves to pray for those who oppose them.
Let’s go to the book of James. You’re all right? Yep, me too! A little messed up, but I was messed up when I got up here! So Chris didn’t help at all with that one! We got a little wreck down there in the front row, second row, third row. How many of you in the back row got a little messed up too? Yeah, that’s right! Turn in your Bibles to the book of James, and we’re going to look at just one phrase out of one verse. The whole verse and the whole chapter is obviously worth studying, but I want to take a phrase because I don’t want to be distracted by the rest, so hopefully that’ll make sense to you.
We’re going to take verse two: «You lust and do not have; you murder and covet and cannot obtain; you fight and war.» And here it is: «You do not have because you do not ask.» Say this with me: «You do not have because you do not ask.» Say it again! «You do not have because you do not ask!» Prayerlessness creates lack. Prayerlessness fuels lack. Prayerlessness is what lack wants to consume. When we face a need without prayer, it actually fuels lack, instead of causing it to be solved and disappear. «You have not because you ask not.» So prayerlessness actually sustains need and lack. Many people walk around waiting for God to do something, and what I’ve been finding out—and I’m a slow, and I do mean slow learner—most of the time, God is waiting for me to do something.
I mean, how many of you understand we’re not talking about saying, «Thank God for the meal. God, thank You for the meal and provide for us today, amen»? I’m not saying that prayer doesn’t work, but if you have a big need, you might want to dig in a bit. Let the weightiness of what you’re facing determine the weightiness of how you pray! Casual prayers get casual answers. If you’re willing to live off of token answers, then offer up token prayers. But if you want Heaven to move, let your heart be moved! He’ll move as far as you move. I’m not saying that He can’t surpass anything we do, but in His efforts to raise us as sons and daughters of God that can carry responsibility into the earth, most of the time He looks for earnest response in us to bring forth an earnest response from Him.
I hope that doesn’t sound like a works thing, because I don’t see it that way at all. It’s just—when you’re on the altar, you can pray earnestly. When you’re off the altar considering the concept of the altar, you pray timidly. I heard recently that when you’re on the altar, you can pray earnestly. It’s when you’re off the altar, considering the concept of sacrifice, that you pray token prayers. Amen, Bill! That’s a really good point! Why don’t you… it’s too late! Luke chapter 18! I’m just teasing. Luke chapter 18! Sorry, I have a gift of torment; it’s just what I do. I torment people. My love language is teasing! If I didn’t tease you, you could walk out here wondering if I loved you, but there should be no question now.
Read this with me—start with verse one. «He spoke a parable to them that men ought always to pray and not lose heart.» We’re talking about prayer that’s not just a petition but persistent in its petition. «He said there was in a certain city a judge who did not fear God nor regard man. Now there was a widow in that city, and she came to him saying, 'Get justice for me from my adversary.'» He would not for a while, but afterwards said within himself, «Though I do not fear God nor regard man, yet because this widow troubles me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she wear me out.» The Lord said, «Hear what the unjust judge said, and shall God not avenge His own elect who cry out to Him day and night, though He bears long with them? I tell you that He will avenge them speedily.» Nevertheless, when the Son of Man returns, will He really find faith on the earth?
This is interesting because we have on one hand the picture of a widow who just keeps banging on the door of the judge. Jesus uses this illustration for repeated day-and-night prayer. God says, «I’m going to answer speedily.» He obviously thinks of speedily differently than I do! He says «I’m going to answer speedily,» and I’m thinking, «Man, I’ve been banging on this door for 15 days! When is this thing going to open?» He says, «I’m going to answer speedily,» and He does! There’s a tipping point in prayer where the answer is released! The answer always comes quickly, but to get to that place where things shift sometimes takes persistence. Prayerlessness allows the absence of breakthrough to become the norm, and generally, we come to the conclusion, «Well, I prayed and God sovereignly did not answer,» so we label the absence of an answer as the sovereignty of God. Yet, Jesus says persistence would have gotten the breakthrough.
We’re not just talking about a prayer prayed but a lifestyle anchored in something. I mentioned this—I’ve done this teaching here several years back and mentioned it in our conference this week. Let me give you the two-minute version: Jesus said that we’re not to use vain repetition in prayer. In other words, we’re not to repeat a prayer over and over again because He knows what we have need of before we ask. In the very next chapter, He says, «Ask and continue to ask!» The language there is a verb that says you do this, but you continue doing it until this breakthrough. So in two chapters back to back, one says, «Ask and don’t keep on asking,» the other one says, «Ask and continue asking.»
What’s the difference? Come back next week, and I’ll tell you! No, what’s the difference? When He said don’t repeatedly lift up the prayer for something, He said, «For your Father knows what you have need of before you ask.» This pertains to basic needs. For me to say, «Father, would You provide food for me today?» and to ask Him every five minutes is for me to question that He’s actually a Father. It violates His nature and His covenant with me as a Father who is committed to taking care of my needs. The persistence in prayer has to do with how we pray with our dreams.
I’m supposed to pray for what I have need of. «God, provide for us our food today.» I’m supposed to pray for these things, «God, I need to buy coats for my kids before winter sets in.» Those are basic human needs. You lift them up, and then you celebrate the fact that you serve a righteous and perfect Father. But when it comes to the unfolding of a dream— «God, I’ve got this in my heart to have this business. Oh God, this thing has been in me for so many years"—fast, get before the Lord, cry out for breakthrough, and contend for this breakthrough!
Why? Because persistence in prayer changes you! It transforms you to where you become a person that can properly steward the answer you just prayed for! If He gives us much of what we ask for when we ask for it, it could kill us; I mean, literally! Why does God discipline His children? It’s so that His blessings don’t kill us! We ask for oak trees, but He gives us acorns! Why? Can you steward the answer in its embryonic form? Because in stewarding as it grows, I become a different person! My strength increases; my resolve increases; my sense of priorities changes! Suddenly, I have this willingness to pay any price because I can see something happening before my eyes. I change with persistence and prayer, and this exhortation for persistence in prayer is connected to breakthrough, and where there is not prayer, especially the prayer of persistence, there’s an absence of breakthrough.
All right, we’re almost done! Isn’t that fun? Let’s do two more! We’ll do Luke 11. Let’s back up a few chapters. You guys all right? Everybody’s still okay? I don’t know what I would do, actually. I’ve had times where I’ve said «Are you all right?» and somebody yelled out «No!» I wasn’t sure what to do—so the only thing that works for me is just to ignore them! Now, this one is a little bit more abstract, but if I could teach 20 minutes on this— which I’m not going to do—I’m going to take maybe three or four minutes to get through this quickly.
Luke 11 verse 24: «When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places seeking rest.» Does anybody remember who the Holy Spirit is inside us? He’s in us as a river in John 7. The enemy is looking for dry places. Those who fail to connect with the flow of presence become a dry place—and it’s completely unnecessary. You see—I think it was John Wimber who said, «Why would a Christian want a demon? They make horrible pets!» So I always thought that was a pretty good answer, but I remind you the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 4 warned the church—the most mature church of all the letters received—he warned them, «Don’t give place to the devil.»
Not demon possession; it’s a place of influence! By the way, in the Old Testament, when the enemies of Israel gained influence in the city—Tobiah—he ended up moving into the temple where they kept the money. If you want to know where the enemy wants to live in your temple, he wants to live where the generosity lifestyle is. I’m not just talking about offerings and money; I’m talking about the way you look at people, the way you look at human need, the way you look at the power of your words to invest in someone. It’s that seat of generosity that reveals we are like the Father—for God so loved the world that He gave! And the enemy actually moved in, took out all the possessions that were to belong in the temple, and set up residence there.
It’s crazy! All right, back to verse 24. I said I was going to teach on this for three or four minutes—make that five or six! When the unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places seeking rest. Finding none, he says, «I will return to my house from which I came.» When he comes, he finds it swept and put in order. He goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there. The last state of that man is worse than the first.
This is a very fascinating story. It does refer to a human being, but it also illustrates how the Lord would speak of the house of David. David was a man, but He wasn’t talking about his physical house—He was talking about the family line, the house of Israel, an entire nation. There are times in Scripture where the house of a man refers to something much broader than just a human being possessing his body. Prayerlessness creates vacancy in the heart of the person. This house was clean and swept, and when the owner of the house didn’t put furniture in the place where the enemy occupied, it was left vacant.
I could take you through church history and show you where denominations and groups of people that were once powerhouses of the gospel slacked off and ended up with vacant places that the enemy, they once opposed, came back and occupied seven times worse. Groups known for holiness became the seedbed of vast expressions of immorality and ungodliness. The very places they occupied! And I don’t say that as a criticism or a way to put people down—I’m just saying, «Listen, this is how the enemy works,» and prayerlessness is vacancy because there’s furniture that’s supposed to belong there in the house of my heart.
Prayer is one of the couches; if I remove the couch, there’s a vacant spot. Wherever there’s a vacant spot, the enemy wants to fill it. All right, one more! One more! Why don’t you go to 1 Samuel chapter 12? Let’s get a little Old Testament action in this. We could probably get about a hundred things on this list, but I had three or four written down, and I wanted to add a couple today for our little talk. 1 Samuel 12. This is kind of a sobering moment with Samuel and Saul. He gives him a warning. Verse 21: «Do not turn aside; then you would go after empty things which cannot profit or deliver—they are nothing. The Lord will not forsake His people for His great name’s sake, because it has pleased the Lord to make you His people.»
Verse 23: «Moreover, as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you.» Now, I don’t know—I’ve read this verse for, you know, a long time and it’s been one of those that have stood out to me concerning the responsibility we have for one another, the responsibility we have for leaders, etc. But something hit me today when I was looking at this passage: «Far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by ceasing to pray.»
I don’t understand it—I’m just marked by it! That’s all! I can’t teach on it well, but I’m impacted by the fact that he says it’s almost like here’s a sinful act against the Lord, but there wasn’t a sinful act; there was the stopping of a righteous act. It’s as if he’s saying, «You know when you do this witchcraft, this junk, that junk, you’re sinning against the Lord. But for the prophet who knows what it is to bear responsibility before God, he said it would be a sin against God for him not to pray!» I’m just here to encourage you, that’s all! Prayerfulness is a gift that we can carry throughout the day.
I love blocks of time with refined focus; don’t misunderstand me! It’s been a huge part of my life! My goodness, when I was a young man and single— morning and night with extended periods of prayer! As a pastor in Weaverville, I remember just walking the city, walking in the woods, walking through the church. I walk when I pray—because I don’t get sleepy when I walk! I’m able to be a little more militant and aggressive! It’s just better for me! I can kneel and pray, but I can also snore!
So sleep is kind of like the Kingdom of God; it’s at hand! It’s always right there—a beautiful thing. It’s always ever-present! I practice falling asleep in the presence—I really do! How many of you have prayed? You determined to pray and you fell asleep? Yeah! How many of you felt bad after you fell asleep? «God! Man, I just can’t seem to stay awake!» I get that! I’ve done that a lot! But you know when my kids would fall asleep in my arms, I never once got mad at them! I actually held them hoping they would!
There is a spot for earnestness in prayer—position yourself physically to remain earnest! If you’re sleepy, get up and walk! I mean, just let’s be practical: get up and walk. If you’re not kneeling before the Lord, do whatever! But when you go to bed at night, remember you’re praying without ceasing! I don’t know if I still do this because I’m sleeping, but I used to! Brian actually captured the lyrics of Solomon in one of his songs years ago: «Although I sleep, yet my heart is awake.» That’s significant!
Now we’ll wrap it up with this, but I want you to catch this thought: God appeared to Solomon in a dream. Solomon made a life-altering decision in his sleep. God trusted him in his resolve to the will of God so completely that He allowed Solomon to answer Him in his sleep. Solomon was the one who penned these words: «Though I sleep, my heart is awake.» I used to wake myself up praying. I didn’t wake up to pray; I’d be praying while I was sleeping!
I took a trip with Chris years ago; Chris came with me to Colorado to do this white wine thing, and I would just pray throughout the night— not knowing it. I was sleeping, but my heart was exploding with cries to God! What you want to do is you’ll have a better day if you have a better night! You’ll have a better night if you engage with Him—not over difficult matters! Take care of that while you’re wide awake! I made the mistake last night of stirring up difficult matters and lost a bunch of sleep as a result!
It doesn’t happen much, but it happened last night. I just broke one of those rules that I know better: don’t bring up the difficult things in the middle of the night! You know it’ll probably still be there tomorrow! So engage with Him tomorrow! But the point is we have this lifestyle of continuous fellowship with Him—ongoing prayer! Pray without ceasing! That is the luxury of this relationship!
I live before Him in heavenly places before a perfect Father who hears me! I don’t think you have to have long prayers to get big answers, but I do think you have to have earnest prayers to get big answers! If you study the book of Nehemiah, you’ll find a series of prayers that he prayed that were only one sentence long. The prayers of Nehemiah—just look at the prayers! Nehemiah prayed one sentence long! But when you’re dug into an issue and this request is not just a passive thing to ease your conscience that you’ve now prayed, but you’ve actually dug in regarding a matter and lift up that prayer, there are times where one sentence brings the breakthrough!
So we don’t earn breakthroughs in the sense of: «I’ve got to pray for this one thing for five hours, then I know there’ll be a breakthrough.» I had a friend who was contending with the Lord over something. He said, «I’m just going to spend the entire night before the Lord praying for this matter.» As soon as he knelt down, the Lord answered it, and just kind of ruined his whole night! He was so shocked! But you know, that’s what you do: you dig in! And if He brings it quick, then you say, «Thank You! Thank You so much! I would have just— I’d rather have slept! This is great news; I will now sleep!»
But here’s this issue of failing; this is Scripture, so I want to be careful that I don’t trigger the wrong message in you, but if I’ve been given an assignment to pray and I don’t, it’s as though I did something against God. The absence, the withdrawing from an assignment is an aggressive posture against… So why don’t you stand? Let’s pray. At least in Weaverville, we used to have prayer meetings a lot. We had them for years—five days a week or five every morning. Then every Friday night, we started with this perimeter, started at 11 at night because I wanted people to have time with their families. I didn’t want them to miss sleep, not family time! Just this hardcore, in-your-face kind of prayer stuff.
There were times there were a number of folks there, and for a number of years, there were times where nobody showed up. I remember Chris one time, he led the prayer meeting for me. I was out of town, and nobody showed up for that particular week. He took the microphone, and he was just praying loudly—all of these prayers—he’s the only one in the room, but he’s going for it as though there was a crowd of thousands! I love that! And I love the corporate prayer gathering! I hope—I’m hoping our schedules are so challenging; our use of facilities is so challenging. I’m hoping at some point we can have a facility just for corporate prayer gatherings.
If you saw, we have a hundred events a year here; there’s constant demand on every room in the building. It’s just one of the greatest challenges, and what frustrates me is one of the greatest cries in my heart is the corporate prayer meeting. I love agreement in prayer! I guess what I’d like to see all of us take home is just this increased mantle for prayer! There’s actually one particular part of this story I forgot to mention quickly because it’s bizarre! This is Old Testament as well. I knew there was one to do with the presence.
It’s a strange thing; this one phrase is mentioned maybe seven or eight times in one chapter, and it was this whole deal. They had built the temple of Solomon, and the Lord was instructing people, «Listen, when you get into a battle, when you get into a conflict, when you get in this situation, pray toward this house!» We don’t pray towards buildings. The Lord Himself would say there isn’t a building you can make that I could inhabit— you know, completely! And yet, He created this system of thought where people would actually face Jerusalem and pray towards Jerusalem! Why? Not as a religious ritual, not because it’s a certain direction or geographical direction, but because God was there!
The point is, prayerlessness accentuates the absence of the awareness of the presence of God. Prayerfulness heightens the awareness of presence. It’s not just praying for the big things; it’s that continuous fellowship that keeps me connected to His ever-present presence. So that when an urgent thing comes up, we’re where instant in season and out of season. I remember back in the 70s, this guy was telling us his upstairs bathroom—it took forever to get hot water, because the hot water was at the other end of the house. He’d just have to wait for hot water to come through.
He found out that if he turned it on just a little tiny bit at night before he went to bed, it would keep hot water ready so that when he got up the next morning, he would turn it on, and instantly, he had hot water. That’s what praying in tongues throughout your day does! That’s what ongoing prayer does—keeps you connected to ever-present hot water! I’m ready to act now!
All right, let’s grab a hand; we’re going to pray. We’re going to pray for the prayerfulness of Christ to be restored to us as people. The prayerfulness of Christ to be restored to us as people! Tell them what you want! Ask Him to do it for you! I’m going to pray over you in a moment, but you pray right now for yourself! Pray for the ones on your right and left! Pray prayerfulness! The prayerfulness of Jesus—the prayerfulness of Christ—the ongoing awareness of presence! The ongoing awareness of the person of the Holy Spirit! Expand us, God, in this next season—that there will be dramatic increase and expansion in our awareness of Your presence!
Declare over the one on your right and left: «The prayerfulness of Christ is upon you!» Declare the prayerfulness of Christ is upon you! We declare the prayerfulness of Christ is upon you! The prayerfulness of Christ is upon you! The prayerfulness of Christ is upon you! Now, just hold your hands before the Lord! I’m going to pray for you. Father, I do ask that You would release as a gift over every person. You know what folks, I’ve never prayed for this in my life—the prayerfulness of Christ! There’s something in that phrase that’s supposed to take us into this next season. Lord, I do pray the prayerfulness of Christ—the unbroken fellowship throughout the day between Jesus, the Father, and the Spirit of God who is upon Him. I ask for the prayerfulness of Christ to rest upon us and that we would embark together on this relational journey in a dimension that is so new, so exciting, so impacting on every part of our lives. I pray this for the honor of the name Jesus! Everybody said Amen! Amen!