Bill Johnson - Breakthrough Prayer (How to Pray Effectively)
Jesus uses this illustration for repeated day and night prayer, and then God says, «I’m going to answer speedily.» I’m thinking, «Man, I’ve been banging on this door for 15 days; when is this 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, and the answer always comes quickly; however, reaching that place where things shift sometimes takes persistence. Ever since I was a child, I’ve always had a fear of someone 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,» said the shrink. «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. «$80 per visit,» replied the doctor. «I’ll sleep on it,» he 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 $122,000. My neighbor cured me for free.» I was so happy to have saved all that money that I went and bought a new pickup truck. «Is that so?» the psychiatrist responded with a bit of an attitude. «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 cost of prayerlessness. Of course, I would never mean this to be a shameful message or some harsh exhortation but rather an appeal that we could live sober-minded and realize Jesus gives this overall commission and command regarding our relationship with Him, and it’s the invitation to pray at all times, to pray without ceasing.
I personally like to think that the prayer without ceasing is the substance of prayer, and the hour, or whatever you take, is the 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 sobering. So what I want you to do is—I’m going to share six stories with you. I’m not sure if I have time for all of them or if we’ll do them another time, but 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, and this is where His sweat became as drops of blood on His forehead. The anguish during His prayer time was physically having an effect on Him, where sweat became blood. I don’t think it was a watered-down type of thing; I think there 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 that Jesus gave him.
If you look at this with me, let’s go right to verse 43. We’re going to jump in the middle of the story because of how much we have to read tonight, 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 in that Jesus announced to him that he was about to deny Him, yet He gave him access to a strength where Jesus would have been wrong; He invited him into a time of prayer where had Peter pursued that, he never would have entered into temptation.
Temptation is interesting because God never puts us in a position to be tempted. The real issue with temptation is that it is the individual’s heart that translates a circumstance and makes it a temptation. An illustration that I give fairly often is: let’s just 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 great victory, while I’m living in great fear. I’m having a hard time, afraid I won’t be able to pay my bills; I’ve got this anxiety and fear thing going on. So we sit down at the restaurant, and right next to the salt and pepper shaker is a $100 bill folded up, but 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, and when he goes, I spot the $100 bill. It crosses my mind that I could take that because she doesn’t even know it’s there. Then I resist the temptation, thinking, «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 notices the $100 bill; he calls out the waitress by name, «Hey Andy, look! Someone 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, almost like doors on a stage, and what prayerfulness does is it gives you discernment about the nature of the door. You don’t even fall into the situation; you don’t even come to where you would be exposed to your weak place in life, 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 you may successfully resist it, but the point is you want to go through life avoiding things for which you have no grace. It doesn’t mean you can’t muster up the strength to say no to temptation; of course, you can. We all have a will and can choose, but what’s tragic is that some people, due to prayerlessness, live in a battle with circumstances they never should have had to face. It depletes them; it robs them of strength, creativity, and the natural, healthy, authentic expression of who we are because we’re constantly fighting battles we were never designed to fight. So He said, «Pray that you wouldn’t even go through the doorway of what would be appealing to you at some weak place in your life.»
I remember years ago Paul Manwaring was a highly decorated prison warden in the UK. I recall what he would do when he was working with the prisoners: he would remind himself that he had the same potential to be where they were as they had to be in his position. 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 actually more real than what is visible. We’re not talking about a land of make-believe or the power of suggestion; it’s about drawing upon a strength that is superior to everything else we could possibly muster. Prayerfulness unclutters our eyes to see what is real. Amen?
Turn in your Bibles to the Book of Matthew, chapter 5. This is really stunning to me. Matthew chapter 5. You all still alive? That’s good. I hate when people die in the meeting; it’s just so depressing. Matthew chapter 5 has an interesting verse in verse 43. «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.» Why? «That you may be sons of your Father in Heaven.» Let’s take that last phrase: «Pray for those who persecute you.» Pray for those who spitefully use you; pray for them, not against them. Pray for them so that you may be a son or daughter of God. 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 over us is that when you pray, when you exercise your right to come before the Almighty God, and you actually use it to pray on behalf of someone who has opposed you—when you pray for, not against someone—it becomes clear to you and to the entire spirit realm that you are a child of God. It becomes manifested. Why? Because you’re using your authority to come before a perfect Father and you’re using it to actually pray positively for someone who has opposed you. Your identity in Christ becomes manifest.
This is interesting because we won’t have time for it tonight, but this will trigger something in some of you. 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 does this say? When you pray for those who have opposed you, when you pray for those whom others would consider to be your enemies, and you pray for their blessing, you pray for their welfare as the perfect Father would pray, then your identity becomes established, firm, and revealed. There are certain things that are being withheld regarding the purposes of God in the earth, and they are being withheld because they will only be released to a people who have become manifested as the sons and daughters of God. It is essential that we step into our identity, and one of the clearest ways to do so is to pray for those who oppose us.
There are realms in God, realms in the manifestation of His presence, and realms of His power that He has withheld, only willing to release them upon a people who are manifested as the sons and daughters of God. What does this do? It causes a domino effect; it positions us correctly as identified from Heaven. You say, «Well, I was identified when I was born again.» He said, «Do this so you’ll be identified as a son, as a daughter of God.» Something happens in the unseen realm that doesn’t happen any other way. Some of you were here when I taught on communion; Benny and I like to take communion every day, which means it’s most every day. Sometimes we do it together, and sometimes we do it individually. I take supplies with me when I travel on the road. I was just in Indonesia last week and took communion before the Lord. There are a number of things that I do, and I won’t take a long time to mention this, but when I hold the bread, I make the confession, «By His stripes I was healed.» I pray for those who need miracles because the payment is in my hand; it’s the torn flesh of Jesus that was torn in the beating that He suffered. «By the stripes of Jesus, I was healed» is what the Scripture says.
Benny had a friend who was dying and had seven different diseases. She was in the hospital, and Benny wrote her back a text and said, «Take communion every day,» and gave her some instructions. 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 SAA. I pray for Brian and Jen, and for Haley and Ta, Braden, and Moses. I pray for Gabe and Leah, my daughter and son-in-law, and I pray for their four kids, Juda, Diego, Bell, and Cruz. I pray over them each by name, and I pray that prayer out of Jeremiah 24, which I started praying for my children before I found it was in the Bible. When I found it was in the Bible, I thought, «This is 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.» It’s in Jeremiah 24, so I pray that over every family member. I pray that God would help them to know His ways, that they would hear His voice. Each one needs to be summoned by the Father to Himself, so I pray into that: «God, let them hear and know Your voice to be summoned to You.»
When I’m through praying for my family—something I enjoy so much—just in fact what I do is make the 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.» Every single family member will serve Him with purity, with power, and with passion, with great zeal; we will withhold nothing from You. It’s the great privilege of prayer. As soon as I’m done praying for my family, I pray for three international people and two who are not international. They have taken a position against me as an individual, writing against me, holding conferences against me, and doing videos and writing books. 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 I don’t, but they’re offering something to the Lord, an offering of great courage and great risk; they suffer for their decision. I don’t support the decision, but I support them. So what I do is bring their names before the Lord and ask Him, «Lord, please cause them to prosper, spirit, soul, and body, and cause all of their children and grandchildren to serve You with great zeal and great 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 or become complacent or cold-hearted. I bring them before the Lord. See, this is what Jesus said: when you pray for those who spitefully use you, when you pray on behalf of and in support of those who persecute you, you are a son. What else is there? 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 of 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 ways.» I don’t pray any of those things. You never criticize a servant before his Master. Proverbs warns against criticizing a servant to its master; that is forbidden territory. They are not my servants. We had situations going on here at Bethel many years ago, and people would come to me and say, «What do you think about this?» 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, and so Jesus reveals in this passage one of the greatest things that 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 all right? Yep, me too, a little messed up, but I was messed up when I got up here, so Chris O didn’t help at all with that one. We’ve 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 reason the whole verse, the whole chapter, obviously, is always worth studying, but I want to take a phrase because I don’t want to be distracted by the rest, so hopefully that will make sense to you. We’re going to take James 4:2: «You lust and do not have; you murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war.» 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 with me again: «You do not have because you do not ask.» Prayerlessness creates lack; prayerlessness fuels lack. Prayerlessness is what—prayerlessness is what lack wants to consume. When we face a need and there’s prayerlessness, 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 do mean slow learner) is that most of the time He’s waiting for me to do something. I mean, how many understand that we’re not talking about, «Oh God, thank you for the meal, and provide for us today. Amen.» I’m not saying that prayer doesn’t work, but if you’ve got 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 token answers, 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 at all that He can’t surpass anything that we do. He is God; He can do whatever He wants. But in His effort to raise us as sons and daughters of God who 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-related thing because I don’t see it that way at all.
You know what? 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, «When you’re on the altar, you can pray earnestly. When you’re off the altar, considering the concept of sacrifice, that’s where we pray token prayers.» Amen! Bill, that was 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. That’s just what I do. I torment people. My love language is teasing; you know, if I didn’t tease you, you could walk out of here wondering if I loved you, but there should be no question now. Read, Chris! Read this this morning in, I don’t know, one of our services; we only had 800 services. No, no, not that. He read this this morning. Start with me at verse 1; it’s a longer piece. He spoke a parable to them saying, «Men ought to pray and not lose heart.»
So we’re talking about prayer that is not just a petition but is persistent in its petition. He said, «There was in a certain city a judge who did not fear God nor regard man. 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 afterward 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 that just keeps banging on the door of the judge. Jesus uses this illustration for repeated day and night prayer, and then 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, and the answer always comes quickly, but reaching that place where things shift sometimes takes persistence.
Prayerlessness actually 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 the absence of an answer falls under the category that we call «the sovereignty of God.» Yet Jesus is saying persistence would have gotten the breakthrough. So we’re talking now not just about a prayer prayed but about a lifestyle of anchoring into something.
Now, I mentioned that I’ve done this teaching here several years back, and I 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, you’re not to repeat a prayer over and over again because He knows what you have need of before you 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 there is breakthrough. In two chapters back-to-back, one says, «Ask and don’t keep on asking,» while the other 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 before me 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 keep asking 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 committed to taking care of my needs.
The persistence in prayer has to do with how we pray with our dreams. I need to pray for what I have need of: «God, provide for our food today.» I need to pray for those things: «God, I need to buy coats for my kids before winter sets in.» I’m supposed to pray for those things, but those are basic human needs. You lift them up and then celebrate that you serve a righteous and perfect Father. But when it comes to the unfolding of a dream—"God, I’ve had this in my heart to have this business, oh God! This thing has been in me for so many years"—you fast, you get before the Lord, you cry out for breakthrough and contend for that breakthrough. Why? Because persistence in prayer changes you, and it changes 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, it would kill us. Why does God discipline His children? It is so that His blessings don’t kill us. We ask for oak trees, and He gives us acorns. Why can you steward the answer in its embryonic form? Because in stewarding it as it grows, I become a different person. My strength increases. My resolve increases. My sense of priorities change. All of a sudden, I’m willing to pay any price because I can see something happening before my eyes.
I change with persistence in prayer. So this exhortation for persistence in prayer is connected to breakthrough, and where there is no prayer, especially the prayer of persistence, there’s the absence of breakthrough. All right, we’re almost done. Isn’t that fun? Let’s do two more. Let’s go to Luke 11; let’s back up a few chapters. You guys all right? Is everybody still okay? I don’t know what I would do. Actually, I’ve had times where I said, «Are you all right?» and somebody yelled out, «No!» I wasn’t sure what to do. The only thing that works for me is just to ignore them. Now, this one is a little 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, five minutes. If I could teach 20 minutes on this, it would make a lot more sense. I’m just going to trust that you can work with it; if you can’t, stick it on the shelf and see what happens in the future.
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 of us? He is in us as a river. In John chapter 7, the enemy is looking for dry places. Those who fail to connect with the flow of presence become a dry place, and that’s completely unnecessary.
You say, «A Christian?» 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 that 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.» It’s 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 of Tyre, I think it was Tyre, they 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, and 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 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.
The enemy actually moved in, took out all the possessions that were to belong in the temple, and set up residence in this temple. 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, and the last state of that man is worse than the first. This is a very fascinating story; it refers to a human being but also—how many remember when the Lord would speak of the «House of David»? David was a man, but He wasn’t talking about his physical house, right? The House of David refers to his family line; the house of Israel refers to an entire nation.
At times, Scripture talks about the house of a man, and the implications are far-reaching, much more than just a human being possessing his own physical body. Prayerlessness creates vacancy in the heart of a person. This house was clean and swept, and when the owner of the house didn’t put furniture in the house 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, whom they once opposed, came back seven times worse. Groups known for holiness became the seedbed of vast expressions of immorality and ungodliness. The very places occupied—I don’t say that as a criticism, but I’m just saying this is how the enemy works, and prayerlessness is a vacancy because there’s furniture that is supposed to belong in the house of my heart. Prayer is one of the couches. If I remove the couch, there’s a vacant spot, and wherever there’s a vacant spot, the enemy wants to fill.
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 can probably get about a hundred things on this list, but I had three or four of them written down, and I wanted to add a couple today for our little talk.
1 Samuel chapter 12 is kind of a sobering moment with Samuel and Saul. He gives him a warning: «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 a long time, and it’s been one of those that has just 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 know; I don’t understand it; I’m just marked by it. All I can say is I can’t teach on it well, but I’m impacted by the fact that he says it’s almost like this is a sinful act against the Lord, but there wasn’t a sinful act; there was the stopping of a righteous act. It almost looks like he’s saying, «You know, when you do this witchcraft, you do 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 was single— I mean both ends of the day with extended periods of time 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, and I’m able to get a little more militant and aggressive; it’s just better for me. I can kneel and pray, but I can also snore. Sleep is kind of like the kingdom of God; it’s at hand; it’s always right there. It’s a beautiful thing; it’s always ever-present, and I practice falling asleep in the presence.
How many of you have prayed, determined to pray, and then fell asleep? How many of you felt bad after you fell asleep, thinking, «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 held them, hoping they would. There is a spot for the earnestness in prayer. Position yourself physically to remain earnest. And if you’re sleepy, get up and walk—let’s be practical! Get up and walk. If you can’t kneel, do whatever. But when you go to bed at night, remember, you’re praying without ceasing. I used to— 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: «Though I sleep, yet my heart is awake.»
That’s significant. 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 body is shut down, resting; my heart is awake.» I used to wake myself up praying. I didn’t wake up to pray; I was praying while I was sleeping. I took a trip with Chris years ago; Chris came with me to Colorado to do this WW 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 have a better day if you have a better night, and 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 broke one of those rules that I know better on: you don’t bring up the difficult things in the middle of the night; they’ll probably still be there tomorrow. Engage with them tomorrow, but the point is we have this continuous fellowship with Him, ongoing prayer—pray without ceasing. That is the luxury of this relationship, that 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 he prayed that were only one sentence long. Just look at the prayers of Nehemiah; one sentence long. But when you’re dug into an issue, and this request is not just a passive thing to your conscience that you have now prayed, but you’ve actually dug in regarding a matter and you lift up that prayer, there are times where one sentence brings the breakthrough.
So we don’t earn breakthroughs, in a 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 just 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 ruined his whole night, and 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 so much! I would have just rather slept!»
So 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.
All we used to do at Weaverville— we had prayer meetings a lot. We had them for years, five days a week, and then every Friday night we started— I wanted to give people time with their families, so I just wanted them to miss sleep, not family time—just this hardcore, in-your-face kind of prayer. There were times where there were a number of folks there, and for many years, there were times where nobody showed up. I remember Chris once led the prayer meeting for me. I was out of town, and nobody showed up for that particular week, so he took the microphone; he was just praying loudly—all these—he’s the only one in the room, but he’s going for it, you know, as though there is a crowd of thousands. I love that! I love corporate prayer!
I hope our schedules are so challenging; our use of facilities is so challenging. I hope at some point we can have a facility that’s just for corporate prayer gatherings. If you saw, we have a hundred events a year here, a constant demand on every room in the building. That’s 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 was actually one particular story I wanted to mention that I forgot. It’s a strange thing; it’s one phrase mentioned maybe seven or eight times in one chapter. It’s this whole deal they had, the Temple of Solomon. The Lord instructed people that when you get into a battle, when you get into conflict—when you get in this situation or that—pray toward this house. We don’t pray towards buildings, and the Lord Himself would say there isn’t a building you can make that I could inhabit.
He created this system of thought where people would face Jerusalem and pray toward Jerusalem. Why? Not as a religious ritual, and not because it’s a certain geographical direction; it’s where God was. The point is, prayerlessness accentuates the absence of the awareness of the presence of God. Prayerfulness heightens our awareness of His presence. It’s not just praying for the big things; it’s that continuous fellowship that keeps me connected to His presence. Ongoing presence so that when an urgent thing comes up, we’re there.
We’re instant in season and out. I remember back in the 70s, this guy was telling us his upstairs bathroom took forever to get hot water because the hot water was at the other end of the house. All this water would go through just trying to wait for hot water. He said, «I found out that if I turned it on just a little bit at night before I went to bed, it would keep hot water ready for me. So that when I got up the next morning, I would turn it on, and instantly I had hot water.»
That’s what praying in tongues throughout your day does. Yes, that’s what praying in tongues does! That’s what ongoing prayer throughout your day does; it keeps you connected to ever-present hot water. «I’m ready to act now!» All right, 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! Pray for the prayerfulness of Jesus!
The prayerfulness of Christ; the ongoing awareness of your presence; the ongoing awareness of the person of the Holy Spirit! Expand us, God, in this next season that there would be a dramatic increase and expansion of our awareness of Your presence, of Your heartbeat! Declare over the one on your right and left: «Prayerfulness!» Just declare the prayerfulness of Christ is upon you! Declare it with authority: «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, and we’ll end. 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! Amen!»