Week 39:
Lord Teach Us to Pray
If I could go back in time, I think I would spend more time in the Word of God and getting into the depths of the lives of men like Praying Hyde. I was told of a man whose friend prayed with Praying Hyde. He said, "I was in India for a convention and I asked for the privilege of praying with Praying Hyde. John Hyde said, I will be praying tomorrow morning. As I went in to pray it was nine in the morning. Then someone knocked on the door and I thought, You just get praying and someone interrupts. Then there was another knock at the door. I didn't move, Praying Hyde didn't move. Then someone opened the door and said, Its a quarter to three and you preach at three. I had been on my knees from nine in the morning to three in the afternoon and didn't even know where the time had gone! It was an awesome experience listening to this man pour his heart out in prayer." I'm not saying everyone gets to that level - but I believe the greatest thing we can do is pray. Every time I pray, I don't want God to make me popular, I don't want to have the biggest church in town. - Jesus never had the fastest growing church, in fact His church went down and down until one day there were only eleven and He said, "Will you go away also?" - I don't think we should pray for God to take people out, I'm saying this, you ought to get near to the heart of God.
I trust that God will give you that privilege of travail that very few people have had. Paul had it. I don't think a day goes by that I don't think of Paul travailing in birth. Look at his theological background. Look at the epistle to the Romans, look at his epistle to the Ephesians and yet with all that he is still craving that he may get near to the heart of God. "I could wish myself accursed... my own death." I don't think you have to die a martyr's death to be a martyr. You can be a living sacrifice, you can die to advantages, you can die to temptations, you can die to privileges, you can die to all those things that don't add to spiritual life, that don't add to spiritual vision, that don't add to spiritual understanding. When God works in me, He is so altogether different from the theological concept I once had... Don't live in the immediate. Remember, Moses saw Jesus in the distance. I see Jesus coming to rule on the Earth. Not to die, not to be pushed around, but He's coming to rule the Earth. The Word of God says at least some will reign with Him. Who? Who reigns with Him? The overcomers, overcoming temptation, overcoming the world, overcoming our own desires, being completely God controlled.
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