The Key to Power

 

November 8, 2020                     NOTES NOT EDITED

The Key to Power
Luke 18:1-8

SIS—Changing hearts, minds, and circumstances require a power that can only come from persistent praying.

There are numerous examples of men who were great prayer warriors throughout history, but on that list is a name that stands out as if in bold print. That name is George Mueller.  Mueller, born in 1805, grew up in Prussia, today’s Germany. By age sixteen he was a liar, a thief, a swindler, a drunkard, and in jail. (from Wikepedia). Yet, God worked a miracle in his soul. Mueller became a humble, life-long, (and long life it was, dying at the age of 93), servant of God and the poor.  The following story from Mueller’s journal is an example of how Mueller moved mountains with no shovel but persistent prayer.

The orphan children all had their dinners and were ready for bed. They always felt loved and cared for in the Bristol orphanage; little did they know that the orphanage had no money and there was no food for breakfast the next day. Though he did not know how, George Mueller was confident the Lord would provide for the orphans--after all, wasn't God a "Father to the fatherless" (Psalm 68:5)? Mr. Mueller went to bed, committing the care of the orphans to God. The next morning he went for a walk, praying for God to supply the orphanage's needs. In his walk he met a friend who asked him to accept some money for the orphanage. . . Mr. Mueller thanked him, but did not tell the friend about the pressing need. Instead, he praised God for the answer to prayer and went to the orphanage for breakfast. (Christianity.com). This would be Mueller’s modus operandi for nearly 7 decades of ministry and work with orphans.  Never in all those years of pulpit and charity work would George Mueller ever make a public appeal for money.  In fact, for the nearly seven decades of ministry George Mueller would never accept a salary but simply trust God to provide daily for his needs.

Persistent prayer makes stuff happen, and George Mueller is but one of a myriad of examples throughout history.  Perhaps the greatest quote I’ve ever read on prayer is one that has “Unknown” listed as the source:  “Prayer moves the Hand of the One that moves the universe.” How prayer moves God’s Hand is a great mystery; the fact it does move God’s Hand is the very essence of prayer.

John Wesley, the Father of the First Great Awakening, said, “God does nothing but by prayer, and everything with it.”

 Oswald Chambers, a beloved preacher and author of the perennial best-selling devotional, My Utmost for His Highest, said, “Prayer does not fit us for the greater work; prayer is the greater work.”

Indeed, there is no greater work to be done, than the work of prayer, and no great work ever accomplished, but that which is birthed and nourished with prevailing prayer. I sadly confess that my desire to be effective in prayer far outweighs my commitment to prayer.  I often grow weary and more than I want to admit, I’ve been discouraged with what perceive as an ineffectiveness in my prayer life.

I want more than anything to change this fact in my life.  I want to learn what it means to “come boldly before the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need (Heb. 4:16). Throughout the Bible, we are given many examples on how to “pray until something happens.”  One of those examples will serve as our guide this morning.  She is referred to as the “Persistent Widow.”  Our Bible reading earlier spoke of this Widow (LUKE 18:1-8).

In order to learn how to “pray until something happens,” you must understand several truths about prevailing prayer.  First,

1. Persistent prayer requires a measure of DESPERATION (2-4)

Verses 2-4 give the brief outline of a person in desperate circumstances.  First of all, she is a woman.  Women had very little standing in first century society.  They were slightly more than the property of a father or husband.  There is some debate as to the extent women were denied equal rights in both Roman and Jewish societies in the first century, but the inequality was quite evident.  Second, this woman was not just “a woman,” which was desperate enough, but she was a “widow.”  She was without the covering, protection, and financial support of a man in a society already slanted against women.  Third, she had a legal matter and the judge she had to bring her case to was ungodly, unjust, unkind, and from verse 4 and 5, he was unprincipled, acting out of his best interests not that of others. 

In a word, she was “desperate.”  She was, “frantic, anxious, despairing, worried, and distracted,” all synonyms for “desperate.”  her circumstances were not good.  There is an extreme danger that desperate circumstances often lead to paralyzing discouragement.  In fact “desperation, discouragement, and despair” are, as I pointed out, synonyms. 

Jesus taught his disciples, as the Word teaches us today, that “prayer” is the antidote for desperation or discouragement.  Look at verse 1, which gives the context for this parable on persistent prayer:

He then told them a parable on the need for them to pray always and not become discouraged.

Pray or be discouraged.  These are the choices when circumstances in life become desperate.  Jesus had in mind a very specific time of desperation between His first coming and His second coming.  Notice the little word, “then.”  This is an adverb in English that describes a chronological relationship.  In Greek it is a coordinating conjunction that ties this passage into the passage that goes before.  Here’s what Jesus says about the coming times of desperation (Lk. 17:26-36):

²⁶ “Just as it was in the days of Noah,  so it will be in the days of the Son of Man: ²⁷ People went on eating, drinking, marrying and giving in marriage  until the day Noah boarded the ark,  and the flood came and destroyed them all. ²⁸ It will be the same as it was in the days of Lot:  People went on eating, drinking, buying, selling, planting, building. ²⁹ But on the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained from heaven and destroyed them all. ³⁰ It will be like that on the day the Son of Man is revealed.  ³¹ On that day, a man on the housetop, whose belongings are in the house, must not come down to get them. Likewise the man who is in the field must not turn back. ³² Remember Lot’s wife!  ³³ Whoever tries to make his life secure will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it.  ³⁴ I tell you, on that night two will be in one bed: One will be taken and the other will be left. ³⁵ Two women will be grinding grain together: One will be taken and the other left. [³⁶ Two will be in a field: One will be taken, and the other will be left.]”³⁷ “Where, Lord?”  they asked Him. He said to them, “Where the corpse is, there also the vultures  will be gathered.”

Jesus presented the teaching of the Persistent Widow in the context of the desperate days before the end of the earth.  Vultures hovering were a sign of a dead body.  The vultures are hovering over our nation as I speak.  We are in these “Last Days” now.  I see desperate people everywhere I go.  I see an increasing hostility toward Christianity.  I see judges sitting on courts, like the Supreme Court, who “don’t fear God or respect man.” 

The first lesson about persistent praying is very important:  persistent praying always involves a measure of desperation.  It is often said in business, “Things will never change until the pain of staying the same is greater than the pain of changing.”  It is a truth verified by human history:  people won’t persist in prayer until they perceive they are desperate.  As long as a person thinks he or she has some other place to go, they will never go to God in persistent prayer.  Oh, from time to time we may throw up a “hail Mary” prayer hoping to when the celestial lottery, but until we are desperate, until we come to realize we have no place to go BUT to God, we won’t keep “praying until something happens!”  There is a second truth to consider in regard to “persistent prayer.”

2.  It requires a measure of PERSPIRATION (3-5)

³ And a widow  in that town kept coming to him, saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’ ⁴ “For a while he was unwilling, but later he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or respect man, ⁵ yet because this widow keeps pestering me,  I will give her justice, so she doesn’t wear me out  by her persistent coming.’ ”

Have you ever worked at something until you were absolutely “exhausted?”  Notice that this widow not only worked so hard that she was exhausted, but she worked at it so hard that the unjust judge was getting “exhausted.”  He granted her request to get some rest!

I have learned that persistent prayer is one of the hardest activities a person can undertake.  Prayer is far from an “easy fix” for hard circumstances.  Prayer that will lift one out of desperation is prayer that results in perspiration.

Prayer is a weapon of spiritual warfare.  There is nothing “easy” about war.  Interestingly, the word translated “pester” actually refers to the area under the eye.  In common language it would translate, “she is giving me a black-eye.” Prevailing prayer has a physical component.

I’m not talking simply about physical perspiration, but more so, spiritual perspiration.  Perspiration results from exerting your physical muscles.  Spiritual perspiration results from exerting your faith.  Spiritual exertion is every bit as difficult as physical exertion, perhaps moreso.  The Word of God says (1Tim. 4:8),

the training of the body has a limited benefit, but godliness is beneficial in every way, since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.

Thomas Alva Edison stands as the most prolific inventor of the modern era.  In fact, without Edison’s work, there would be no “modern industrial era,” or the “information era” we experience them today.  His greatest development would arguably be the electric lightbulb.  It is well known that much trial and error went into finding a filament that would be suitable and stand up to the flow of continuous electricity.  But, the filament was only part of the process of developing the light bulb.  Seven separate theories leading to seven necessary systems were needed to make the light bulb a success.  Edison kept trying and never gave up, even after hundreds of failures.

Edison and his assistants worked feverishly and tirelessly on his inventions.  One of his most famous quotes says, “Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.”

It takes hard work to be a success at anything—and this includes prevailing prayer.  Prayer makes stuff happen, but it is not easy.

A quote attributed to C.K.Chesterton states, “Prayer has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and never tried.”

When Paul is summing up his message to the Church at Colossae, he lists several who were stellar champions in the cause of Christ.  One person Paul mentions is the devoted soldier of Christ, Epaphrus. 

^{Col. 4:   12} Epaphras,  who is one of you, a slave of Christ Jesus, greets you. He is always contending for you in his prayers,

The word translated, “contended,” comes from the word meaning, “pain.”  We get the word, “agony,” from this Greek word.  Prayer is referred to as “agony.”  The word can mean, “fighting, racing, or struggling,” among other things.  The KJV describes prayer as “laboring fervently.” 

3.  It requires most of all, INSPIRATION (6-8)

In order to “pray until something happens” you need faith, which only comes from the Holy Spirit of God dwelling in your life (Rom. 8:9).  “Inspiration” literally means, “In the Spirit” or the “Spirit within.”  This is the essence of “faith.”  Look at verses 6-8

⁶ Then the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. ⁷ Will not God grant justice to His elect who cry out to Him day and night?  Will He delay to help them?  ⁸ I tell you that He will swiftly grant them justice. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He find that faith on earth?”

Will the Lord find faith?  How would the Lord recognize we have faith, according to this passage?  The Lord would find faith by finding his disciples involved in “persistent, prevailing, importunate praying.”

Notice that “inspiration” is related to intensity.  Verse 7 says,

  Will not God grant justice to His elect who cry out to Him day and night?

The word for cry is an intense word, sometimes describing a death cry, or even the loud shrieking of demons as they are forced to exit a human host.  The intensity of the cry is compounded by the words, “day and night.” Persistent prayer is intense in quality and duration. 

The Apostle Paul describes the deepest level to which one can press  into the valley of prayer.  Romans 8:26:

²⁶ In the same way the Spirit also joins to help in our weakness, because we do not know what to pray for as we should,  but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us  ^e with unspoken groanings. 

There are those times, and those matters, that are so urgent, and so pressing, that words fail us in our time of prayer.  In all times we need the Spirit’s guidance in our prayer, but in these moments of such intensity and urgency, the Spirit actually prays for us in “groanings too wonderful for words.”  It’s this type of “Spirit-inspired” prayer that “makes stuff happens.” Prevailing prayer moves mountains. 

In these times of deep need and desperate urgency our prayers are like the woman with an issue of blood (Lk. 8:43).  When she touched the hem of the Lord’s, virtue, or power, flowed from His life into hers.  That’s what happens when a saint gets ahold of God through prayer—power begins to flow and stuff begins to happen.

There is a big difference that must be noted between God in heaven, and this unjust judge.  God’s character is perfect and His ways are always just, but beyond that, God is infinitely compassionate and eternally gracious.  Unlike the unjust judge in this story, God delights in granting justice and giving great gifts.  At a point when the prophet Jeremiah faced bitter disappointment and discouraging circumstances because of the disaster into which his people were about to fall, Jeremiah concludes:

^{Lam. 3   22} Because of the Lord’s faithful love we do not perish, for His mercies never end. ²³ They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness!

Above all else, persistent prayer, requires faith which comes only from the Spirit of God taking up residence in the human heart.  Only when God’s Spirit has filled a person, can that person truly experience prayer that makes stuff happen.

Without true, transforming faith through a relationship with God, provided by Jesus Christ on the cross, and sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise (Eph. 1:13), any real power through prayer is an illusion. The only true prayer that “makes stuff happen” must be Spirit inspired

Prevailing, persistent prayer requires a measure of desperation, a measure of perspiration, and mostly a large measure of inspiration.

A few years ago I came across a fascinating lesson from God’s creation, on perseverance or persistence.  Perseverance or persistence is really the out-working of one’s trust in God. I have used the lesson of the Moso Bamboo Tree before because it illustrates the virtue of perseverance and the practice of prevailing prayer so well.  The story of the Moso Bamboo begins when a farmer plants a tiny shoot completely in the ground.  Then, every day that tiny shoot must be watered—365 days of the year.  If you miss a day, nothing will happen.  Then after carefully watering the tiny shoot for 365 days, suddenly—nothing happens.  You must water it, fertilize it, and weed it for another 365 days.  Then . . . nothing happens.  You can inspect the spot from every angle and you will see no evidence of any growth.  You must water, weed, and fertilize it for another 365 days.  That’s a total of 1095 days.  Then you will see that . . . nothing happens!  Another 365 days of weeding, watering, and fertilizing must be given.  Then, after the fourth year . . . nothing happens.  By now, it would be quite easy to give up, as there is absolutely no evidence that your efforts are producing anything, but personal frustration and disappointment.  But, you press on another year.  Another 365 days of watering, weeding and fertilizing and then, after about 1825 days, something happens.  The Moso Bamboo shoot sneaks up above ground.  That tiny shoot will grow two to three feet every 24 hours, until it grows to a height of 90 feet in about six weeks.  So, how long does it take a Moso to grow to 90 feet?  Some would say, six weeks.  But, it really takes five years.  All those times that it looked like the farmer’s efforts were wasted—even foolish—the tree was putting down roots that would allow it to grow tall and majestic.  The Moso Tree Farmer persists and something happens—and when it happens, it is marvelous, even miraculous.

The key to success for a Moso Bamboo farmer is “persistence.”  This is the key to real success in any venture, but most certainly it is true of spiritual success.  Like the story of the Moso Tree, the story of the “persistent widow” shows us that the key to spiritual victory is persistent, prevailing prayer.  Someone clever has described this type of prayer with the acrostic, P.U.S.H:  “Pray Until Something Happens!” All great men and women of faith throughout history, whether the great benefactor of children, George Mueller, or Susannah Wesley, the mother of the great preacher, John Wesley, or missionaries like David Brainerd, the key to spiritual victory is “persistent prayer.”

Let me summarize the teaching of the Persistent Widow as it relates to unlocking the power of prayer.  First, the ANALYSIS:  In life, circumstances are seldom going to be what we’d like them to be (v2). Second, the ALTERNATIVE:  “We can pray, or we can be discouraged (v1).” Third, the APPLICATION:  “Just pray . . . and don’t stop until something happens!”