Some of the Old Warriors of the Faith on the Subject of Prayer

A.W. TOZER (1897-1963) "IMPLICATIONS OF INTERCESSION"

How many Christians are there who pray every Sunday in church, "Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done!" without ever realizing the spiritual implications of such intercession! What are we praying for? Should we edit that prayer so that it becomes a confrontation: "My kingdom go, Lord; let Thy kingdom come!" Certainly His kingdom can never be realized in my life until my own selfish kingdom is deposed. It is when I resign, when I am no longer king of my domain that Jesus Christ will become king of my life. (1)

I have met Christians who insist that it is wrong to pray for the same thing twice, the reason being that if we truly believe when we pray we have the answer the first time; any second prayer betrays the unbelief of the first! There are three things wrong with this teaching. One is that it ignores a large body of Scripture; the second is that it rarely works in practice, even for the saintliest soul; and the third is that, if persisted in, it robs the praying man of two of his mightiest weapons in his warfare with the flesh and the devil--intercession and petition. For let it be said without qualification that the effective intercessor is never a one-prayer man, neither does the successful petitioner win his mighty resources in his first attempt! (2)

(1) A.W. Tozer, WHO PUT JESUS ON THE CROSS? (Camp Hill, PA: Christian Publications, 1975, 1996), 173-174.
(2) A.W. Tozer, THAT INCREDIBLE CHRISTIAN (Harrisburg, PA: Christian Publications, 1964), 61.

OSWALD CHAMBERS (1874-1917) ON "THE SELFLESS MINISTRY OF THE INTERIOR"

Are we prepared to leave ourselves resolutely alone and launch out into the priestly work of prayer? The continual grubbing on the inside to see whether we are what we ought to be generates a self-centered, morbid type of Christianity, not the robust simple life of the child of God...Launch out in reckless belief that the Redemption is complete, and then bother no more about yourself, but begin to do as Jesus Christ said--pray for the friend who comes to you at midnight, pray for the saints, pray for all men. Pray on the realization that you are only perfect in Christ Jesus, not on this plea--"Oh, Lord, I have done my best, please hear me!" ... There is only one place where we are right, and that is in Christ Jesus. When we are there, then we have to pour out for all we are worth in this ministry of the interior.

Oswald Chambers, MY UTMOST FOR HIS HIGHEST (New York, NY: Dodd, Mead and Company, 1935), 173.

ANDREW MURRAY (1828-1917) ON "THE PRIESTLY MINISTRY OF INTERCESSION"

A priest is a man who does not live for himself. He lives with God and for God. His work as God's servant is to care for His house, His honor, and His worship, making known to men His love and His will. He lives with men and for men. His work is to find out their sins and needs, bring these before God, offer sacrifice and incense in their names, obtain forgiveness and blessing for them...This is the high calling of every believer...As the blood of Christ gives the right, the Spirit gives the power for believing intercession. He breathes into us the priestly spirit and a burning love for God's honor and the saving of souls. . . . The more a Christian is truly filled with the Spirit of Christ the more spontaneous will be the giving himself up to the life of priestly intercession.

Andrew Murray, WITH CHRIST IN THE SCHOOL OF PRAYER (Springdale, PA: Whitaker House, 1981), 225, 228, 229.

CHARLES H. SPURGEON (1834-1892) ON "AN EXHORTATION TO INTERCESSION"

Intercessory prayer is the sweetest prayer God ever hears... The more your prayer is like Christ's, the sweeter it will be...Intercessory prayer exceedingly prevails. What wonders it has wrought! It has stopped plagues, ...healed diseases, ...raised the dead...There is nothing that intercessory prayer cannot do. Believer, you have a mighty engine in your hand--use it well, use it constantly, use it now with faith, and you shall surely prevail...Never give up anyone for spiritually dead until they are dead naturally...Let your prayers unite with one heart and soul to plead with God for your neighborhood! Carry the names of your neighbors written on your breast just as the high priest of old carried the names of the tribes. Mothers, bear your children before God! Fathers, carry your sons and daughters! Let us intercede for a wicked world and the dark places full of cruelty! Let us cry aloud...until He establishes His church as a praise in the earth! Wake up watchman on the walls; renew your shouts! The cloud hangs above you--it is yours to draw down its sacred floods in pleasant showers by your earnest prayers.

Charles H. Spurgeon, THE POWER OF PRAYER IN A BELIEVER'S LIFE (Lynnwood, WA: Emerald Books, 1993), 127, 128, 132.

E.M. BOUNDS (1835-1913) ON "THE WEAPON OF PRAYER"

The soldiers in the warfare against the devil must know how to wear the armor of "all prayer" (Ephesians 6:12)...Prayer must deepen and intensify into supplication. The Holy Spirit will help us into this kind of mighty praying and clothe us with this resistless power of prayer. This intense conflict with the devil requires sleepless vigilance, midnight vigils, and a wakefulness that cannot be surprised. It also requires a perseverance that knows neither halting, fainting nor depression. This kind of praying knows by clear spiritual intelligence what it needs.

This kind of praying holds itself in loving sympathy with the entire family of God, making their conflicts, dangers and needs their own... It takes on their enemies, their safety and their dangers. "Supplication for all the saints" (Ephesians 6:18) gives victory to every saint.

E.M. Bounds, WINNING THE INVISIBLE WAR (Springdale, PA: Whitaker House, 1984), 150.

R. A. TORREY (1856-1928) ON "THE POWER OF CONCENTRATED INTERCESSION"

Up in a little town in Maine, things were pretty dead some years ago. There were a few godly men in the churches, and they said, "Here we are, only uneducated laymen, but something must be done in this town. Let us form a praying band. We will all center our prayers on one man; who shall it be?" They picked out one of the hardest men in town, a hopeless drunkard, and all centered their prayers on him. In a week he was converted. They centered their prayers on the next hardest man in town, and soon he was converted. Then they took up another and another, until within a year, two or three hundred were brought to Christ, and the fire spread out into the surrounding country. Definite prayer for those in the prison of sin is the need of the day.

R.A. Torrey, cited in "Released by Prayer," KNIGHT'S MASTER BOOK OF NEW ILLUSTRATIONS , compiled by Walter C. Knight (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1956), 325.

ANDREW MURRAY (1828-1917) ON "CHRIST OUR INTERCESSOR"

In His high-priestly prayer (John 17), Jesus shows us how and what He has to pray to the Father, and what He will pray when He ascends to heaven...It is the sight of Jesus in His intercession that gives us power to pray in His name. All right and power of prayer is Christ's; He makes us share in His intercession ...A substantial life-union is also a prayer union. What He prays passes through us, and what we pray passes through Him...

Our faith and prayer of faith is rooted in His. If we pray in and with the Eternal Intercessor, abiding in Him, "ask whatsoever ye will, and it shall be done unto you" (KJV)...As long as we pray chiefly for ourselves, the promises of the last night must remain a sealed book for us...

Andrew Murray, WITH CHRIST IN THE SCHOOL OF PRAYER (Springdale, PA: Whitaker House, 1981), 193, 195, 196.

REES HOWELLS (1879-1950) ON "THE NEED FOR SPIRIT-FILLED NTERCESSION AFTER THE WELSH REVIVAL"

The intercession of the Holy Spirit for the saints in this present evil world must be made through believers filled with the Holy Spirit... Many blamed young converts for backsliding, but we blamed ourselves, because we were not in a position to pray them through to victory. Oh, the tragedy, to be helpless in front of the enemy, when he was sifting young converts like wheat! In Isaiah 59 we read that God saw there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor, and this was just our case. Many of us felt the need of being "endued with power from on high."

Cited by Norman Grubb, REES HOWELLS INTERCESSOR (Ft. Washington, PA: Christian Literature Crusade, 1952), 34.

GEORGE D. WATSON (d. 1924) ON "HANDS ON THE THRONE OF GOD"

Because of the hand that was on the throne, that is, because the hands of Moses were held up in prayer, and those hands were laid on the throne of Jehovah and prevailed with God in getting the victory...It is because the hands of the man Christ Jesus are on the throne that His prayer prevails, and through Him we lift up our hands and place them on the same throne, that we may prevail against all our enemies. . . . And when we, like Moses, lift up our hands and through Jesus lay them on the throne of grace, it is then we gain the day,...the Amalekites were conquered because the hands of a man were upon the throne.

George D. Watson, BRIDEHOOD SAINTS (Cincinnati, OH: God's Revivalist, n.d.), 117-118, 120-122.

Information thanks to: Pastor Mike Walls/Freedom Baptist Church Smithfield, NC