A Call to Prayer

1. A Call to Prayer Text: John 14:12-17

2. A CALL TO PRAYER • This sermon today is for one purpose: to bring home to you the true essence and power of Christianity and the need for prayer. • You know a prayerless Christianity is a powerless Christianity. • In the Book of Acts we read of how powerfully the Disciples of Jesus preached and lived their Christian lives; signs and wonders followed them everywhere they went. • They laid hands on the sick and they were healed, they opened the eyes of the blind and the ears of the deaf, they cast out demons and raised the dead, and the Spirit even struck people dead who lied to the Disciples.

3. The Problem Today • We have accepted are far weaker version of Christianity, and as a result are claiming to know and follow the God who created all things, and has the power to do the miraculous, but we are not believing for Him to do it through us. • The idea of God using us in this way may at times become a fanciful idea and we may even start to believe that God could use us like the early Disciples, but then the reality of who we are in everyday life hits us and we resume powerless Christianity once more. • I want to suggest to you today that I believe that if we as Believers were to pray as we should, God would use us just as He did His early Disciples, and the promise is that we would do greater things than what the Lord Jesus did in His ministry. John 14:12

4. Signs of Prayerlessness • There are many signs of prayerlessness in Christians I will list a few: • 1) An increase of interest in worldly things and a decrease of interest in Godly things. • 2) Lack of Bible reading • 3) Putting God last in our daily priorities. • 4) Being ashamed of Christ in the company of unbelievers. • 5) Being apathetic in regard to Church and the Christian life.

5. Pray Always • The Bible calls us to “pray continually;” 1Th. 5:17 • This concept of continuous prayer sort of seems impossible doesn’t it? • But I have found that many of the greatest people in Church history were prayer walkers, those who walked with God continually, in this sense they became Enochs to their generation. • God is looking for the Enochs in this generation, He is looking for Prayer Walkers who walk continually with God. • This is the deepest need of this hour in the Church and in this world, the Body of Christ is looking for those who will take on the enormous task of praying the Universal Church and the Nations to repentance.

6. We Need a Revival • We need a revival in this church, we need a revival in our hearts, we need a revival fire to sweep us up and turn us into the creatures which God created us to be. • Charles Finney, the 19th Century Apostle of Revival said, “Without a revival, sinners will grow harder despite preaching. Your children and your friends will remain unsaved if there are no revivals to convert them.” • In my book God’s heart cry for Revival I wrote, “We need a revival, a true revival, because every second someone around the world dies not knowing Jesus. If the Church universal does not rise up and reach God, how are we going to pull back this death count, this hell count?”

7. What is a Revival? • What is a revival, simply put: A Revival is God. • A revival is when God shows up, it is when all you can think about is God and His Son Jesus Christ. • A revival is when the miraculous occurs and it is when people whom you thought would never come to Christ, fall on their knees and turn to Him. • A revival is the greatest need of the Church at this hour, and it is what we as a people desperately need. • We need to be revived and made alive in His presence, and discover the reality of God in such a way that it will transform us to the core.

8. When to Expect a Revival • Charles Finney said, “When there is a lack of brotherly love and Christian confidence among believers, then a revival is needed. Revival is needed when there is a worldly spirit in the church. Expect a revival when there are dissensions, jealousies, and evil rumors among believers. These things show that Christians have grown far away from God and that it is time to think seriously about revival. The church has sunk into a low and backslidden state when you see Christians conform to the world in dress, parties, seeking worldly amusements, and reading filthy novels. When there are gross and scandalous sins-then it is time to wake up and cry OUT to God for a revival!”

9. Expect a Revival • The Church of this century must repent and pray, for she has conformed to the world. • All of us are guilty of conforming to the world. • Little wonder our prayers are like bouncing cheques in heaven. • When will we wake up to the truth that judgment awaits all of us, and that we will be judged according to how we handle this truth? • When will we wake up and realise that each moment on this earth counts for Him and His will?

10. Prayer for Revival • Matthew Henry said, “When God is about to give His people the expected good, He pours out a Spirit of prayer, and it is a good sign that He is coming towards them in mercy.” • Prayer is the key to the Christian life. • Dwight Moody said, “Every great movement of God can be traced to a kneeling figure.” • Martin Wells Knapp said, “Workers that are strangers to knee work may work up a temporary excitement, but never will be able to secure the copious outpourings of genuine revival power.”

11. Spirit of Prayer • Jonathon Edwards the forerunner of the 1st Great Awakening said, “When God has something very great to accomplish for His Church it is His will that there should precede it, the extraordinary prayers of His people. When God is about to accomplish great things for His Church, He begins with as remarkable outpouring of His Spirit of grace and a desire to pray. If we are not to expect that the devil should go out of a particular person, who is in the grip of bodily possession, without extraordinary prayer, or prayer and fasting; how much less should we expect to have Him cast out of the land without it. • Our country is under the possession of satan, and if we don’t see God move in this land, we could lose our country.

12. Nations Changed • Wellington Boone said, “The prayer that sparks revival begins long before the countryside seems to awaken from its slumber in sin. It starts when men fall on their knees and cry out to God. That’s where true intimacy with God takes place and we begin the journey of being transformed into the image of Christ. And as men are transformed, the course of a nation can be changed. • When the Church is prayerless, nations degenerate progressively into sin and debauchery, but when the Church awakens to its prayerlessness and repents and seeks the face of God with deep earnest prayer, nations are awakened and Christ fills the hearts of every man.

13. Will You Consecrate Your Life to Him? • Henry Varley said, “The world is yet to see what God will do with a person who is fully consecrated to Him.” • Consecration of being to the Lord is to devote oneself to His purposes and will; in holiness (sanctity of being), the Word (the Bible) and prayer (communion with God). • 1Corinthians 6:19-20 “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honour God with your body.” • The Bible is clear here to flee from the lusts and temptations of the world and be consecrated to Christ.

14. So What Can We Do? • Pray, pray, pray... • Charles Spurgeon said, “A prayerless soul is a Christless soul. It is well said that neglected prayer is the birth-place of all evil.” • Andrew Murray said, “Where there is much prayer, there will be much of the Spirit; where there is much of the Spirit, there will be ever-increasing prayer.” • J.C. Ryle said, “Prayer obtains fresh and continued outpourings of the Spirit. He alone begins the work of grace in a man’s heart. He alone can carry it forward and make it prosper. But the good Spirit loves to be entreated. And those who ask most will have most of His influence.”