WEB EXCLUSIVE
The Prayer of Perseverance
By Gordon Robertson
CEO, Christian Broadcasting Network
CBN.com –
Welcome back to our Week of Prayer. We want to encourage
you to develop a habit of prayer. That is why we are asking you
to pledge 15 minutes a day or longer, if you so choose, to pray.
Let this be a season where you truly discover the secrets of prayer.
I am teaching you today about the secrets of prayer. This
lesson is on persevering prayer, how to obtain results because
you persevered in prayer. So often as Christians, we pray these
half-hearted prayers and we don’t really lay hold of God.
As a result, we are frustrated in our prayer life because we are
not seeing the answers we so desperately want. But Jesus gave
us a tremendous clue as to how to obtain answers to prayer. You
find it in Luke 11, where it is the parable of the man who came
to his friend at midnight, and he asked him for three loaves [of
bread].
And He said to them, "Which of you shall have a friend,
and go to him at midnight and say to him, "Friend, lend
me three loaves; for a friend of mine has come to me on his
journey, and I have nothing to set before him'; and he will
answer from within and say, "Do not trouble me; the door
is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise
and give to you'? I say to you, though he will not rise and
give to him because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence
he will rise and give him as many as he needs.
Luke 11:5-8 NKJV
The good thing about this parable is that he is not asking for
himself; he is asking for his friend. Jesus is telling us it is
because of his persistence in asking. He knows that his friend
has bread, he knows that his other friend has a need, and he knows
that if he can connect the two together, the need will be filled.
Because of his persistence in prayer, the friend answers.
It is the same with God; it is because of our insistence, our
persistence in prayer, that we obtain answers. And it is through
this persistence of prayer that we see change.
You need to keep in mind the friend is not asking for himself.
He is asking for someone else. He is acting as a mediator between
the two. And if we take on that role in prayer, then suddenly
we will find ourselves transformed. No longer are these selfish
prayers, but we are asking as a mediator between a source of supply
and a source of need. And it is because of our persistence in
prayer that we see the answer.
If you look at the world today, how many sources of need is God
the only source of supply? If we will be persistent in praying
for those needs of others, then we will see the answer to prayer.
Then Jesus does something very unusual, where He gives us a Kingdom
principle. These are the words of Jesus Christ. He is part of
the trinity. His words are forever:
So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you;
seek, and you will find;
Knock, and it will be opened to you.
For everyone who asks receives,
And he who seeks finds,
And to him who knocks it will be opened.
Luke 11:9-10 NKJV
“So I say to you, ask.” And the Greek behind that
is ask and keep on asking, seek and keep on seeking. Now, you
have these as general Kingdom principles. If you will, these are
laws of the Kingdom of God, that if you keep asking, you will
keep getting answers; if you keep seeking, you will keep finding;
if you keep knocking, it will be opened to you. The greatest hindrance
to successful prayer is being content in where you are with God.
It’s that hunger, it’s that searching after that God
really loves and He really wants to fill -- those who are hungry,
those who are thirsty.
Then Jesus adds something else at the very end here.
… how much more will your heavenly Father give the
Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!
Luke 11:13 NKJV
So often in Charismatic communities – I have been around
the world – we have gotten satisfied with where we are in
our experiences with the Holy Spirit. And somehow we think that
the Baptism in the Holy Spirit is just a one-time event. I am
here to give you good news. If you read chapter two in Acts and
then go read chapter four in Acts, you will find that the apostles
are filled twice.
There are many infillings of the Holy Spirit, as many as you
are thirsty for. So keep asking for that. Keep asking for more
of the gifts, more of His indwelling presence, more of His righteousness,
more of His love, because I assure you, more is there. And if
you keep asking, you keep seeking, you keep knocking, you will
get it, too.
Tomorrow I will teach you about the Prayer of Intercession. You
don’t want to miss it.
Gordon Robertson became the Chief Executive Officer of CBN on November 30, 2007. Prior to being named CEO, Gordon was the Executive Producer of The 700 Club for the past six years and a member of the board of directors for the past five years. He is also founder and president of CBN Asia,
Inc. and founder and president of the Asian Center for Missions.
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