ARME 1: Soquel, CA - Aug 2009

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ARME Bible Camp

Martin Kim

The Whole Secret of Prayer

The title of My message this morning is the whole secret of prayer and as they are connecting the computer, I just want to say that I hope I don't come across like I know everything about prayer.

I'm a student in the School of Christ learning about prayer and I'm just going to share some things that I've come across that have been a tremendous blessing to me.

I would like to start with a word of prayer.

Dear God, yours, oh Lord, is the greatness, the victory, and the majesty, the glory, and the power.

Thank you so much Lord for allowing us to come together Lord, to hear a word from you.

Once again I pray Lord that you would outpour your spirit on us.

Thank you, Lord, that your grace is sufficient, Lord.

Please make your strength perfect in my weakness, Lord.

A couple of months ago at the Seeds Church Planning Conference that took place at the campus of Andrews University at the seminary, they had Elder Paul Rotsara.

The evening speaker was Elder Paul Watsara.

Paul Watsara is the president of the Southern African Indian Ocean Division, the fastest growing division in the world.

If you were at Tokyo Camping last year, he spoke a couple of times.

Anyways, he was there for the evening meetings, and on the first evening, he says, why aren't we home yet?

And he says, The problem is not with God.

It's not because of his inability to work.

The problem is not with the message because we have a good message.

And then he launched into a series of messages about the importance of needing men and women of faith in prayer.

I want to share with you the words of Ian Bounds from his book, The Weapon of Prayer.

He says, God's cause does not suffer because of lack of divine ability, but because of lack of prayer ability in man.

God's great plan for the redemption of mankind depends as much on prayer now as it did when the Father first decreed the plan.

Prayer makes the plan of redemption prosper and succeed.

For God gives an imperative, universal, and eternal condition.

Ask of me and I shall give you even for thine inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession." What an amazing promise in Psalms 2.8.

Before Jesus left this earth, on the eve of his crucifixion, he's gathered with his disciples for the last time.

And you can read the account in John 13 through 17.

And a few things were very important to Jesus.

And I think they got it, because after Jesus left, and they were told to wait for the promise of the Father, they prayed for 10 days.

They go out and preach for 10 minutes, and thousands are converted.

And somehow we've got it the other way around.

We'll pray for like 10 minutes, and we'll go preach 10 nights, 20 nights, 30 nights, and we'll end up with a handful of baptisms.

It is part of God's great plan to grant us, in answer to the prayer of faith, that which she would not bestow, did we not thus ask.

I don't understand everything about the great controversy, but for some reason, there's some things God cannot do unless we pray.

Our prayers somehow enable God to do things which He could not otherwise.

We need to pray if we want to go home soon.

But I'm going to give you another reason why we need to learn to pray and pray well.

We need to learn to pray well for God's glory.

In John 14, verse 13, it says, And whatever you ask in my name, that I will do that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

That we may glorify God, we need to learn to pray well.

We need to learn to pray prayers that go past the ceiling.

Okay, God is not glorified if our prayers hit the ceiling and bounce back.

We need prayers that will go through to heaven.

I like the words of Andrew Murray in his in the prayer classic with Christ in the school of prayer.

He says, when there is but little prayer that can be answered, the Father is not glorified.

It is a duty for the glory of God to live and pray so that our prayer can be answered.

For the sake of God's glory, let us learn to pray well.

Because of the limited amount of time I have each morning, we're not going to go through the ABCs of prayer.

We're not going to look at the majority of texts that speak about prayer.

But after this weekend, after you have learned the tools of how to study the Bible, I want to encourage you to do a study on the subject of prayer.

I also want to encourage you to stop by your local Christian bookstore and pick up some good books on prayer, the prayer classics, the books that have been written over 100 years ago that still sit on the shelves today.

Just amazing stuff written by people who had a connection with God, praying men and women.

So we really want to encourage you to do that.

Some good books, The Kneeling Christian, written by an unknown author.

An individual who is just more concerned about God's glory than about getting his name out there.

Andrew Murray's book, with Christ in the School of Prayer.

Ian Bounds is a prolific author, has written volumes on the subject of prayer.

And of course, books written by Ellen White.

Compilations on the subject of prayer are great.

Praying Hyde, an individual who spent much time and brought about revival, amazing individual, a book about Praying Hyde would be excellent.

In John 15, verse 7, we are told, If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.

Would you like to see this verse fulfilled in your life?

How often have you thought, you know, god doesn't really mean what he says because I haven't seen this fulfilled in my life because I certainly have not gotten the desires of my heart.

Condition number 1, if you abide in me, what does it mean to abide in Christ?

Well, to help us understand, in verses 4 and 5 of John 15, Christ speaks about the vine and the branch.

He says in verse 4, Abide in me, and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.

Apart from the vine, there will be no buds, no blossoms, no leaves, no fruit on the branch.

In verse 5 it says, I am the vine, you are the branches, he who abides in me and I in him bears much fruit, for without me you can do nothing.

Now you don't have to be a theologian or a botanist to understand what God is saying.

A life that is abiding in Christ is number 1.

Friends, does the branch have a life of its own?

No, it is simply the life in the vine that flows into the branch.

What was Christ's requirement when he was on this earth?

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The Whole Secret of Prayer

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