Mighty Prevailing Prayer: Experiencing the Power of Answered Prayer

Dr. Wesley Duewel has given himself to the cause of missions for more than 70 years. Following ministry in India for nearly 25 years, he served as president of OMS International and is now President Emeritus. Dr. Duewel has a deep love for the Word of God. He has read the entire Bible through nearly 200 times. People around the world have appreciated his biblical insight with more than two million copies of his books in print in over 50 languages. Continuing his active life-long ministry at 96, he teaches a senior adult Sunday School class and enjoys sharing his testimony to God’s faithfulness. He carries a deep concern for the unevangelized millions and a constant emphasis upon prayer as the key to revival. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. Mighty Prevailing Prayer By Wesley L. Duewel ZONDERVAN Copyright © 1990 Wesley L. DuewelAll rights reserved.ISBN: 978-0-310-33877-2 Contents Foreword...................................................................7Preface....................................................................91. God Has Answers for You.................................................102. The Importance of Prevailing Prayer.....................................133. Prevailing Prayer—The Need of the Church................................204. Prayerlessness Is Sin...................................................295. The Prevailing Christ...................................................366. Your Welcome to the Throne..............................................447. Why Is Prevailing Necessary?............................................548. You Must Prevail Before God.............................................609. The Dynamic of Desire...................................................6710. The Dynamic of Fervency................................................7311. The Dynamic of Importunity.............................................8012. Importunity Prevails...................................................8613. The Dynamic of Faith...................................................9114. How to Increase Faith..................................................9815. The Use and Command of Faith...........................................10316. The Dynamic of the Spirit, Part 1......................................10917. The Dynamic of the Spirit, Part 2......................................11518. The Dynamic of Uniting in Prayer.......................................12319. God Honors United Prayer...............................................12920. The Prayer of Agreement................................................13621. Mighty Answers Through Agreeing in Prayer..............................14322. The Dynamic of Perseverance............................................14923. How Long Must You Persevere?...........................................15624. God's Will and Prevailing Prayer.......................................16325. The Dynamic of Praise..................................................16726. Levels of Intensity in Prevailing Prayer...............................17127. Jesus Said We Would Fast...............................................18028. Fasting Strengthens Prayer.............................................18729. Carrying a Prayer Burden...............................................19430. How to Carry a Prayer Burden...........................................20531 Wrestling for Prayer Answers............................................20832. Holy Wrestlers.........................................................21633. Prayer Groans and Prayer Agony.........................................22134. Prayer Warfare Defeats Satan...........................................22935. Strategies in Prayer Warfare, Part I...................................23836. Strategies in Prayer Warfare, Part 2...................................24537. Dangers in Prayer Warfare..............................................25338. How to Bind Satan, Part I..............................................26339. How to Hind Satan, Part 2..............................................27040. The Militant Use of Jesus' Name........................................27841. The Militant Use of the Word...........................................28942. Holy Pleadings and Argument Before God.................................29643. How to Plead Before God................................................30144. Will You Become Mighty in Prayer?......................................309Will You Join Me in This Prayer?...........................................515Notes......................................................................519Bibliography...............................................................329Index......................................................................333 CHAPTER 1 God Has Answers for You ARE YOU LONGING for power in prayer, the ability toget urgent and needed answers? Do you feel deeply tested attimes by the unexplained delay in answers to your prayers? Areyou longing for the secret to answered prayer? Prevailing prayer is prayer that obtains the answer sought. Itovercomes delay, opposition, and unfavorable circumstances. Itoften involves the Spirit's guidance in how you pray and Hisdeepening of your desire for the answer to prayer. It involvesHis specially empowering your prayer and strengthening yourfaith until you receive the answer from God. Do you really know how to prevail in prayer, how to obtaindifficult answers that you have long needed or desired? Is yourprayer list effective in bringing blessing to others? Are yousatisfied with the answers you are receiving? God wants your prayer life to be filled with petitions andintercessions for others and for the advance of His kingdom.He wants answers to such prayer to become your thrilling andfrequent experience. One of the great joys of prayer is securingwonderful answers that seem so long delayed and so humanlyimpossible. God wants answers to your prayers to be frequent andblessed. He wants you to prove repeatedly the mighty power ofprayer in your own experience. He wants you to become notonly a prayer veteran but also a constant victor in situationswhere the answers bring great glory to God and greatconsternation and defeat to Satan. He wants you to experience frequently His prayer-answeringpower, His intensely personal concern and love for you, and thetremendously varied means available to His wisdom. God isnever perplexed or surprised, and never ultimately defeated. Hedesires you, through prayer, to share in bringing His will topass on earth. I invite you to join me in seeking God's answers to thetremendous needs you and I face. What are the keys that willunlock heaven's resources and release the prayer-answeringpower of God? What further steps can you and I take to bringGod's sovereign and irresistible power to bear? Let us sit at the feet of God. Let us listen for His word. Letus turn to the lives of some of the heroes of our faith to see howthey were able to see God's power released and God's answersmade known. Prevailing prayer is at times so simple that even a child canget mighty answers—often in an amazingly short period oftime. Even new believers sometimes pray with such faith and somuch of the Spirit's help that mature saints of God are amazedand can only praise God for the answers. On the other hand, Jesus Himself indicated that somesituations or needs were far more difficult than others (Mark9:29). There can be many reasons for such cases, as we shalldiscover in the coming chapters. God does not deliberately hide His deepest truth from you.He does not reserve power in prayer for certain specialoccasions or prayer victories for some specially chosen favoritesof His. Prayer is so vital to all of Christian life and to theadvancement of Christ's kingdom that He desires all of us to bemighty in prayer, experienced in getting prayer answers, andundismayed by the most complex or longstanding needs. We live in the glorious "now" of God. The whole of time isGod's arena to work on behalf of and through His faithfulones. Anything God has ever done in the past, He is able toduplicate or exceed. He is forever the same in wisdom, power,and love. His overarching eternal plans are unchangeable, but inworking out the details, He has ordained to work incooperation with His praying, obeying children. He adapts Hisworking to your prayer and obedience. While He reserves thesovereign right to work independently, His normal plan is towork in cooperation with and through the prayer andobedience of His own. God therefore delights to adjust the working out of Hisplans to your cooperating obedience, to your laying hold of Hispromise, to your preparing the way of the Lord. He has made itpossible for you to prevail in prayer, and He is waiting now foryou and me to prove the blessed possibilities and the gloriousrealities of prevailing prayer. CHAPTER 2 The Importance ofPrevailing Prayer THE ROLE OF PREVAILING PRAYER GOD INTENDS YOUR praying to secure divine answers.Prayer is not just God's diversion to keep from being lonely.He delights in your fellowship. He always draws nearer whenyou pray. Also, prevailing prayer is one of the most importantministries in God's kingdom plans. Prevailing prayer is not simply a spiritual exercise to helpyou grow in grace. Certainly nothing is more beneficial togrowth in grace than growth in the life of prayer. The moreyou prevail, the more you will learn the secrets of God's graceand the powers of His kingdom. The more you intercede, themore intimate will be your walk with Christ and the strongeryou will become by the Spirit's power. Prevailing prayer is God's ordained means for extending Hiskingdom, for defeating Satan and his empire of darkness andevil, and for fulfilling God's eternal plan and bringing intoeffect His good will on earth. It is God's means of covering theearth with His blessings. Prevailing prayer is God's prioritystrategy for our age and dispensation. The history of the churchcan never be fully written until Christ in eternity reveals themighty hidden prayer involvement of all His praying people.What a joy that revelation will bring to Christ's prayerpartners! God the Son is seated at the right hand of the Father on Hiseternal throne and is today sovereignty ruling and extendingHis kingdom. Christ does not live primarily to judge,demonstrate divine power, speak sovereign fiats, or issueauthoritative decrees. His special divine vocation and strategicrole today is to intercede (Hen. 7:25). The Holy Spirit is so integral to the divine plan for this agethat He ceaselessly joins God the Son in His holy intercession.He also is responsible for involving you and enabling you to bea partner in God's strategy of intercession. He longs for you torise above your weakness and become mighty in God forprayer. He is so concerned that you become effective as theintercessory partner of Christ that He intercedes for you withdivine groanings too deep for human words (Rom. 8:26). Youdo not hear Him, but He is ceaselessly groaning for you andwith you. Prevailing prayer is the most divine ministry you will everhave. Nothing is more Christlike or involves more cooperationwith Christ. No form of Christian service is both so universallyopen to all and so high in Christ's priority for all Christians asprevailing prayer. It is Christ's desire, Christ's call, and Christ'scommand. Lord, teach us to prevail! THE OBJECTS OF PREVAILING PRAYER Prevailing prayer can be intensely personal. You have everyright to prevail for your personal desires and needs. UndoubtedlyGod plans that most of your prevailing be on behalf ofothers and for the extension of His kingdom. Yet He expectsand welcomes your praying for personal and family needs andsituations related to you personally. Scripture is very clear onthis point. Blind Bartimaeus prevailed in prayer for the restoration ofhis eyesight (Mark 10:46–52). The woman embarrassed andplagued by twelve years of hemorrhaging prevailed for herhealing (Luke 8:43). The Greek woman from Syrian Phoeniciaprevailed, and Jesus cast out the demon from her daughter(Mark 7:26). Jacob prevailed with God for the protection of hisfamily (Gen. 32:9–13, 22–30). More commonly, you prevail in prayer on behalf of others.Abraham prevailed for Lot (Gen. 18:22–33). Moses prevailedfor Israel's victory over Amalek (Exod. 17:8–15). Elijahprevailed when he asked for fire to fall from heaven so thatIsrael would be saved from backsliding (1 Kings 18). Isaiah andHezekiah prevailed for Israel's deliverance from Sennacherib (2Chron. 32:20). Epaphras prevailed for the church at Colosse(Col. 4:12–13). We must prevail in prayer for situations where God's will isbeing thwarted and where Satan is delaying and blockingChrist's cause. We must prevail for lives so ensnared andblinded by sin that they are unable or unwilling to pray forthemselves. We must prevail for revival in the church, forspiritual and numerical growth of the church, and for theworldwide advance of the gospel. There are physical, financial, and spiritual needs that call forprevailing prayer. Homes are being torn apart by Satan, livesare being destroyed, and churches need God's special answers.We must prevail for ministries of the church and Christianorganizations. We must prevail for moral and spiritual needs ofour nation. The scope of prevailing prayer is as broad as Christ's churchand as extensive as God's world. There is nothing within God'swill that is outside the purview of prevailing prayer. Prevailingprayer is intercession intensified—intercession until the answeris received. THE TIME SPAN IN PREVAILING PRAYER In certain wonderful times prayer prevails in an instant.Moses' prayer for the healing of Miriam from leprosy was verybrief. "O God, please heal her!" (Num. 12:13). But Moses hadbeen walking close to God in a face-to-face relationship. He didnot need to prepare his heart to obtain God's favor and ear.The situation was comparatively uncomplicated in that thewills and attitudes of other people were not involved, andAaron and Miriam were already repentant. So Moses receivedan almost instant answer from God. Elijah's prayer on Mount Carmel was exceedingly brief—scarcelyhalf a minute in length. "Then the fire of the Lordfell" (1 Kings 18:38). Probably Elijah had not even reached theamen of his prayer. I am sure he would have prayed longer ifGod had not answered so instantly. But what a dramatic andnation-changing answer: "When all the people saw this, theyfell prostrate and cried, 'The Lord—he is God! The Lord—heis God!'" (v. 39). But remember, Elijah had been praying for three years as hehid from wicked Ahab and Jezebel. He had been carrying anintercessory prayer burden constantly and had had no otherpublic form of ministry. He had announced to Ahab three yearsbefore that he himself stood in God's royal presence as one ofHis attending ministers of state (1 Kings 17:1). You can be sureElijah was interceding day and night. Sometimes what seems like a simple, instant answer toprayer is but the crowning climax of days, months, or evenyears of faithful intercession. When did Elijah prevail? OnMount Carmel, or at the Kerith ravine while the ravens fedhim, or at Zarephath while hiding with the widow and herson? The answer is that it was all part of his prevailing inprayer. The answer proved that Elijah prevailed. But all thetime while he was prevailing, God was with him supplying hisneeds and protecting him. Prevailing prayer always involves aprice, and Elijah paid that price for at least three years. Look again at Elijah. Immediately after the fire fell fromheaven, Elijah went alone to the top of Mount Carmel andprevailed for rain. Again and again he prayed and expected theanswer and then asked his servant to go and look out towardthe sea. But only the seventh time did God's cloud appear—atfirst, only the size of a man's hand (1 Kings 18:44). Instantprevailing one hour does not guarantee instant prevailing in thenext situation. There is often great mystery concerning the time spanrequired in prevailing prayer. The secret of prevailing prayer issimply to pray until the answer comes. The length of time isultimately immaterial. It is God's answer that counts. Thelength of time required may often seem perplexing and mayprove a test of your faith. We will consider this matter morecarefully later. Prevailing prayer may be repeatedly necessary in somesituations before final achievement of God's will is secured.Thus, when Joshua was struggling against Amelek, as long asMoses interceded with uplifted hands "to the throne of theLORD," Joshua was winning. But when Moses lowered hishands, Joshua began to be defeated. By the help of Aaron andHur, his hands were held up continuously till sundown andcomplete victory was won (Exod. 17:11–16). Similarly, Epaphras prevailed in prayer day after day for thechurch in Colosse (Col. 4:12–13). Paul also prevailed continuouslyfor the Jews, even though he was primarily an apostle tothe Gentiles (Rom. 9:1–3). THE LEVELS OF PREVAILING PRAYER In order to prevail, the intercessor must often increase theintensity of his or her praying from one level to another. Isuggest seven such levels. The first three are listed by Jesus inHis Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 7:7). To these I add four morelevels from Scripture. Level 1: Ask Matthew 7:7. Level 2: Seek The asking becomes longerand more intense. Level 3: Knock Interceding becomes evenmore urgent and insistent. Level 4: Fast To the previous crescendoof intensity and urgency ofintercession, fasting isadded. Level 5: Prayer burden The burden may be intenseand brief or perhaps extendover a longer time. Level 6: Wrestling in prayer Very intense praying. Level 7: Prayer warfare Prayer battle, extendingover a prolonged period. Perhaps we should call these levels seven aspects or forms ofprevailing prayer. Instead of giving up, we move into ever moredetermined intercession until we prevail. These levels of prayerintensity are not totally separate from each other. Duringprevailing in prayer, one level may merge into another almostwithout the intercessor's awareness of it. A special prayer burden given by the Holy Spirit cannot beborne for a long period of time in its most intense form. It istoo exhausting physically. Similarly, prayer burden in its veryintense form may become almost synonymous with wrestling inprayer. Prayer warfare may include all the preceding levels. In fact,prayer warfare is usually over a prolonged period of time andmay involve alternating from one level to another as the Spiritguides. The important thing is not to keep analyzing your prayer tosee what level of intercession is yours at a particular time.Rather, be aware that the Spirit may guide you into one or allof these levels as He wills. Be available and ready to pray as Heguides and empowers. In the holy partnership of intercessionwith Christ and the Holy Spirit, the prayer warrior is seekingto intercede constantly according to the mind of the Spirit. Allthis discussion will become increasingly clear and spirituallyblessed as you advance in Christ's school of prayer. Always remember that you never merit prayer's answers.You do not earn Gods response by anything you do. You donot get answers because of physical exertion, praying in a loudvoice, or working up some kind of emotional experience. Infact, the most intense prayer of all may at times be the mostsilent. On the other hand, when your heart cries out to God,you may well, like Jesus, have moments of "loud cries andtears" (Heb. 5:7). Many of God's prayer warriors over thecenturies have at times experienced such prayer intensity. (Continues...) Excerpted from Mighty Prevailing Prayer by Wesley L. Duewel . Copyright © 1990 Wesley L. Duewel. Excerpted by permission of ZONDERVAN. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.