Prayer was never meant to be powerless. But few of us have experienced the power of prayer and its role in unleashing miracles and manifestations of the kingdom all around us. When we learn to pray in the Spirit, all of that will change. To move forward on our journey, we must understand both travailing and prevailing prayer. They go hand in hand.
Look back at James 5:16…
“The effective fervent prayer of the righteous man avails much.”
Fervent prayer is travailing prayer. It is when God breaks our hearts with the things that break His heart. It is when He gives us a burden for something, and we carry it back to heaven. It begins with the Father and it ends with the Father.
Effective prayer is prevailing prayer, praying through until you know that God has heard your prayer. Read this excerpt from The Revival We Need by Oswald J Smith...
“An incident is told of a place called Finley, in the early days of Methodism, to which preacher after preacher had been sent, but all to no purpose. The village was a stronghold of satanic power, and each one in turn had been driven out, until, at last it was decided to give up as a hopeless task.”
“Just before the matter was finally settled, however, the now famous John Oxtoby, or “Praying Johnny” as he was called, begged the Conference to send him, and so let the people have one more chance. They agreed, and a few days afterwards John set out on his journey. On the way a person who knew him inquired where he was going. “To Filey,” was his reply, “where the Lord is going to revive His work.”
“As he drew near the place, on ascending the hill between Muston and Filey, suddenly a view of the town burst upon his sight. So intense were his feelings that he fell upon his knees under a hedge and wrestled and wept and prayed for the success of his mission. We have been told that a miller, who was on the other side of the hedge, heard a voice and stopped in astonishment to listen, when he heard Johnny say, “Thou munna mak a feal o’ me! Thou munna mak a feal o’ me! I told them at Bridlington that Thou was going to revive Thy work, and Thou must do so, or I shall never be able to show my face among them again, and then what will the people say about praying and believing?”
“He continued to plead for several hours. The struggle was long and heavy, but he would not cease. He made his very weakness and inefficiency a plea. At length, the clouds dispersed, the glory filled his soul, and he rose exclaiming, ‘It is done, Lord. Filey is taken! Filey is taken!’”
“And taken it was, and all in it, and no mistake. Fresh from the Mercy-seat he entered the place, and commenced singing up the streets, ‘Turn to the Lord and seek salvation.’ A crowd of stalwart fishermen flocked to listen. Unusual power attended his address, hardened sinners wept, strong men trembled, and while he prayed over a dozen of them fell on their knees and cried aloud for mercy and found it.”[i]
Effective prayer is prevailing prayer, praying through until you know that God has heard your prayer. There are amazing stories of prevailing prayer and God’s amazing works throughout the history of the church. His Spirit is poured out when His people prevail in prayer.
The question of praying in the Spirit is not just, “Will we pray?” We will. The question is, “Will we travail and prevail in prayer?” Will we allow our hearts to be broken with the things that break the heart of God? Will we pray through until we know that God has heard and answered?
As we have already learned, the one thing that holds back revival is sin, our sin. No outpouring of the Spirit has ever occurred in the history of the church where there wasn’t deep conviction of sin along with the eradication of sin from the lives of the believers. We also learned that the one thing that ushers in revival is prayer, travailing, prevailing prayer.
Prevailing prayer is prayer that takes the time it needs and does not quit until there is clarity from God. It prays until God hears. It prays until there is an answer from heaven. Prevailing prayer is not confined to a meeting or controlled by the clock. This is how Jesus prayed.
In Luke 6:12, the Bible says…
“It was at this time that He went off to the mountain to pray, and He spent the whole night in prayer to God.”
Remember, Jesus was not superhuman. He was human like us and filled with the Spirit during His time on earth. He had set aside equality with God. Therefore, the concept of praying the whole night was an example to us.
It is interesting that the only places where frequent all night prayer meetings are the norm, are places where the church is being persecuted, in China and in Muslim countries. When we are praying in the Spirit, be ready. He may take us through the night so that we can prevail with heaven.
This is also how Jesus taught us to pray. In Luke 18:1-8, it says….
“Now He was telling them a parable to show that at all times they ought to pray and not to lose heart, saying…”
All too often, we lose heart in prayer. We do not have what it takes to continue in prayer. We do not have the motivation or the perseverance to stick to prayer until God hears and answers. We stop short of prevailing in prayer. So, Jesus tells a story to encourage us to see prayer through to the end.
"In a certain city there was a judge who did not fear God and did not respect man.”
This judge is nothing like God. He is godless. He does not fear God. He is not even religious. The judge does not have respect for man. The picture here is that of an arrogant man who loves his own power and gives no consideration to the thoughts of God or man.
"There was a widow in that city, and she kept coming to him, saying, 'Give me legal protection from my opponent.'"
The woman whose husband had died was on her own. She had two things that were on her side, when the judge was not. She had a voice and she had perseverance. She repeatedly came to the judge and asked him to do his job. She simply wanted the protection that was due to her by law.
"For a while he was unwilling; but afterward he said to himself, 'Even though I do not fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow bothers me, I will give her legal protection, otherwise by continually coming she will wear me out.' "
He held out for a while, but she kept coming to him. And eventually the judge heard her request and answered her. He granted her request, legal protection. He gave her what she wanted because he knew she would have eventually wore him out. Literally, she would have beat him up and won the fight. He could see it in her heart. He could see it in her eyes. He could hear it in her voice. She was determined.
“And the Lord said, "Hear what the unrighteous judge said; now, will not God bring about justice for His elect who cry to Him day and night, and will He delay long over them? I tell you that He will bring about justice for them quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?"
Jesus teaching was straightforward and simple to understand. If an unrighteous judge would grant justice to a widow, how much more will the righteous God quickly grant justice to those He has invited into His kingdom. As children of the king, have the right to come to the King in the courts of heaven. He hears us. And He answers us.
But what must we do? We cry out to Him day and night. We pray until we know our prayers have reached the courts of heaven and the Righteous Judge has answered us. And what is it that we cry out for? We cry out for justice. Justice is not social justice. It is the rule of God in His kingdom. Justice is God on His throne sending the rule of His kingdom to earth.
David understood prevailing prayer as the ruler of the nation of Israel. This king understood what it meant to seek the Almighty King in the courts of heaven and pray until God’s reign came to earth.
In Psalm 34:4, David says…
“I sought the LORD, and he answered me; and delivered me from all my fears.”
In Psalm 138:3, David says…
“On the day I called, You answered me; You made me bold with strength in my soul.”
Charles Finney tells the story of a town where there had been no revival or life in the church for many years. The church was almost extinct. In the town, there was an elderly man, a blacksmith by trade. He had such a bad stutter that it was painful to listen to him speak. On one Friday, while he was alone at work, he was overcome with the condition of the church and the unbelieving in the town. He was so broken by God that he shut down his office, locked the shop door, and spent the afternoon praying.
In his heart, he knew that he had prevailed in prayer. So, on Sunday, he asked the pastor if they could arrange a special meeting that evening, a meeting for the lost. The pastor was hesitant, but he finally agreed, expressing his concern that people would not come to the meeting, especially with such short notice.
They planned to have the meeting in a large home of one of the parishioners. When evening came, there were more people than could possibly be accommodated in the house. During the night, people from all walks of life came under deep conviction, begged for prayer and for forgiveness from God, and found the joy of salvation. What was truly remarkable was that several of the people indicated that their conviction had begun at the same hour that the blacksmith was praying in his shop.[ii]
When we are filled with the Spirit, prayer will pour out of us. We will be those who travail and prevail in prayer. And the kingdom of heaven will come to us. The will of God will be done through us. Nothing will stand in its way.
WORSHIP: God is the Righteous Judge who sits on the throne and rules over the kingdom of heaven and earth. He hears and answers those He has invited to be a part of His kingdom. Worship Him on His throne as the one who is ready to hear your prayers and answer you.
PRACTICE: Part of prevailing prayer is hearing from the Father. Pick something that is a matter of prayer for you currently and spend some time listening for what God has to say about it. Ask Him generally, “Father, what do you have to say about this?” Once you have heard from Him, you will have some direction about how you should pray. Write down anything you hear.
MEDITATION: Take some additional time meditating on what God wants to do in you and through you. Knowing God is empowering you by His Spirit and preparing to send you out on assignment from Him, ask yourself, “What needs to change in me to be ready to build the kingdom?” Then spend some time meditating on where God might be sending you. Imagine what the kingdom might look in your home, family neighborhood, church, work, or country. Or imagine what the kingdom would look like in a certain area of ministry where you have had interest in the past. Use these thoughts to let God start revealing where He is inviting you to be part of seeing His kingdom come to earth.
ABIDING: By this time, it is very possible that the Father, your Spiritual Director, has led you to a place in Scripture where He wants you to abide. As you go back and read through this teaching one more time, ask the Father if there is anything in these passages specifically for you. Look for the things that reinforce what God is teaching you at this time. Write down anything you hear from Him. Spend some extra time listening to see if the Spirit has anything more to say to you or if there is a deeper teaching for you today. Write down whatever you hear. Ask the Father if there is someone, He wants you to share this with and follow through with His assignment.