A Spirit Of Prayer

Transcript

Alright, thank you very much. And hello again my radio friend. How in the world are you? Doing Alright today? I trust so. Bless your heart. Trust everything’s Alright at your house. And if you struck a rough day, look up and say, “Lord Jesus, see me through this one,” and He will. “For He hath said l will never leave thee nor forsake thee so that we may boldly say the Lord is my helper and I will not fear what men shall do unto me.”

Yes, you can trust your Lord today, and if some of you are listening to the broadcast, as I know you do, at the tag end of the day late at night, you’re just about ready to fall asleep, well, then, turn out the pocket full of the day’s memories, turn them over to your Lord by faith. Billy Sunday used to pray, “Lord, take care of the world till daylight.” That’s what he said he prayed when he opened the window before he hopped into bed, “Lord take care of the world till daylight.” But if you’re finishing the day just turn out the pocket full of memories and commit them by faith to your Lord and rest in the shelter of his love.

Great to be with you. This is your good friend, Bob Cook. We’re looking at Ephesians chapter 1 and we were talking about the down payment, the Holy Spirit of God. How does the Holy Spirit constitute a little evidence of what God’s going to do? How does the Holy Spirit constitute an earnest down payment of what the Lord is going to do?

Well, how do you construe our life in heaven? What’s it going to be like, do you think? Well, some of the indications are we’ll be with the Lord Jesus. He said, “If I go away I will come again and receive you to myself that where I am there ye may be also.” He wants you with Him. That’s great isn’t it? Yeah. And what else? Well, when you look at the book of the Revelation, you have a description of what it’s going to be like. It says, “There should be no night there. They shall bring the glory and honor of the nations into it and nowise enter into it anything that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination or maketh a lie, only they who are written in the lambs book of life.”

And he said, “There shall be no more curse; but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it: and his servants will serve him: and they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads. There shall be no night there; they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign forever….”

That’s just a little excerpt of what John the beloved apostle said about his view of heaven. Now, how does the Holy Spirit become a down payment of what we’re going to have when we get to heaven? Well, you look at Galatians 5 and you can see the result of what happens when the Holy Spirit is in charge in anybody’s life. The fruit of the Spirit is love instead of hatred, joy instead of sadness, peace instead of turmoil, long suffering instead of impatience, gentleness instead of roughness and rudeness, goodness instead of evil, faith instead of unbelief, meekness instead of pride, and temperance instead of unbridled desire.

All the things that human nature fails at, the Holy Spirit succeeds at. That’s not very good grammar. You school teachers will write me and scold me about it. I know. But all of the areas in which human nature fails are areas in which the Holy Spirit succeeds. And He’s the down payment; He is the evidence of what God is going to be doing in our lives when we get home to heaven. It’s an inheritance that is reserved in heaven for you. It’s got your name on it. There’s a place in heaven for you and the relationship in heaven for you and a personal experience of Christ’s nearness in heaven for you for all eternity. Hallelujah.

How can that be so when there are billions of people on the earth now and others multiplied millions that have gone before us? How can there be a place with my name on it? Well, how can there be a world such as we have right now with the infinite detail that has been supplied by the creator?

When I was a student, we used to look through the microscope and see the amoeba and the paramecium and all the other little aquatic microscopic beings. We used to see the marvel of the various stages of life. How is it that God could pay so much attention to infinite detail so that he put the code that determines whether you have blue eyes or brown in the genetic material of your — of every cell of your body, what they call DNA?

Well, God did it, didn’t he? Nobody argues today as to whether there’s genetic material in the cells. The DNA is there. They’ve just discovered it now. Nobody argues as to whether it’s there. God put it there when he created this old universe. He’s the God of infinite painstaking detail. So, he’s a big enough God to have something in heaven with your name on it. That’s the logic of it. And it’s comforting to know that that’s so. Jesus said there’s a separate number for every hair in your head. It’s a very simple matter to count but He said number. So, even the empty hair follicles, mister, have a number to them. How about that?

God has an inheritance that is singularly, particularly, and personally yours, and it will be yours for all eternity. It’s eternal and it fadeth not away. And so, a million years from now you’ll be enjoying what Jesus bought for you with his precious blood on Calvary and it will be what you now have in microcosm in the presence of the Holy Spirit in your life.

Do you have love in your heart because the Holy Spirit dwells you? Your life will be suffused with the love of God then. Do you have joy in your life because the Holy Spirit dwells within you? Your life will be shining with the incandescence of eternity’s joy over yonder. Do you have unruffled peace even amidst the storms of life because the Holy Spirit is dwelling within you? Your life will be one constant river of eternal peace as you are there in the presence of your blessed Lord. He’s the earnest of our inheritance.

The indwelling Holy Spirit is the evidence of what God is going to do for you when he gets you safe home to heaven.” Oh they tell me of a land far beyond the sky; oh they tell me of a land far away; oh they tell me of a land where no storm clouds rise; oh they tell me of the unclouded day. Oh the land of cloudless day, oh the land of an unclouded sky.” We used to sing that years ago. It’s gone out of vogue now but well it’s true.

I’m going that way, are you? I hope to meet you there on the corner of Hallelujah Avenue and Glory Street one of these days. We’ll have a — hey let’s have a radio rally in heaven, wouldn’t be that something? Everybody that ever listened, get together and have a hallelujah time yonder in the glory land. Well, meet me there. And the way to get there is through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ our Lord and savior. If you haven’t done already, commit yourself to Him in absolute abandonment of yourself to the one who bought you with his precious blood on Calvary’s cross.

Well, he says unto the praise of his glory. Remember now that we should be to the praise of His glory who first trusted in Christ, verse 12, “unto the praise of his glory”; verse 14, “the praise of his glory.” This is the theme of all that God is doing for the believer that the Lord Jesus Christ should be praised and honored and glorified. The Bible is all about the Lord Jesus. The Old Testament and the New — the newest and the old contained, and the old is in the new explained, as someone has said, but all of the scriptures point unerringly to the Lord Jesus Christ.

And the reason for all of these is for the praise of His glory. Verse 12, “That we should be to the praise of his glory.” And the redemption of the purchased possession to the praise of his glory”, verse 14. Now, then, verse 15, “Wherefore,” he said, “I also after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and love unto all the saints, I cease not, to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers.” Something about Paul’s praying — the basis of his praying was he heard of the fact that these people trusted the Lord Jesus Christ as their savior. Everybody you ever prayed for falls into one classification or the other. Either they’re saved or lost. And it makes a good deal of difference as to how you pray for them. Your faith in the Lord Jesus, and then he says your love unto all the saints.

The crowning attribute of the Christian life is love. Jesus said, “By this shall all men know that you are my disciples if you have love one to another.” Paul said in Romans 5:5 that, “The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost who is given unto us.” So here you have the twofold basis of Paul’s intercessory prayer. He’s praying for them because he knows they’re saved, and he’s praying for them because he knows their lives are filled with love.

Then he says, “I cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers.” Just before the time runs out on us today in the broadcast let me say a word to you about the prayer that keeps on. Over in the gospels you’ll find the Lord Jesus saying to the disciples that men ought always to pray and not to give up, or the Bible uses the word faint; “that men ought always to pray and not to faint.” You recall that passage?

He spoke a parable unto them to this end that men ought always to pray and not to faint, saying there was in a city a judge which feared not God neither regarded men, and there was a widow of that city and she came unto him saying, “Avenge me of my adversary.” And he would not for awhile. But afterward he said with himself, “Though I fear not God nor regard men yet because this widow troubleth me yet I will avenge her lest by her continual coming she weary me.

And the Lord said, “Hear what the unjust judge said.” Now this is a judge that wasn’t the right kind of a person. And he said, “Shall not God avenge his own elect which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them?” See? He said you ought to keep on praying, keep on praying, just keep on praying till light breaks through. The Lord will answer, He’ll answer you. He keeps His promise, “His Word is true, so keep on praying until the light breaks through.” We used to sing that chorus.

Prayer, “I cease not” he said — what is the quit quotient of your prayer? When is it that you say, “I’ve had it. I’ve had enough now. I’m going to stop praying”? When do you say I give up, I quit? Well, there never is a time for the believer when you and I are justified in saying that that’s it, I give up. Don’t give up. Pray and not faint. Paul said as he wrote to people in one of his epistles, “Pray without ceasing.” And in a number of places, he said, “I cease not to pray for him” — I’m praying all the time.

Now how do you manage this? You have to do your daily work. You have to concentrate on things are your duty to do. You can’t be pious all the time, but you can be in a spirit of prayer all the time and you can whisper a prayer every time life’s road turns momentarily and you can be ready for whatever is coming. We’ll talk about that the next time we get together.

Blessed Lord, today, make us people of constant prayer, I ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Till I meet you once again by way of radio, walk with the King today and be a blessing!