Michigan Camp Meeting 2016: The Harvest is Great

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Michigan Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

Power Through Prayer: Learning the Science of Prayer and the Secret to a Life of Spiritual Prayer

Justin Ringstaff

1. Life of Power

Our Father in Heaven, we're so grateful that You have opened such a channel of communication between us and You.

Lord, as we share this time, we want our hearts to be convicted of the necessity of spending time with You.

Maybe the reason why we don't see more power in the life is because we've learned to live without it.

And I pray, Lord, that as we share this time together, that every single 1 of us, Myself included, Lord, that we would sense heaven calling us to spend time with You, set apart in secret prayer.

Lord, I pray that You would bless each 1 here for having been here.

I pray that it would be your words that speak to their hearts and not mine.

But Lord, I do pray that you would speak through me.

I pray for a power from on high that I can't manufacture, that you would be with me and that my tongue would be used for your glory.

So Lord we humble ourselves before you and we ask for your help now in Jesus name, amen.

I think some are still coming in here well let me just give a little brief introduction of this week is that blurry oh that's the wrong 1 I don't know maybe that's as good as it gets.

Today we're going to be looking at a life of power.

This is more setting the platform and understanding the necessity and the wonderful strength that prayer can bring.

And then Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday we're going to be getting into the more the practical elements of a powerful prayer life.

And so today setting that foundation and then we're going to be breaking this down as we go through the week.

How many of you would like to have more spiritual strength and power in your lives?

I believe that that's not just, you know, pie in the sky.

I believe that God intends for us to have strength and power to make decisions, to make a path through our life that is following after His will.

This comes from Councils on Health, page 162.

We're going to start the foundation looking at the life of Jesus.

Ellen White says the Savior's life on earth was a life of communion with nature and with God.

He revealed for us the secret of a life of power.

When you see how He spent His time, His life was just submerged in God's 2 books, in nature and in the scriptures.

But also part of that, he had a communion with God.

And in that communion, he revealed to us the secret to a life of power.

Youth instructor, April 1, 1873, she just comes right out and says it.

That Christ, who when he was incarnate was fully God and fully man.

Christ who knew the glory of heaven in that special hidden council with the Father and the Holy Spirit.

Jesus on this earth, His power, His strength was where?

I mean, to me, that just blows my mind that Christ found His strength in prayer.

Now I believe that we all in some sense understand and innately know that prayer is important.

But I want to impress upon each of us today that prayer is not just important, it is vital if we are going to have a walk as a Seventh-day Adventist Christian, as a remnant people in these last days.

As a man, He supplicated the throne of God till His humanity was charged with a heavenly current.

He is there pleading at the throne of God, and as he does, there is a power that comes upon him.

And she uses that word, charged with a heavenly current.

When I think about that, I think about going and sticking your finger in an outlet or something.

I mean, where There is definitely a change that comes over the life when there is that connection.

I mean, Christ, He would go to that time of prayer and He was charged with a heavenly current that connected humanity with divinity.

Receiving life from God, He imparted life to men.

I mean, just let that sink into the mind.

But He knew that He could not accomplish that work unless He was first charged with that heavenly current.

That power in His life that would bring life from God and give life to mankind.

Now I want to spend just a few moments here in Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing.

We're setting the platform to understanding that there can be a life of power through prayer.

Thoughts from the Mount of Blessings, page 102.

This is a little lengthy passage, but I want to unpack this because I think this gives us such an incredible insight into the life of Christ and how he had that communion with his Father.

The Lord's Prayer was twice given by our Savior.

So you remember we read that in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew and the Lord says, In this manner you should pray.

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be your name.

He's giving an example, a model of prayer.

First He gave it to the multitude of the Sermon on the Mount and again some months later to the disciples alone.

You know when I look at that I think There are times where we may know things, we may have heard things, we may have read things, but there comes a time where we need to be reminded of them.

And Christ, as He has His disciples alone with Him, He comes to them and He pulls them apart and He wants to instruct them in a life of prayer so that they will have a life of power.

The disciples had been for a short time absent from their Lord.

When on their return they found Him absorbed in communion with God.

Seeming unconscious of their presence, He continued praying aloud.

So they've been away, they're coming back to meet with Christ, and there he is off in the distance a little bit, and they see him praying.

I mean, there have been times where I've just thought about this, I just thought, Lord, I wish I could see Christ praying.

I just wish I could just behold that even for a moment.

I mean, there is a profound impression that is placed upon the heart and mind when you see someone that loves the Lord their God with all their heart, with all their mind, with all their strength, with all their soul.

When they open that heart to God and you are able to see that there's a profound impression that is placed upon the life.

I mean there have been just a few moments in my life where I've happened to come upon someone and see someone in that secret prayer.

Now I've seen lots of people in prayer and maybe that secret prayer, but there have been a few that I've seen that just made me just shrink back and think, Lord, I want that kind of connection with You.

And I just think as the disciples came upon Christ, Their eyes, they saw a living connection.

And they knew that that's something they wanted.

But Christ, seeming unconscious of the presence, He continues praying aloud.

That's 1 of the secrets to secret prayer is praying aloud.

Sometimes we struggle with our minds wandering.

Sometimes if you wake up early in the morning...

I mean there have been times where I've been on my knees in prayer, and then all of a sudden I think, did I just fall asleep?

But as you pray aloud, as you train yourself to pray aloud, it keeps those elements from slipping in so quickly.

It's much easier to keep the mind on track.

And Tomorrow when we talk more about this, I'm going to show you some things that can just enrich and ignite your prayers so that you'll have the burden of prayer when you come to that time of prayer.

But he's praying aloud, the Savior's face was irradiated.

I mean, it's aglow with a celestial brightness.

I mean, the glory of heaven, if there is truly a connection from earth to heaven through prayer, you would think that there would be some visual, just some visual evidence of it.

You know, often I think about, you know, just our countenances, how important it is.

You know, you look in scripture, And I've gone through Scripture and looked at those areas about how much the Bible talks about the countenance.

And how even if inside you feel down, if you lift the countenance, how it lifts the inside.

Here in here Christ is in prayer and His countenance is showing a connection with heaven.

2. Time to Pray

Our Father in Heaven, thank You for being here with us.

I pray, Lord, that Your presence would be here in a way that would draw us to You.

Lord, I pray that Your angels might be here encouraging and strengthening us as we spend this time together.

We won't really understand until the days of eternity how important it is for us to come together like this.

I believe there will be a time where we'll look back and we're in times of trial.

And these moments together will be a strength for us.

So we remember the discussions and the times to pray together.

But Lord, I pray not only for the times to come, but I pray for a present blessing this morning.

And I pray that you would speak through me, Lord.

I feel so unqualified to speak of such wonders and of such a blessing that heaven has given.

So Lord, I ask that you would speak through me and that it would be a blessing, it would be a help to us in our journey this side of heaven.

So Father, I thank you and I ask it now in Jesus' name, Amen.

So yesterday we looked at part 1, Life of Power, and looking at the life of Christ, how even Jesus, as He walked this earth, found power and strength in prayer.

We're going to actually do an example here together.

And then Talk about some helpful things as you're building that time.

Then again tomorrow we'll be looking at making prayer work.

I don't want to sound wrong, but how we can help the Lord answer our prayers.

And then on Thursday we'll be looking at fervent prayer.

How to really move the arm of the Almighty.

Now if you said that, you could take it 1 of 2 ways.

It's time to pray, And the other is we need time to pray.

The greatest blessing that God can give to man is the Spirit of earnest prayer.

That of all the things that God could give, 1 of the greatest blessings is that He would give us a Spirit of earnest prayer.

When we come to our prayer time and we pray, the Spirit of God comes upon us and when the Spirit of God comes upon us, you know what the Spirit of prophecy says?

So when God gives us the Spirit of earnest prayer and we take that time, we set it apart, every blessing of heaven is at our fingertips.

What is that in Steps to Christ where the prayer is the key in the hand of faith that does what?

Where are treasured the boundless resources of omnipotence.

So that prayer is the key in the hand of faith that unlocks that.

But I mean It's incredible that when God gives us that spirit of earnest prayer, He's really given us the key that unlocks the storehouse of heaven.

I mean the treasures that God has for us.

Now you know the Lord's phone number, right?

It's the Lord's phone number if you didn't know it.

Jeremiah 33, 3, he says, call to me and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things which you do not know.

So God gives the spirit of earnest prayer and as we meet Him, He gives that key that unlocks the storehouse of heaven where are treasured the boundless resources of omnipotence.

We call to Him, He hears us, and He tells us, He shows us things that we could not know unless we had met Him.

I believe that is God's promise to us each and every single day when we meet Him.

We set that time with God, We go and meet Him.

He is going to give us a treasure that day, and we may not even understand why we need such a treasure that day, but as you go through the day, it will become evident.

And as we finish there, you'll see how we can mine those treasures that God wants to give to us.

If someone's gonna talk, just be real with me.

I mean I don't have time for the beating around the bush or those things.

I love about the Psalms in their entirety.

You know, that's not something that's natural for us.

Our hearts are bent towards worldly things.

Our characters are bent, but as we take that time with the Lord, He straightens them out.

Now I did a study once in Scripture about the crooked versus the straight.

And crooked really, in Scripture, is really talking about perversity.

How God has everything that is pure and holy and straight, and the devil comes and he bends it and perverts it.

We have a perverted character in that sense that we don't naturally seek after.

But the Lord can give us that where our heart thrills at being with Him.

But 1611, you will show me the path of life in your presence as what?

3. Making Prayer Work

I hope you enjoyed your devotional time this morning.

Did you try a little bit of what we talked about yesterday?

I want to share with you, this is what I gleaned this morning.

What's interesting about this is that every morning we have staff worship over there in the chapel And the talk this morning, you know, as the pastor was talking, I looked at my wife Shelly and I just showed her this.

And it was like right on the same thing he was talking about.

I thought, well, maybe the Lord's really speaking to me today.

A kind, courteous Christian is the most powerful argument that can be produced in favor of Christianity.

So you can guess what part of my prayer was this morning.

Lord, help me to be a kind, courteous Christian that I can be a powerful argument in favor of Christianity.

And then this other 1 I gleaned today from the book of Amos, see good and not evil that you may live So the Lord God of hosts will be with you.

So I thought Lord, not only do I want to set my eye on good, but even when I look at people I want to see good in people.

You have some that they always go around picking out the negatives in people.

I want to look at people and see the good in them and what God can do in and through them.

And I definitely want the Lord God of hosts with me.

Anyone else glean something they want to share?

Someone had to have found a treasure this morning.

Stand up and speak loud so we all can hear.

I was reading in Desire, excuse me, Great Controversy, chapter 7, where it's talking about Luther's tribulation.

The pastor knows a little bit of what I'm going through right now.

So what I pulled out is, Lord, help me to feel the gratitude and persecution for your holy cause.

My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.

And I'll tell you, searching the scriptures in the Spirit of Prophecy is just such a joy.

I mean there's so much in there, but there's But there's another 1 here.

Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, though some strange thing happen to you.

But rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ's suffering, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with what?

If anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in this matter.

Okay, I'm going to tell you a funny story because this is how Satan works.

We had the best of intentions to get up and have our worship and do exactly what we're talking about and you got to do this morning.

But at 3.30 this morning, Elaine had to get up and go to the restroom.

And I also had to get up and go to the restroom.

And I just gently closed the door and slammed it shut.

So at 3.30 in the morning, we got locked out of the room.

And I had to wake up Elder Thomas, and Elder Thomas had to wake up the man in charge of the key.

So she went to sleep right, I couldn't go to sleep.

And we laughed and laughed and laughed and that just destroyed me.

But I'm just saying that Satan is a vile foe.

So I just wanted to share that with you, and I thought you'd enjoy the laugh.

It's just amazing how the enemy works, and yet we know that All things can work together for what?

To those who love God, those who are called according to his purpose.

We may need a, I think, is there more room in the back row there too?

Okay, well let's go ahead and have a word of prayer.

Our Father in heaven, What a joy, what a privilege it is to come before you once again.

That we together, joining our hearts together as 1, Lord, can come asking for you to be here with us.

What a rich experience it is to share this time together.

Lord every single 1 of us we want to have a living connection with heaven.

4. Fervent Prayer

Oh Father in heaven, how we do want to humble ourselves before You.

How we want to have that complete and absolute surrender this morning to Your heavenly will and to Your direction in our lives.

Lord, I pray and I ask this morning that You would come and visit us once more.

Lord, may all of the busyness that we talked about, may all those thoughts, all those things, may they just flee away in this time together this morning.

Lord, bring us together into the heavenly place where all the things of this world they're just they they pale in comparison to the light and brightness of your glory.

Lord, we pray that you would speak to our hearts today.

We pray Lord that you would continue to draw us to that throne of grace where all blessings flow.

I do pray once more that you would speak through me.

I just think of that that treasure you gave me this morning.

Oh Lord, how I want a deep experience with you.

And I believe each and every 1 here, they're here because they are seeking a deeper experience with you.

So Lord, let all of our pride, all of our self-exaltation, all of our self-will, let it be laid aside as we come to you this morning.

Bless us to this end Lord I pray in Jesus' name, Amen.

On Monday we looked at a life of power that God wants to give us such a life of power.

And that power can only come from His throne.

On Tuesday we looked at that we need to take time to pray and if you know you're getting started at that and it's growing.

What does it say in Proverbs 24, is it 16?

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Series

Power Through Prayer: Learning the Science of Prayer and the Secret to a Life of Spiritual Prayer

2. Time to Pray

Transcript

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