GYC 2014: At The Cross

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Generation. Youth. Christ. (GYC)

Relentless Prayer

Paul Ratsara Sr.

1. Relentless Prayer

This message was presented at the GYC 2014 conference at the Cross in Phoenix, Arizona.

For other resources like this, visit us online at www.gycweb.org.

Just want to thank the Lord for the blessings that he has given us.

We are looking forward to be together, to being together, and to find out the way, the best way to have our prayers answered.

That is, we are going to talk about this topic, relentless prayer.

But Before that, I just want to maybe talk a little bit about what I'm doing.

And I want to introduce to you my lovely wife, Joanne.

As it is advertised there, we are serving in the Southern Africa Indian Ocean Division.

It is 1 of the 13 divisions of the world.

We have 23 countries, the southern part of the continent of Africa and the islands in the Indian Ocean and also in the Atlantic Ocean.

We have then 23 countries and by the grace of God and to God be the glory, We have now 3.3 million baptized members in our division, in 20, 000 churches, congregations.

Of course, we have not arrived yet, but many things.

And I can tell you that those things, those miracles are a result of prayers.

And that's why this morning we just want to share with you.

We are going to study together, not that we are guru about prayer.

But prayer is important in whatever we do as Christians.

So welcome to this seminar, Relentless Prayer, and may the Lord bless us.

The way, the goal that we have is that this is not just theoretical.

We will spend time praying, actual praying.

We would like God to operate miracles right here in this room.

We would like his power to be manifested right here in this room.

So We are not here just studying, that is good, but we are here to put into practice what we are going to study.

Because according to the knowledge, according to the biblical concept, To know in the Bible, in the Old Testament and in the New Testament, it is not just an intellectual ascent or knowledge.

To know is to have experienced, to experience something.

That's why when God describes the relationship between Adam and Eve, God said, the Bible says, Adam knew Eve.

So what we are going to study, yes, we will spend a lot of time studying some concepts, biblical concept on relentless prayer, but we would like us to experience this relentless prayer.

That when we finish the 6 seminars, the 6 topics, we will come out of this room energized and ready to have this wonderful journey of relentless, agonizing prayer, true prayer.

We're tired of things that we can just go on a routine basis, we would like to experience the prayer life of Jesus.

We would like to experience the prayer life of the apostles.

We would like to experience the prayer life of the prophets.

We'd like to experience the prayer life of the prophets.

Would like to experience the prayer life of our pioneers.

And we would like to be the fulfillment of the prophecy in the spirit of prophecy that at the end of time, there will be revival.

There'll be people will be praying and studying the Word of God.

That is what we are going to ask God to help us to achieve.

Would you like us now to kneel as we pray?

Our Heavenly Father, How can we talk about prayer without praying?

And that's why this morning we ask you to be with us.

Ask you just to take control of this room.

That your presence will be so felt in this room, that you will be glorified, you will be exalted, but we will be happy and rejoicing because of our deepened experience with you.

So now as we start this seminar, we would like you to be the speaker, to be the presenter, that all of us will learn from you.

Thank you, Lord, for answering our prayers.

Relentless prayer, that is the title of our seminar.

If you go to the dictionary, you would find the definition, the meaning of relentless, unceasing, intensely unceasing.

So we are going to talk about this topic that it is really engaging, very involving.

Right here, you see in Luke chapter 11 verse 1, I read, 1 day Jesus was praying in a certain place.

When he finished, 1 of his disciples said to him, Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.

Have you noticed that the disciples did not ask Jesus to teach them how to preach or how to teach, but Jesus was asked to help them how to pray.

But the disciples understand that they need to learn how to pray because we can pray wrongly.

And that's why today we are going to talk about this, the importance of prayer, and throughout the seminar, we are going to learn from the Bible and the spirit of prophecy how to pray to get result from God.

We are going to talk now about the importance of prayer.

In Acts chapter 20 verse 24, however I consider my life worth nothing to me, my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me, the task of testifying to the good news of God's grace.

Let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.

What is the relationship between race and prayer?

2. Relentless Prayer

Okay, I think it is time to resume our session.

Thank you for coming back and staying by.

We are going to start our second session.

Relentless prayer is Not just a simple prayer.

This is what we are going to study for our session.

In the book, that I may know him, page 35, I would like us to read this together.

You know, many times we take things as optional.

Oh, this is good, but I don't feel like doing it.

We must, that is the punchline, we must pray as He prayed.

So the prayer that we are talking about here is intense.

Unceasing prayer is the unbroken union of the soul with God.

So that life from God flows into our life and from our life purity and holiness flow back to God.

Unceasing prayer, that is relentless prayer.

So the prayer that we are talking about here, it is unceasing.

It is unbroken union with the soul with God.

That continuous relationship with God, this is what we are talking about.

It must be constant so that life from God flows into our life.

That means I see the picture of charging a phone.

We must be charged all the time so that we can receive the life from God into our life.

And from our life, purity and holiness flow back to God to glorify him.

I would like you to study this more, if not here.

I would like you to study, even memorize this.

This part of the prayer life is to memorize verses in the Bible and the spirit of prophecy.

It is important for our relationship with God.

And that is what we call relentless prayer.

Unceasing prayer is unbroken union with the soul, with God.

So that life from God flows into our life and from our life purity and holiness flow back to God to glorify Him, to worship Him, to serve Him, to be a witness for Him.

Plead as earnestly, as eagerly as you would for your mortal life.

Let's say, I don't wish, but you will be killed and you have to plead.

That is the picture that we need to have with this relentless prayer.

That is in Spiritual Gifts, Volume 2, page 264.

I ask the angel why there was no more faith and power in Israel.

Why is it Israel, we are the modern Israel?

Why is it, why there was no more faith and power in Israel?

And the angel answered, you let go of the arm of the Lord too soon.

Press your petitions to the throne and hold on by strong faith.

Believe you receive the things you ask for and you shall have them.

Don't let go of the arm of the Lord too soon.

We plead, we plead, we plead, and then we let go.

3. Relentless Prayer

Okay, I think it is 02:00 according to my time.

Want to welcome you back for this session.

I want to thank the Lord that he has given us this time again to go deeper into our understanding of this relentless prayer, and that is Jesus Christ.

Our Father, thank you so much for the time that You are giving us now as we proceed and study more about how to pray as you prayed.

We pray that you take control of the room right now and fill our hearts with your Holy Spirit.

This morning, for those of you who are here, we talked about already about the importance of prayer, that God has given us that as a weapon.

We are in a battlefield, and we need to be armed in order for us to win this battle.

And that arm is, that weapon is the prayer.

And that's why the devil is doing everything for us not to use this weapon.

And he's doing everything for us not to pray or not to pray enough or not to pray the relentless prayer and that is the prayer of Jesus.

I just want to recap for a moment about the relentless prayer.

In Steps to Christ, page 93, it is said that he is our example in all things.

So when we talk about prayer life, I'm just kind of summarizing.

When we talk about prayer life, we are talking about the prayer life of Jesus as our example.

And his experience has to be our experience as well.

I read this, He said, in Christ, the cry of humanity reached the father of infinite pity.

As a man, he supplicated the throne of God till his humanity was charged with the heavenly current that should connect humanity with divinity.

Through continual communion, he received life from God that he might impart life to the world, and here is the punchline.

For us to be here, we need to reach that goal by the grace of God.

And by His grace, once we finish this set of sessions of topics, we will go out of this place knowing that we are indeed praying as Jesus prayed.

Then we talked about prayer as a necessity.

Jesus Christ needed prayer, and we need even more prayer than Jesus.

But unfortunately, we think that we don't need more prayer than Jesus Christ.

When you talk about relentless prayer, it is this prayer, agonizing prayer.

The Bible and the spirit of prophecy talks about this, and the spirit of prophecy talks about agonizing prayer.

Quickly, and this is what we said this morning, many times we think that we are busier than Jesus.

So, we cannot pray as Jesus prayed, but we said this morning that no other life was ever so crowded with labor and responsibility as was that of Jesus.

And yet, how often he was found in prayer.

Often, not rarely, but Jesus, the last line, 2 lines, but Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.

He was busy, but he spent a lot of time also praying.

The point is that we should never be too busy to pray.

In fact, The more we have things to do, the more we need prayers.

And it is true, remember the analogy that we used for those of you who were here this morning, like life is a race.

When you run, the more you run, we need breath.

The more we are engaged in ministry, the busier we are, the more we need prayer.

If we are busy or when we are busy, then the most Targeted time that is removed is the time for prayer.

Reduce the time for reading the Bible, which is totally disastrous.

And we talked about the early morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out and departed into a solitary place and there prayed.

We talked about the importance of the early morning.

We will talk more about that when you go to the practice, how to structure our prayer life.

But I just want to hint or to tell us that we cannot escape this early morning.

If you really want to be strong in the faith, we need to wake up earlier.

My early might not be your early, but it must be early for you so that you will have enough time to pray, enough time to devote to prayer and reading the Bible.

All night, once in a while, when it is needed.

We need to do more than that to connect to spend time with our Lord Jesus Christ and Paul Followed that you prayed even all night and the key to victory right now Here is the continuation.

We have just summarized what we have done this morning.

The greatest victories gained for the cause of God are not the result of labored argument.

Ample facilities, we need all of this, wide influence, or abundance of means, they are gained in the audience chamber with God.

When with earnest, agonizing faith, man lay hold upon the mighty arm of power." Many times we forget about this.

We are thinking that we can do it on our own, but the key to victory, there's no other option, is just to spend time with God.

I don't know What trouble, what trial do you have right now?

But we know that this is not a trial-free environment.

This world is not a trial-free environment.

We have our challenges, we have our problems.

But the key to victory is this chamber, audience chamber, in the audience chamber with God, with earnest prayer, Agonizing, agonizing faith.

And men of prayer, the secret of success in Pateos and prophets, he said the secret of success is the union of divine power with human effort.

Those who achieve, let's go, those who achieve the greatest results are those who rely most implicitly upon the almighty arm.

The man who commanded, son, stand still upon Gibeon, and thou moon in the valley of Agelon, is the man who for hours lay prostrated upon the earth in prayer in the camp at Gilgal.

And here is the line, the men of prayer are the men of power.

4. Relentless Prayer

Then we are going to answer that question.

Let me share with you, But before that, I would like to ask a volunteer to pray.

Heavenly Father, we just want to Thank you so much for the opportunity that we have to be here and we just want to thank you for the fact that you're such a personal God.

Lord, you know that many of us have come here because we've realized the need in our life.

We've realized that we need to pray more.

We need to be praying for ourselves, praying for our families, praying for our friends.

And we've come here with the desire to know you more, to really commit to deepening our walk with you.

We need your strength, so we pray that you'd be with us right now, right here, give the speaker the word, the speech of your spirit, and strengthen us from within, Lord, so that we can give the people the word again.

The answer is in John, 1 John chapter 5, verse 14 and 15.

Of course, that is not the only answer, but the beginning of the answer.

This is the confidence, let's read this together.

The first John chapter 5 verse 14 and 15.

Would like us to follow this carefully because it is quite very involving study about this.

This is the confidence we have in approaching God, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.

And if we know that he hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have what we asked of him.

That passage is a key passage to answer this question.

Then we say, but that is what we are saying when we pray.

But when you analyze the prayers in the Bible, we don't really find them much doing that.

Have you read the prayers, they did not say, if it is according to your will.

They just prayed and then expected the answer.

Not that there's something wrong in praying and saying, if it is your will, But we don't see that much in the Bible.

That also kind of triggered some question in my heart.

Of course, Jesus Christ, when he prayed in Gethsemane, then he said that.

It was a kind of a surrender, a surrendered prayer.

So it is said here, follow the reasoning, this is your confidence we have in approaching God, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us, that means you will have a positive answer.

So it has to be according to the will of God.

So the key is to ask only things according to the will of God.

Because if it is not according to the will of God, then it should be no.

But the following question is, how do we know that this prayer request is according to the will of God?

That is the heart of the matter, is to know if this prayer request is according to the will of God or not.

If it is according to the will of God, the answer will be yes.

So if we just know the will of God, then That trend that we see in the Bible will be repeated.

And that's why, since we don't know, to be sure, not to be presumptuous, you add that sentence if it is according to your will.

But the kind of prayer that we see, we don't really see that.

If this prayer request is according to the will of God or not.

How do we know what to ask and what not to ask?

Colossians chapter 1 verse 9, For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of His will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding.

So God is willing to give us the knowledge of His will.

That's why Paul prayed for the Colossians.

He said, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will.

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