Passionate Prayer

1986

We’ve discussed in the last two or three weeks now the priority of prayer and the power of prayer, the reason for prayer, and then just this past hour prerequisites for answered prayer which is certainly an important point. I’d like to discuss now some things about the need for passionate prayer, and also say a few things about people of prayer. I did a lot of studying. Kevin and I were talking yesterday about practicality in trying to understand Biblical things. Those things that don’t work and things that are contradicted by reality, aren’t true. And so certainly as I’ve tried to learn more about prayer I don’t want it to be some kind of philosophy or theoretical teaching, but I want to know, first of all, does it work? Why does it work? How does it work? What’s involved in making it work? And certainly the bottom line of all of that is what Christ accomplished on the cross and the Spirit that He put within us. And yet there certainly are prerequisites to answered prayer. Also when we see the example of Christ in these hours of praying, I want to know that other men are capable of doing that too. Therefore, maybe I’m capable of walking as Jesus walked. “Whoever claims to be in Him must walk as Jesus walked,” is what the Bible says. So if you’re not getting any answers to your prayer I’d like you to be sure to get a copy of the tape this morning because you may have missed the past hour that’d be some very clearly defined reasons in the Word of God WHY your prayers may not be answered.

What I’d like to talk about right at this moment has to do with passion in prayer. I think it’s a pretty important subject. I’d like to suggest that a monotone or even eloquent prayers without great energy are not received by God in a favorable way. It’s pretty easy to pray and to pray and to pray and just to do it in sort of a generic superficial sense that’s not heart, soul, mind, and strength but just simply a list of things or an obligation to fulfill. I want to say this: that our prayers must be PASSIONATE in order to get the kind of answers that God wants us to get in prayer. In order to find supernatural intervention by the Creator of the Universe those prayers have got to be passionate ones.

You remember, James, the Lord’s brother? Historically, it’s recorded that when they carried him off to his grave they noticed he had these massive calluses on his kneecaps. In fact, his knees even sagged because he had so much weight of the calluses on his knees that came from hours and hours and hours of prayer. Well, that same James that had that reputation of being a man of prayer wrote this. He said, “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.” The fervent prayer, the passionate prayer of a righteous man (James 5:16) those are the prayers that avail much. The Amplified Version says, “The earnest, heartfelt, the “energeo” energized prayers that are continued prayers of a righteous man make tremendous power available, dynamic in its working.” That’s the literal translation of those words that James wrote. There’s power there, but it takes a fervent, energized prayer in order to make that power available to us.

I’m sure that as we evaluate our lives and our walk with God, I don’t think there’s anybody in here that would say, “I really don’t want to avail much in my prayers. I have no interest in availing much.” Yet the verse that tells us how to do that, the passage that tells us how to do that says: The fervent, passionate prayer of a man that is sold out to Christ, that has surrendered his life to Christ, those are the prayers that are going to avail much.

Now Jesus again gave us that example. Hebrews 5:7—a passage you can almost miss, but you really shouldn’t. “During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, He offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save Him from death, and He was heard because of His reverent submission.” Jesus’ example is to offer up prayers with loud cries and tears. If you were anywhere within a city block of Jesus when He was praying in solitude, you knew that man was praying and you knew that He meant what he was praying. Loud cries and tears—there’s sound involved here. There’s passion involved here. And it says He was heard—why? Because He was a righteous man, because of His reverent submission, because He was sold out to His Father. He was heard because of that reason. So there’s an example.

In Luke 22:44 it says, “Jesus prayed more earnestly.” The word “earnestly” there is a word that was actually a word picture that involved being stretched out on a rack and being tortured. It says that He prayed in such a way that it was as if mentally He was being stretched out on the rack and tortured. “Stretch-outedly” is a literal translation of that. He was earnestly praying. That was Jesus’ example was to be tortured by His stretching out before God and striving for being one with the Father.

In Acts 12:5 that same word is used when it says, “So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly or passionately praying to God for him.” Again, it was stretched out. The whole church was as if they were stretched out mentally on a rack and being tortured—they were praying so fervently and so passionately. And, of course, we know what the result of that was: that an angel came into the prison, released Peter from his shackles, unlocked the gates to the prison, let him walk by all these armed guards and end up out on the street and nobody knew how, including Peter. That was the end result of the church praying passionately for Peter.

Romans 15:30 in the Amplified Version it says, “Unite with me in earnest wrestling in prayer to God.” It’s the picture of the athlete that is struggling for that finish line. He’s on the last quarter mile of that race. He’s rounding that last turn, and he sees the tape up there. He sees the competition is close behind, and he’s just striving with everything within him. That’s wrestling. That’s what we’re to do in prayer is to strive in earnest wrestling in prayer to God.

Colossians 4:12 it says, “Epaphras is always wrestling in prayer for you.” Again, passionate prayer. He’s always doing that. That’s what Epaphras does. He’s always wrestling in prayer.

There’s a guy named Jacob and an entire nation that were renamed Israel in Genesis 32. And the reason given by God for renaming them that was that Jacob wrestled with God and prevailed. An entire nation was changed, entire history was changed, by passionate wrestling with God. You remember Jacob’s phrase, and certainly one we could write on our hearts, “I will not let you go until you bless me.” That wrestling with God, that passion in prayer.

In 1 Samuel 1 we see another practical example of that in Hannah’s life. You can see the progression. In verse 10 she prayed. In verse 12 she continued praying. In verse 15 she poured out her soul before God. In verse 8 she was fasting and weeping. In verse 10 she wept sore, she wept much more, if you will. So her passion in prayer was one that was evident. In fact, the priest walked in and said, “You’re drunk!” She was praying so passionately that the priest thought that she was actually drunk. The end result of her prayer was a man named Samuel was born. And Samuel changed the course of history. He was a prophet of God, and affects even our lives today by the prayer of this woman of God that prayed passionately.

Fervent prayer, as James called it, is a requirement for mighty answers to prayer. There’s an old saying. It’s of unknown origin, but it goes like this: Tears without prayer are wasted; also prayers without tears are wasted. You can cry all you want, but unless you take it to God that’s wasted energy. Yet, if there’s no passion in your prayer that also is wasted energy—it’s just a superficial kind of thing. Only fervent prayer avails much according to James.

Now what I’m not talking about, and I want to make this really clear is not working yourself up into some sort of emotional frenzy in prayer just out of the flesh. I’m not talking about “deciding” to pray fervently and, therefore, doing it. What I’m really talking about is having this prayer just overflow out of a single-hearted devotion to God—just a longing to be in His presence. “As the deer pants over the water, so my soul longs after you,” as that song goes. But a pure devotion and seeking God and fasting and in solitude, but just single-mindedly and whole-heartedly trying to draw on the strength that only God can provide. It has to do with prayer that just gushes out of a deep oneness with Jesus and really being strong and being in His presence—letting the fountain of the Holy Spirit that Jesus described in John 7 that would just gush out of our hearts. That’s really what fervent prayer is all about. It’s not something that we manufacture because that really doesn’t mean anything.

The moral of the story is this: God does not shower His blessings on a casual seeker. If you’re seeking the presence of God and the gifts of God casually, there’s no reason to expect that you’ll find those. He wants your intensity. He wants your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and you have to know that that spells intensity.