The effectiveness of prayer…  Some people say that prayer changes things, but it changes us.  It changes things.  Prayer changes things and makes them come into conformity with God’s will and purpose.  Prayer can move mountains.  The prayer of faith can save the sick.  It can change the condition of our bodies.  Based upon our prayer, our proclamation of His will, and His covenant, God manifests His power and makes us whole.  “Well, God can just reach down and heal me.”  Yes, He can, but He says to pray.  He said to call for the elders, let them anoint you with oil, and pray.

Beloved, it is the effectual, fervent prayer of righteous men that avails much.  There needs to be a fervency.  That has been lacking in many of our prayer lives.  Some of us never obtained it.  Some of us have no clue what it means to wrestle with God.  Some of us have never come close to sweating drops of blood.  Some of us have never known or ever come to that place.  Whatever the need might be we are so undone, we are so desperate, that we grab ahold of the promises of God.  We bathe ourselves in the presence of God.  We understand the reality of the Lord’s Prayer.  We have a loving heavenly Father.  Whatever we need, He desires to give it to us.

The Word of God says that before we call, He hears us.  His ear is open to the cry of the righteous, the psalmist tells us.  We take hold of Him like Jacob, and we say, “I will not let go until You have blessed me.”  That does not mean God is not willing.  It does not mean we have to wring things out of God’s hands.  We just saw that in the parable of the unjust judge.  “I know You will, and I will not let You go.  I will not back away from this promise.”  They are yea and amen.  They are sure to a thousand generations.  Do not faint.  Do not faint.  “I’ve prayed.”  Pray again.  “I’ve wept before God.”  Let me remind you that every tear you have cried is in a bottle, and God has awareness of it.

Jesus would slip away in the middle of the night, early in the morning, and late at night.  He knew that without those visitations, the assurance of the presence of God, and the purpose to which He headed...  He was facing that cross.  It was hanging over Him every day.  “It is coming.  It is coming.”  God is omniscient, but Jesus was in His earthly body.  He needed the Holy Spirit to speak to Him.  He needed the Word of God to speak to Him.  He knew the time was coming but did not know the exact hour.  He did not know the magnitude of what this was going to be.  I am talking about the man Jesus, the One who learned obedience by the things that He suffered.  He was the One who visited Father, came, and said He did not speak His words but the words of He who sent Him to finish the work.  When He faced this, the greatest temptation and trial that anyone could ever be involved in, He cried out with a broken and desperate heart.  He said, “O my Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me” (Matthew 26:39).  “Is there another way?”  We have wept over our babies.  We have buried prematurely.  We have wept over our young people who are among the living dead.  We have had our loved ones tread the blood of Jesus beneath their feet as we have lost children, spouses, mothers, and fathers.  We have cried out to God for grace sufficient to stand.  We have gone to Corinthians and clung to the great promises.