We need of that quiet place.  You can get alone and have all of that noise of the world going on in your mind.  You have to shut your brain down.  In fact, for many of us, that’s a good admonition.  We just need to shut our brains down.  We begin to take this place and hear.  Another rendering is in the sixth chapter of this same gospel, in verse 46.  The Scripture said, “And when he had sent them away, he departed into a mountain to pray.  And when even was come, the ship was in the midst of the sea, and he alone on the land.”  Luke 5:15. We’ll get these here again and make this reference one more time.  Luke 5:15, there were great multitudes that came together to hear Him, to receive His ministry, to sit at His feet, and to be healed.  Now look what the next verse says.  They’re there to hear this Word of God.  They were there to be healed of their infirmities, and “he withdrew himself into the wilderness and prayed.”

The Martha spirit, the helping, “I have to help out over here.  These people are drawing on me from this position.  Look at these needs that are here.  These people have come to me for healing.  These people have come to hear me teach and preach the Word of God.”  In the midst of all of these needs, He walked away because He had to be with His Father; amen?  There are a lot of things that are drawing on our lives, but, beloved, we have to realize there’s one priority.  Getting with Father.  Getting with Jesus in a solitary place and hearing the heart of God is more important than preaching.  It’s more important than teaching.  It’s more important than healing the sick.  Those things will all become byproducts of spending time with God.

They will give you the wisdom and the sensitivity and the spirit to know when to pull aside and get with Him.  We read it in the gospels. In Jesus’ life He had no time to Himself.  People were wanting to draw on Him at all times.  Can I share with you about some in your family situations?  You might have certain needs.  It might be your children.  It might be a spouse or whatever, and they’re drawing on you and drawing on you.  You want to love them, but sometimes loving them is getting away from them and getting with God so that when you come back, you have the wherewithal to minister and to care for those needs; amen?  Pretty soon we’ll begin to do it in the flesh.  We begin to do it on autopilot.  It’s hard to pray the prayer of faith out of obligation.  It has to be prayed out of compassion, but sometimes we have the obligatory.  It’s a good thing to get alone with Father and to have that Spirit energize you.

He went into the wilderness, and He prayed.  He not only got alone with God; He endured with God.  We’ve shared the principle many times.  We pray until we’ve prayed.  How long do I pray?  Well, as we just referenced, there’s nothing sacred about an hour.  When Jesus said, “Can you not tarry one hour?”  There’s nothing sacred about it.  He’s just talking about the fact that we’re to tarry until it’s done, until we’ve heard from God.  We pray until we’ve prayed.  You know when you’re done praying.  Some of us are so bound by an hour or timeframe that we can be in here praying and all of a sudden, we’re done, and we say, “Oh man, I’ve got like six minutes left.”  People get into bondage to these things.  Get up and leave.  You’re done.  But we pray until God has visited us.  We pray with that spirit that we spoke of the other evening, “I will not let You go until You’ve blessed me.”  Amen?  What is that blessing?  “I will not let You go until I’ve heard from You, until I know Your will.  I will not let You go until Your grace has come upon me and I’m able to resign myself to Your mind, to Your will, to Your heart, praise God.  I’m not going to let You go until You’ve killed me.  Help me to die.  Not my will; Thy will be done.”