Praying with Power – 5

Praying with Power – 5

Subject – We Must Pray and Stir Ourselves Again

By Rick Welborne

Isaiah 64:1-7 (NKJV)
¹  Oh, that You would rend the heavens! That You would come down! That the mountains might shake at Your presence--
²  As fire burns brushwood, As fire causes water to boil-- To make Your name known to Your adversaries, That the nations may tremble at Your presence!
³  When You did awesome things for which we did not look, You came down, The mountains shook at Your presence.
⁴  For since the beginning of the world Men have not heard nor perceived by the ear, Nor has the eye seen any God besides You, Who acts for the one who waits for Him.
⁵  You meet him who rejoices and does righteousness, Who remembers You in Your ways. You are indeed angry, for we have sinned-- In these ways we continue; And we need to be saved.
⁶  But we are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; We all fade as a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, Have taken us away.
⁷  And there is no one who calls on Your name, Who stirs himself up to take hold of You; For You have hidden Your face from us, And have consumed us because of our iniquities. 

--Let’s face it, America cannot fall because she has already fallen. She cannot go into slavery because she is already chained to self-chosen moral decay. 

--Sadly there are millions who are diseased morally with no desire for healing and many of them sit on pews or chairs every Sunday filling an obligation but hearts void of Who their Substance is.

--The hope I have for America is based on the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. God said He would spare the city if they could find ten righteous people. I believe we have millions who are crying out to God. 

--Evidently Isaiah lived in a day similar to ours. He is praying an awesome prayer that God would rend the heavens and come down. Join me in praying that prayer.

--Isaiah then says something so sad… there is no one who calls on Your name, Who stirs himself up to take hold of You; For You have hidden Your face from us, And have consumed us because of our iniquities. 

--I believe he is praying with power…he is exhorting God’s people to call on God’s Name and for us to stir ourselves to take hold of God. It is the hope of the church and the world. 

--I know the Bible tells us that in the last days there will be a great falling away but it seems the devil is getting so many souls at bargain prices. Who or what has so brainwashed them?

Galatians 3:1-3 (NLT2)
¹  Oh, foolish Galatians! Who has cast an evil spell on you? For the meaning of Jesus Christ’s death was made as clear to you as if you had seen a picture of his death on the cross.
²  Let me ask you this one question: Did you receive the Holy Spirit by obeying the law of Moses? Of course not! You received the Spirit because you believed the message you heard about Christ.
³  How foolish can you be? After starting your Christian lives in the Spirit, why are you now trying to become perfect by your own human effort? 

1. We must stir ourselves and resist the desire to be lovers of pleasure. 

--The Apostle Paul gives a stern warning to Timothy that in the last day’s people will turn away from God to go after the things of this life. Be honest about these verses:

2 Timothy 3:1-5 (NKJV)
¹  But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come:
²  For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,
³  unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good,
⁴  traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,
⁵  having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away! 

--Life Church, we must stir ourselves away from such ungodliness. Pastor Rick, you should be saying this to the world. Really? So much is evident in the church. 

--This is why the church must stir herself and bring herself to a point of repentance and turning back to God. Facebook has great benefits but it also shows those who flaunt their lack of shame.

--Have you ever looked into the eyes of a believer (confessing) and tried to reason with them about doing what is biblical and godly, and then you realize, they have no intentions of doing what is right?

--You see that they are willing to take the chance that God understands why they have chosen the path they are on. God wants me happy. He wants you holy more than He wants you happy.

Lord Byron’s Lament – I now have ashes where I once had fire, the soul in my body is dead; the thing I once loved, I now merely admire, my heart is as gray as my head.

--Here is a lost man crying out because of the ravages of sin…his loose living, his uncontrolled drinking, and gambling has left him as a shell of a man. What does the church have to offer such a man?

--We need to stir ourselves again and realize that it is truly wonderful that our names are written in the Lambs Book of Life but there are multitudes of people lost without God. 

Leonard Ravenhill (1959) – Since in their freedom men will not heed God, will He have to enslave to Communism the mighty millions of America that they might have time to remember His day, His way, and His Son? Better to die bound in body and free in spirit than free in body and bound in soul!

--May this never happen to us because we are willing to pray with power and we are willing to stir ourselves to take hold of the One Who has taken hold of us. 

Philippians 3:12 (NIV)
¹²  Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 

2. We need to stir ourselves to have hearts ablaze. 

--It is time for the church to have burning hearts, anointed lips, and eyes that are full of the glory of God. We have to shake ourselves so that the scales fall off our eyes. 

Acts 9:17-18 (NIV)
¹⁷  Then Ananias went to the house and entered it. Placing his hands on Saul, he said, "Brother Saul, the Lord--Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here--has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit."
¹⁸  Immediately, something like scales fell from Saul's eyes, and he could see again. He got up and was baptized,

--Stirring ourselves and getting on fire are just activities filled with futility if we leave out the power of Holy Spirit. Emotions can only take you so far. This is why Paul instructed young Timothy:

2 Timothy 1:6-7&14 (NKJV)
⁶  Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands.
⁷  For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.
¹⁴  That good thing which was committed to you, keep by the Holy Spirit who dwells in us. 

--What gift was Paul speaking about to Timothy? He was talking to Timothy and telling him to be stirred by Holy Spirit Who is dwelling inside of him. Pray in the Spirit.

--Welcoming Holy Spirit in everything we do here at Life Church is not just an exercise in futility. It is serious and real. We need to welcome Him everywhere all the time.

--People do not naturally open their hearts to a complete stranger and confess their hurt and pain unless that person has stirred himself to take hold of God and to be filled with Holy Spirit power.

--Hear your pastor, I was not in the hospital two years ago looking for people’s pity, I was on a sent on a mission by God looking for the souls of men. 

--Thought…Let’s say physically we are on our way out of this life headed for eternity and the last act on this earth was praying for someone or trying to lead them to Christ…oh, what glory.

Romans 8:16-18 (KJV)
¹⁶  The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:
¹⁷  And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.
¹⁸  For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. 

3. How can we not stir ourselves when we survey His wonderful cross. 

1 Corinthians 1:18 (NKJV)
¹⁸  For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

--We need to, as a church, once again climb up Calvary’s Hill on our knees and survey the wondrous cross in great humility and adoration. How can you consider the cross and not stir yourselves?

Ravenhill – The Church must first repent; then the world will break! The Church must first weep; then our altars will be filled with weeping penitents.

--In our text Isaiah says… there is no one who calls on Your name, Who stirs himself up to take hold of You! As we consider the cross, let’s be the people who stir themselves.

-- Oh, Lord, that You would rend the heavens! That You would come down! That the mountains might shake at Your presence! Stir yourselves, Life Church, stir yourselves!

Hebrews 12:1-2 (NKJV)
¹  Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, 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,
²  looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.