Prayer Secret #9
Do Not Lose Heart
 his next prayer secret will perfectly follow up
with the last prayer secret. In the last prayer secret,
which was Prayer Secret #8, we showed you how it was
definitely biblical to ask God more than one time on
whatever your personal prayer request may be.
We gave you several good verses from
Scripture showing that you can pray earnestly, fervently and
without ceasing. We showed you how you can go into a major
prevailing prayer mode with God where you can try and take a
hold of Him, try and wrestle with Him, and continually ask,
seek and knock with the specific petition that you may have for
Him.
By asking God more than one time for whatever your personal
prayer request may be, you are showing God some level of
passion, intensity and desire for what you are asking Him for.
As a result of showing that kind of desire, passion and
intensity to the Lord in your own personal prayers to Him, many
times you can create a desire in God to actually want to
answer your prayer.
However, what you will find when you start to go into these
kinds of prevailing prayer modes with the Lord is that
sometimes He will not answer your prayer request - or at least
He will not answer the prayer on the timetable that you would
like for Him to answer it on.
As a result of not getting some of your prayers answered,
you will start to get discouraged, frustrated and impatient.
And before you know it, you will want to throw in the towel,
quit, and walk off the playing field thinking that God has no
intentions on wanting to answer your prayer - not realizing
that God may have been testing your patience, stamina, resolve
and perseverance on the particular matter.
And this will now lead us into the next major powerful
prayer secret.
This next powerful prayer secret is not to lose heart,
not to quit, not to get mad and walk off the playing field
with the Lord.
This next powerful prayer secret is coming direct from Jesus
Himself. The title of this passage is "The Parable of the
Persistent Widow." This is very similar to the verse I gave
you in Prayer Secret #8, which was titled "A Friend Comes at
Midnight." That verse was from Luke 11:5-9.
However, this next verse will give us four additional key
phrases that will really add some more meat to this revelation
that we can go into these mighty prevailing prayer modes with
the Lord when the situation dictates that we take this kind of
heavier approach with Him.
Here is the specific verse where this powerful piece of
revelation is being given to us by the Lord. It is being given
to us in a parable.
Then He spoke a parable to them, that men always
ought to pray and not lose heart, saying: "There was in
a certain city a judge who did not fear God nor regard man.
Now there was a widow in that city; and she came to him,
saying, 'Avenge me of my adversary.' And he would not for
awhile; but afterward he said within himself, 'Though I do
not fear God nor regard man, yet because this widow
troubles me I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming
she weary me.'"
Then the Lord said, "Hear what the unjust judge said.
And shall God not avenge His own elect who cry out day
and night to Him, though He bears long with them? I
tell you that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless,
when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the
earth?" (Luke 18:1-8)
There are four powerful key phrases in this parable that is
giving us major revelation and insight - with all four key
phrases showing us that we can really press in hard with the
Lord on a heavier type of prayer request. Here are the four key
phrases:
- Always ought to pray
- Do not lose heart
- Continual coming
- Cry out day and night
All four of these key phrases are being tied in to this
woman asking an unjust judge to avenge her from her adversary.
These four key phrases are being directly tied to one special
request. And then notice what the unjust judge ends up
doing.
This judge is so unjust, that he has no fear of God or any
kind of regard for other people. As a result, he initially does
not want to bother to grant this woman's special request. But
then notice why all of a sudden he is going to change his
mind.
He is now going to change his mind and grant her request due
to one main reason - her continued persistence that he
grant this request for her. He says that he will have to grant
the request because he will end up growing weary as a result of
her "continual coming" to him. In other words, this
woman is not going to be letting this matter go and she will
continue to press in and petition him with the request.
Jesus then ends this powerful parable stating that if this
heathen, unjust judge is going to grant this woman's request
due to her continued persistence with him, then God the Father
will do the exact same thing for all of His own!
Notice that Jesus specifically starts this parable out with
the command that we should "always ought to pray" and
that we should "not lose heart" in our personal prayers
to God the Father. Not losing heart means that we are not going
to give up and that we will stay the course with the specific
prayer request that we have for the Lord unless He tells us
otherwise.
Also notice the last two key phrases in that we are to
"continually come" and that we are to "cry out day
and night." These two powerful phrases are also showing us
that we either have to stay with the prayer request with the
Lord until He answers the prayer, or He comes back and lets us
know that He doesn't want to answer the prayer for whatever His
personal reasons may be on the matter.
So not only must you learn how to go into a mighty
prevailing prayer mode with the Lord when the situation
dictates taking this kind of heavier approach with Him, but
you must also learn not to lose heart and give up and quit
if you do not get the answer to your prayer as fast as you
think you should with the Lord.
Sometimes God is watching and testing you on your prayer
request. He is watching to see how much of a desire you really
have for the prayer request. He is watching and testing you to
see how much desire and passion you will really show Him by
your "continual coming," by you "not losing
heart" and giving up, and by you "crying out day and
night."
In other words, God is watching you to see if you will make
a continued and determined effort to keep on praying to Him. I
wonder how many prayers are never answered by the Lord because
someone lost heart and gave up after just a few meager prayer
attempts with Him. This parable from Jesus, and the above 4 key
phrases in this parable, is giving all of us a major powerful
prayer secret to be able to use with God the Father.
Not losing heart and giving up could be one of the main
determining factors, if not the main determining factor, on
being able to get some of your personal prayers mightily
answered by the Lord.
Here are several good examples of where this particular
prayer secret will come into major play with the Lord. There
are some situations that are so serious and so severe, that
this kind of intense, powerful and persistent prayer strategy
should be used with the Lord.
1. Unsaved Loved Ones
Without question, the very first area that every single
Christian should use this particular prayer strategy with the
Lord is in the area of any unsaved loved ones who are in our
immediate circle of influence. This would include any unsaved
family members, personal friends, neighbors and co-workers.
Many Christians have spouses, parents, and even some of their
own children who are running around in this world who are still
not saved.
All of your loved ones, especially any of your close
loved ones, should be put at the top of your personal
prayer list with the Lord. Nothing, and I mean absolutely
nothing, is more important that getting others saved and
brought home to the Lord. Each Christian only has one shot,
one window, and one opportunity in this life to try and get
as many people saved as they possibly can before their day
in the sun is finally over.
If you have any unsaved loved ones who keep stubbornly
refusing to accept Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior,
what I would do is put each one of them at the top of your
personal prayer list and apply this particular prayer secret to
this situation.
In other words, you will continue to pray to God for their
salvation either to the day they literally die or to the day
they finally accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior. This means
that you may end up praying for some of these people for 20,
30, 40 or 50 years - sometimes literally to the day they die
and depart from this life, as some people will actually get
saved on their death beds with the Lord.
As a result, you can never give up on these people
and "lose heart" with this particular prayer request. Lives
are hanging in the balance, and many of these people's
eternal destinations may end up depending on your own
personal stamina, endurance and persistence in your own
personal prayer life with the Lord.
2. Heavy Addictions
With the heavy amount of drug use in this country and
throughout different parts of the world, there are many who are
severely bound up with some of the heavier drugs like crack
cocaine, heroine and meth.
I just recently saw a clip on the Dr. Phil show. There were
two twin teenage daughters who had gone from being totally
normal, sweet, innocent young girls to heavy crack cocaine and
heroine users. It was so bad they were literally selling
themselves on the streets as prostitutes so they could get the
money to continue their drug use.
They had pot marks and open sores all over their faces and
the limbs of their bodies. They were slowly dying and wasting
away. It was the most graphic and horrible display of the
drastic effects these kinds of heavy drugs can have on the
human body that I have ever seen.
They knew they were dying. They knew what they were doing
was wrong. But the death grip of this addiction was so strong
and so powerful, that they literally could not take themselves
off the street or stay in any kind of therapy or rehab for any
length of time to help break the addiction off of them. Not
only were the drugs and the effects of these drugs holding them
captive, but you also know that there were demons operating
behind the scenes holding these young girls captive.
Many parents across this country are battling this problem
with either their own children, their own spouses, or some of
their own close friends or relatives.
These kinds of situations are so severe and so serious, that
I believe every Christian who knows of someone being held in
this kind extreme bondage and captivity should also put these
people at the top of their personal prayer list and go into
this prevailing prayer mode with the Lord until they either get
help and pull out of these horrible addictions, or they end up
dying and leaving this life much earlier than what the Lord
would have really liked.
Sometimes the only thing that will rescue and deliver these
people from these kinds of heavier addictions is the
supernatural power of God. Friends, family members,
medical treatments, psychological therapy and counseling will
not work for some of these people.
Some of these addictions have such a heavy death grip
on some of these people, that only the supernatural power
of God will be able to pull these people of it and set them
completely free from it. And sometimes the only thing that
will get the supernatural power of God to come into these
kinds of extreme situations are the prayers of mighty
prayer warriors who know how to go into the gap with the
Lord - and who know how to stay the course with the Lord
until something happens either one way or the
other.
Again, if any of you have any loved ones who are caught in
the death grip of a heavier drug or who have become an
alcoholic, I would highly recommend that you add this person to
your personal prayer list and apply this particular prayer
secret to it. In other words, do not ever give up or lose heart
until God either moves to deliver this person or that person
dies and departs from this life.
3. Cults, False Religions and the Occult
Another very heavy and extreme area where this prayer secret
has to brought into play is in the area where people have
fallen into some kind of cult or false religion, some area of
the occult like witchcraft or Satanism, or some part of the New
Age movement.
All of these areas are major enemy-demonic territories and
any person, whether they be Christians or unbelievers, need to
be seriously prayed for if they have fallen under the spell and
influence of these kinds of demonic groups and
organizations.
If the person is an unbeliever, they will be in serious
danger of ever being able to find and accept Jesus as their
true Lord and Savior due to the demons and the false beliefs
that are heavily operating in these kinds of organizations.
Demons and the members of these groups will blind them to the
real truth of the big picture, and they will brainwash these
people into accepting lies that will be coming straight from
the pit of hell itself.
These types of situations are extreme emergency situations.
If you know of anyone that has fallen into some of these kinds
of demonic groups, they should also be added to the top of your
prayer list. They should all be prayed for until something
happens either one way or the other with the Lord. This is
another extreme situation that you will not ever want to lose
heart over or give up in your personal prayers to the Lord for
their deliverance and salvation.
4. Terminal Diseases and Illnesses
Another heavy area where this prayer secret can be brought
into play is in the area where someone has just been diagnosed
with a terminal disease or illness. I am going to talk much
more about this specific possibility when I do another prayer
secret article titled "Mighty Prevailing Prayer."
Mighty prevailing prayer will be the heaviest of all of the
prayer secrets and strategies I will be giving you. This will
be the nuclear bomb that you will use in your own personal
prayer life with the Lord.
If you have a solid green light from the Holy Spirit to be
praying that God heal someone with a terminal illness, then
this kind of extra heavy prevailing prayer may be the thing
that will get God to release His supernatural healing power
into the situation. And part of this extra heavy type of
prevailing prayer is not to lose heart and give up on it once
you start it up with the Lord - and to stay the course with the
Lord until He either actually heals the person or the person
dies and departs from this life to be with Him for all of
eternity.
Conclusion
Some of the above are just a few examples of where this
particular prayer secret can brought into play. Again, here are
the 4 major key phrases that Jesus Himself is giving us in the
above parable of the persistent widow:
- Always ought to pray
- Do not lose heart
- Continual coming
- Cry out day and night
Put all 4 of these powerful phrases within the context of
this parable of the persistent widow, and Jesus is telling us
loud and clear that we can go into a major prevailing prayer
mode with God the Father when we are faced with a heavier type
of adverse situation as described in the above examples.
We can continually pray day and night to the Lord
when faced with a heavy storm cloud that may either be coming
direct at us or someone else we may know - and we can pray with
the intentions on never giving up or ever losing heart -
which means that we can pray until God either moves to answer
the prayer or He tells us to let the matter go for whatever His
personal reasons may be for the situation.
This is another extremely powerful prayer secret to add to
your own personal arsenal with the Lord.
Professional athletes have found that dogged
persistence, stamina and endurance - and never giving up,
letting up, or losing heart is one of the main keys to
becoming a great professional athlete. And you too can add
this powerful prayer secret in your own personal prayer
life with the Lord to help you become a mighty prayer
warrior for Him!
 Click here for reprint information
Intercessory Prayer - Prayer Secret
7
Ask - Seek -
Knock - Prayer Secret #5
Prayer of
Agreement - Prayer Secret 6
Michael Bradley
Bible Teaching and
Bible Commentary,
Over 150 Free Bible
Lessons
Scripture taken from New King James
Version.
Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Copyright © 2005-2008 by Michael Bradley.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5
License.
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