136: Dennis Gillett - Prayer: Privilege and Possibility

Automatically transcribed. Accuracy is good but not perfect, and words are sometimes wrong. Trust the audio over the text.

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   Welcome to Good Christadelphian Talks. I'm Levi. And I'm Chris. And I'm Brian. Thank you for joining us this week. On this podcast, we select one talk a week to help us get the Bible in our daily news feed. We post a new episode at the start of each week, with a short intro beforehand to kind of set the stage for the talk you're about to listen to.

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   And now, let's talk more about this week's talk. This class is the first talk by Brother Dennis Gillette in a series called The Pathway of Prayer, which I don't have the date on. It is from, I was able to download it from Christadelphianbibletalks.com. And this class was actually suggested to us after last week, where I posted on my own personal Facebook page that John McDougall's class, The Seven Lessons, was one of the best classes we've ever posted.

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   And that inspired the brother who suggested this to us to send me this class. And this class is fantastic. I do not want to take anything away from Uncle John's class, which I think is incredibly impactful. So if you haven't listened to that one, last week's episode, and you're starting this one, please go back and listen to that one.

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   I think it's very timely and powerful. This class was also fantastic. This is the first class in a series titled The Pathway of Prayer. This is The Privilege and Possibility, and Dennis Gillette does a fantastic job explaining, I think, kind of, there's a clear two halves to this talk. There is the privilege, which is, you know, in his classic, in his amazing style, just goes into explaining how we do have a blessing and a privilege to be able to speak to our father.

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   And then, but the possibility section, the second half of this class is very impactful. It was really impactful for me, just how he kind of argues against the idea that prayer is just for our benefit, and that we have to believe that our prayers have impact, and that they do good, which I think is very personal for me, because I've been thinking the same thing over this last 18 months, you know, this last, the pandemic and all the social strife we've had, that the best thing we can do is to pray.

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   So, loved this class, and I'm excited to share it. This is Prayer, Privilege, and Possibility by Dennis Gillette. This first address in the series, The Pathway of Prayer, is entitled, Privilege and Possibility.

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   Now, I would like to express a word or two by way of introduction, first of all. Brethren and sisters, in coming to speak to you this week on the subject of prayer, I should not like you to think that I am posing as an expert. There are some things, of course, about which you can be expert.

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   By a great deal of study and earnest reading, you can become expert in certain subjects. I mean, biblical prophecy would be such a subject. By a great deal of biblical study and reading, you can, with contrast and comparison, become very competent in the interpretation of Bible prophecy. But you see, prayer is not in that category.

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   There is no way to learn to pray except by praying. You discover how to pray by use. You learn by practice. I knew an old man in Christ. I use the past tense because he has fallen asleep now. I knew an old man in Christ who, measured by human arithmetic, was very poor in this world.

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    And he was also on tutor because he had to be taught to read before he could study the Word of God. But he knew more about prayer than any man I've ever met. Although he was ill-informed, as we should say, from the learning point of view, he was a mighty man in the ministry of prayer.

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    So, please understand, I have not come as an expert. I challenge nobody's opinion. I question nobody's methods about prayer. I have come simply to say that I want to put it to you as it appears to me. And I hope that the things that have helped me may thereby help you. And if, perchance, I should fall into dogmatic language in the course of these addresses, it will be by accident.

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    And I wouldn't like you to think that what I am saying, I believe to be the last word about prayer. No, I do not pose as an expert. Simply want to put it to you as it appears to me. I know and you know there are problems and there are difficulties about praying.

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    And let us hope that this week, together with our consideration, we may find some instruction, some help, and some consolation. So, that's the introduction. Well now, let's begin dogmatically with a good sound Bible principle. It's in Proverbs 23, verse 7. You'll remember it well, you'll remember it well. As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.

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    Now that tells us that what a man thinks determines what he does. It tells us that a man's belief conditions his actions. My consciousness of anything determines my conduct towards that thing. I mean, my consciousness of a child conditions my conduct towards that child. My consciousness of a young woman, it conditions my conduct towards that woman.

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    If my consciousness is low, my conduct will be low. If, on the other hand, my consciousness is high, then my conduct will be higher. It's an old principle. As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. In the city of Corinth, the New Testament times, there were some people living there who were skeptics.

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    They didn't believe in any other life than this life. They didn't see evidence from any other world than this world. They were skeptics. And so, they lived their lives purely on the plane of the material. Their lives were lived purely on the level of the sensual and the transient. Indeed, as you know, they had a proverb, Let us eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die.

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    And their lives, the way of life arose directly out of their philosophy. As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. So, I only mention this to say to you, what you believe inevitably determines how you behave. And this is essentially true about prayer. What you think in your minds about prayer will decide whether you pray, how you pray, and what happens as a result of your prayer.

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    So, our business in this address is, first of all, to consider what is the right teaching about prayer according to the Bible. Think about its privileges and its possibility. Because this is the pathway we ought to tread, I think, if we are to come to a condition of prevailing prayer with God. Now, I don't know whether you want a definition of prayer at this stage or not.

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    I can only say that when I was a young boy, before I came into the truth, my religious mentors taught me that prayer was the raising of the heart and mind to God. And I've never felt the need to quarrel with that definition. The raising of the heart and mind to God. In short, prayer is communication with God.

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    A cry uttered or unexpressed, which reaches heaven and the majesty on the high. Now, in the first chapter of the Roman letter, it's at verse 20, the Apostle Paul says that men have evidence of the existence of God. You remember this. He says they have evidence of the existence of God in the things which are created.

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    There is evidence of power and intelligence in the things of nature. The divinity of God is marked on every tree, on every blade of grass. Nature proclaims the existence of eternal energy and transcendent wisdom. But I do not think you will be constrained to pray to eternal energy. Even when you see it marshalling stars and controlling seasons and presiding over the secret forces of the universe.

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    Even then. I do not think you will pray to such a force in the way we think of praying. It's difficult to believe that any word of yours or any word of mine could reach or affect such a stupendous intelligence. Standing by itself, you know, the idea becomes unthinkable. We may feel broken and bruised and we may feel the need to pray, but somehow we cannot pray to an inscrutable force.

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    Which is in nature. No, don't think I'm diminishing the importance or the truth of Romans 1 verse 20. Not one which. Of course it's absolutely true that the created things demand our wonder and our reverence and they are testimony that God exists and he is a powerful God. But it's not the whole story.

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    That's all I'm saying. The whole story is that out of this immutable and stupendous intelligence has come a revelation which has charged the whole situation with a new dimension. And this is it. And it's summarised for us in a verse in John's Gospel, 1st chapter verse 18. No man has seen God at any time.

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    But the only God and Son which is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him. It means that out of the infinite spaces of eternity and from the mysterious and inscrutable intelligence of the invisible force has come a great love song. Behind the power and the position of the great God of the universe there is abundant and abounding grace.

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    That's what this man is telling us. Notice the phrase, the bosom of the Father. It means the Father heart of God. And out of that Father heart of God His only begotten Son has spoken to us. We know now, as with Hosh Filiich, we ponder this word of revelation that the one who has spoken out of the bosom of the Father is the one with wounded hands through the mystery of pain upon his life with the death of sacrifice and wrapping him as a garment.

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    So that we may be able to come near to the great God of the universe and find pardon and peace and protection. So, thereby we may enter into the presence of this great God and come to a proper place of prayer. In Psalm 103 you'll remember this sentence, Like as a father pitied his children, so hath the Lord compassion on them that fear him.

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    And all of us, when we think about these things, we know that in the very fibre of their being, somehow we are undone. We are under the pollution and the penalty of sin. We are lost and straying. We are broken and bereft. And then we discover that underneath the eyes of fire, there is the voice of God.

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    Jesus said, and we sang tonight, I am the good shepherd. And the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. And it tells that the shepherd work of God will never cease, will never cease until all the straying ones are brought home. There is pardon for sin, there is cleansing for our pollution, there is power for our paralysis.

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    So, standing in the Son's revelation of the Father heart of God, a man or a woman in their weakness and their utter need, they are constrained to draw near in reverent and filial fear to utter their hearts and express their minds, raising their hearts and minds to God. They are constrained by the realisation of what God is really like.

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    It means, you see, therefore, in the realisation of what God is like, that he is a great shepherd. We may, we may come with all our bruises and our wounds and our impoverishment, and we may find grace to help in time of need. That's what I mean by privilege. The revelation of God and what he is like creates in us a desire to pray.

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    And if you believe and if you feel this to be true, of course it will have an effect upon your pain, because as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. But, there is more to be said about the privilege of prayer, and that brings me to my first proper reference, Luke chapter 18.

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    Which we read. Have a look at that please. Luke 18. Help. Just, just let me read verse 1, to start with. And Jesus spake a parable unto them, to this end, that men ought always to pray and not to thank. Now on a point of exposition, in the revised version of the New Testament, instead of the word men, men ought always to pray, it says they ought always to pray.

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    Now you may think the distinction is hardly worth noticing, but I propose it's important. The change is important for this reason. It reveals more clearly to whom the king was speaking. You see, if you go back to the 22nd verse of chapter 17, if you've got your Bibles open, please, if you look back to the 22nd verse of chapter 17, you will read this, and Jesus said unto his disciples, then he goes on to speak of the stress and strain and the conflict of the life of discipleship, and you will see then that the word he's speaking to his disciples, and the word men tends to detach the words from the immediate context, whereas the word they includes it even more closely.

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    It is they's concern, it's not men, it is they, they the disciples, faced with the allied forces of opposition and ungodliness, they, in this condition, faced with these forces, they ought always to pray and not to pray. It's right there in the context if you substitute they for men. Now, notice in that, those first few verses in that parable.

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    Notice what the king is doing. He is putting these two things in opposition. He retires that this is the alternative before the disciple, to pray or to thank. And there is no hint of a middle course. In this teaching, men are simply in two groups, those who pray and those who thank. And according to our understanding of the king's teaching, if men pray rightly, they will not faint and if they do faint, it will be because they have ceased to pray rightly.

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    And so, in a way, you can find your interpretation of prayer by the process of opposition. I mean, put simply, prayer is the opposite of fainting. Now, we know what fainting is. Fainting is the sudden sense of weakness, it's helplessness, it's weirdiness, it's to feel the force of life ebbing away. So, by contrast, you can define the effect of praying.

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    It is to mount up with wings of eagles, it is to run and not be weary, it is to walk and not faint. Though the way may be rough and the way may be rugged, perhaps amongst, walking amongst precipices, it's, it is safety and it's assurance. So, this is the king's great philosophy of life.

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    If you pray, he is saying, there is no hour so dark, there is no temptation so subtle, there is no conflict so fierce, but if a man or a woman shall pray, then they will overcome. That's what he said. Men will not faint. I mean, if you have an argument about it, it is not an argument with me.

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    This is not my philosophy, it's the teaching of your king. If you pray, he says, you will not faint. Now, here is an interesting thing I want to impress on you. Notice, that although praying is a great privilege, right in the heart of the privilege, there is necessity because he said, men, they, ought, they ought, to pray and not to faint.

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    It's a privilege indeed and yet, in a sense, it is a solemn duty. They ought. It must mean that in God there is resource equal to every demand that can come upon those who trust him. Men ought not to faint because they ought to pray. Now, this is the privilege of prayer. The inward, impelling force is the realization of their own need and the revelation of God's abundant provision and solution for his love's sake.

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    The father heart of God making provision for every need of his children. This is the impelling force which drives his children to pray. God making provision for their every need. The realization of what he is like drives us to draw near and pray. And then, of course, the necessity. Not only are we impelled by the realization of what God is like, but our own needs, our own needs enforce upon us the necessity.

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    Let me give you an example. If a man is suffering from a deadly disease, shall we say, and there's a certain remedy, but he refuses the remedy and consequently he dies, you could say, of course, that he died of the disease, but it wouldn't be the whole truth, would he? The real answer is he died because he refused the remedy.

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    Now, this is our situation. Standing by ourselves. Our Lord tells us we are bound to faint. We are bound to feel the vigor of life passing. We are bound to feel beaten and broken down and disintegrating and descending and finally doomed.

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    And he makes provision for no middle cause. Men, they ought always to pray and not to faint. And this is our privilege and this is our necessity. And if we understand it rightly and if we feel it to be true in our deepest heart, then I think as Jesus is teaching us, it will control whether we pray and how we pray.

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    So, now that's all I wanted to say about privilege. Remember the subject was privilege and possibility. possibility. So, let's come to possibility now. That is to say, let's consider the purpose and the achievement of prayer. Now, I want to come to the point straight away and say, I know there are those who affirm quite sincerely that the sole purpose of prayer is subjective.

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    That is to say, the object of prayer is solely to change those who pray. to produce upon the character of those who pray something noble and uplifting. And nothing more than that.

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    Subjective prayer affects the person but it never affects anything outside the person. That's what's meant by subjective prayer. Now, whilst I have the deepest respect for those who sincerely hold this view, I am compelled to say that I think it to be wrong and in some sense I think it's a theory which is self-destructive.

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    You see, when we were thinking just now about privilege, we brought to mind a simple but profound statement in John's Gospel. Now, I want to do the same again while we are thinking about possibility, a simple and profound statement from the words of our Lord himself. I bring you to Matthew Chats. Please, Matthew Chats.

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    Matthew Chats. Have a look at verse 7 of Matthew 7. Ask and it shall be given you seek and ye shall find knock and it shall be opened unto you. For everyone that asketh receive it and he that seeketh find it and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. For what man is there of you whom if his son asked bread will he give him a stone?

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    Or if he asked a fish will he give him a serpent? If ye then being evil know how to give good gifts unto your children how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good gifts or good things to them that asketh? Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you do ye even so to them for this is the law and the prophets.

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    Now you see, if when I ask I never have. when I seek I cannot find and when I knock no door is ever opened then I am obliged to say with the deepest reverence that somehow I feel I have been deceived. I mean in that passage the words of the king are quite explicit and there is another quotation in the gospel which is equally remarkable it's in John 15 verse 7 I'll read it to you if ye abide in me and my words abide in you said Jesus ask whatsoever ye will and it shall be done to you.

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    Now in that passage there is a condition and the achievement the condition is if ye abide in me and my words abide in you and that condition demands a situation where the desires of the praying one harmonize with the purposes of God and that harmony is brought about by living a life which is honed in God and in a spiritual sense a life where God can dwell and be at home and where he may move by the authority of love and where there is nothing to make his presence impossible and given that condition then prayer becomes a method of cooperation with the great God of heaven and therefore a situation is established where God will answer the cry and the petition of the one who prays bearing in mind an understanding that he will never grant anything which hurts or harms those on whom his love is said and so if prayer has no objective value that is if prayer never affects anything outside of us but only ourselves then those words deceive me into thinking it does and the alternative that these are words of one who was sincere but somehow one who was mistaken now we cannot possibly believe that that this man this man of Nazareth who taught us these things was mistaken the bible says that heaven and earth may pass away but his words will never pass away it appears to me that if you deny the possibility of objecting then without willing it perhaps you have denied the word of the king himself and then you could think about it along the line of reason I am the first to

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    recognize that there is a very real subjective value of prayer I know very well that praying does affect people who actually pray it affects the inward condition of those who pray of course it does it does change us as we practice prayer of course it does those who speak with God cannot escape bearing the mark of it like Moses in the mountain but here is the argument you see that the subjective value and effect of prayer arises out of a conviction that when men speak God he hears and answers their petitions that's really why it affects us if a man prays for something it is because he has faith in God to whom he prays it seems to me that the subjective value of prayer arises out of its objective value and if you can demonstrate the subjective value it follows therefore that you have presumptive evidence that prayer has an objective purpose again most people who pray objectively that is believing that God will answer their prayers and he will grant their petitions he will change things outside themselves people who pray objectively believing that and that these external things can be changed by prayer I say people who pray like that are affected in themselves they are changed often they are uplifted often they are noble by the belief that God will do these things now if there is no such possibility that God answers prayer in that way then it means that belief in that which is false has been able to produce a character which is true and which is noble now such a proposition is really untenable and then there is

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    another fact which cannot be denied it often happens that people who believe only in the subjective value of prayer and people who deny its objective value I'll tell you something very often at last they give up praying altogether I know of three cases of this of people who believed only in the subjective value of prayer that is it would alter them only and nothing else eventually they lost faith and they gave up praying altogether so that's what I meant when I said I felt the subject the theory was in itself destructive so pardon me for that digression but it's important to establish that at this stage that we can go back now to Luke 18 and think of the unjust judge in the parable now the parable brethren and sisters is an exposition of the meaning of prayer by the use of contrast have you noticed that all through its contrast in other words all that the unjust judge was God is not the judge was unjust he was careless he was indifferent he was concerned only with his own peace and his own security now by contrast God is revealed as being susceptible and righteous and just and mark the word of Jesus long suffering over them he will avenge it says and the use of the word avenge there does not mean he will take revenge in this case but means he will do justice to he will do justice to and the king adds the word speedily by contrast it reveals that God is one who answers the heart uplifted in prayer and God would not reluctantly like the judge but ready

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    to hear an answer the weakest feeblest faintest cry so we form our understanding of the possibility of prayer first by our doctrine of the nature of God as we thought about it under privilege then by the gracious words of the king himself tenderly spoken and substantiated by his own life and death and resurrection and then finally I'm going to propose finally by the history and the experience of men and women of God who have asked and received who have sought and found or not and had the door opened you know brothers and sisters today in the scientific world experience is a universal test of truth and reality that is the that is the measurement that science imposes experiment and experience and if that be true we are more than right to include in our testimony the experience of the people of God who have prayed and who have found answers and our next step is to think of some examples of that now my first example brothers and sisters is I want you to think of Hannah the wife of Elkanah it's in 1 Samuel chapter 1 why not you know it of course I understand you know it inside eight of course Elkanah was a kind considerate man and he loved his wives and he loved Hannah especially that's what it says in his day polygamy was legal perfectly legal I said Elkanah was kind and considerate whether he was wise is another matter two wives in the same kitchen one baron the other fruitful and the fruitful one cocky with it you'll notice what it says verse 6 poor Hannah Hannah's adversary also

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    provoked her sore for to make her threat because the Lord had shut up her womb now you don't have to be a genius to know Hannah's feelings I mean she knew this woman knew what she needed she needed a man child it was no good explaining to Hannah that the laws of nature cannot be changed or that the laws of probability cannot be manipulated no good explaining that to Hannah somehow she had the fixation that the force that closes the womb is able to open the womb the power which makes barren is able to make fruit that was Hannah's philosophy she was as you know in bitterness of soul and went to the temple you know in the presence of Eli and prayed and wept sore so that he thought she was drunken at first she was praying so earnestly then after her prayer she went back to Shiloh her countenance it says was no more sad she tossed her burden on the Lord and you know well it was not in vain this prayer was not in vain Hannah never ceased to give thanks in the person of Samuel her child who served God it's the first splendid example of the experience of those who pray now my next is something quite different I am thinking of King Asa do you remember King Asa he was a good man but he had bad feet and it's true the record is in 2 Chronicles 14 8 not about his feet but about something else you see when you read when you read the 14th chapter when you read the 14th chapter of the second book

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    of Chronicles you will discover that everything was going well and splendidly with Asa and his reign everything was first class and then suddenly out of the blue came the Ethiopians against him with a great army and humanly speaking defeat was certain now I want just to detain you for a moment on the question of the armies involved in this situation the record tells us that the Ethiopians had a million men poor Asa had only half a million now I don't know what you think about these numbers if anybody has something to help me with these I should be letting you talk to me afterwards I just ask you to notice it the authorised version says the Ethiopians had one million men and Asa had half a million as I said you know you can see that humanly speaking he was in a bad case but Asa was a man of grace he sought a link with God his prayer that he prayed to God is one of the most daring in the whole of the Bible I want you to notice it verse 11 of 2 Chronicles 14 everybody there verse 11 then Lord it is nothing with thee to help whether with many or with them that have no help O Lord our God for we rest on thee and in thy name we go against this multitude O Lord thou art our God let not man prevail against thee now notice what he's saying what he's saying is we are inadequate Lord but we are calm we are weak we are at thy disposal and if we fail it will be thy failure

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    that's what he's saying it's the boldest most daring prayer I've ever read in the Bible this man says to God we've come we're inadequate we're incompetent we've got nothing against these men if we fail it'll be your failure because we place ourselves at your disposal it was a very bold thing I'll tell you something it was answered with a great victory over Hira and the Ethiopian hosts of course the battle was not Asa's as he said it was God's battle and it was God's triumph but you see it needed it needed Asa's faith a very interesting case I think what do you think my next example is Joshua have a look at Joshua 7 you'll remember of course how under Joshua the people of God had great victories at Rephidim and Jericho they were greatly exhilarated by those splendid victories and then they came to Ai I believe that's how you say it I don't know that's what I call it Ai they came to Ai and you see it was a small thing it seemed to them like child's play by comparison with the other battles and in verse 3 if you have a look at verse 3 of Joshua 7 you'll see that the intelligence core said that only a few men would be needed and really there was no need to trouble the almighty they were only wasn't it 3000 doesn't it say 3000 they only needed 3000 for this business they needn't trouble the almighty well you know the story they went out as though they were going to a Sunday school party and they came back halter skelter licking their wounds

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    and Joshua was dumb found but he took his trouble he took his defeat to God now I know what you're thinking I can read your minds you're wanting to tell me that it was this business of Achan the sin of Achan which was at the bottom of the trouble and that's true but perhaps if Joshua had taken the matter to God first of all before they went out and discovered the hidden danger before the battle it would have been better instead of discovering it after the battle and their defeat just a point to ponder I move to the New Testament now and I'm thinking of the Apostle Paul in the ninth chapter of Acts in the ninth chapter of Acts in verse eleven of Acts nine the Lord is speaking to Ananias you'll remember and he says to Ananias in verse eleven of Acts nine arise and go into the street which is called straight and inquire in the house of Judas for one called Saul of Tarsus for behold he prayeth now that's a very interesting little phrase as though God is meaning mark this wonder Ananias Saul of Tarsus is praying he is being converted he has discovered his need and God told Ananias that this sign of praying was proof that the arch persecutor had become a true disciple now don't doubt this Saul of Tarsus had prayed before many a time prayed as a proud Pharisee but now for the very first time he is praying in reality why he is praying because he is a broken repentant sinner behold he prayed even God is amazed even the great God of

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    heaven marvel behold he prayed you see with God that was conclusive and he wanted to convey that truth to Ananias you can trust him Ananias behold he prayed very well I'm going to bring you back to the Old Testament Daniel chapter 6 have a look at Daniel chapter 6 verse 10 Daniel chapter 6 verse 10 when you read it you discover that Daniel three times a day when Daniel knew that the writing was signed he went into his house and his windows being opened in his chamber toward Jerusalem he kneeled upon his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God as he did a four times three times a day he prayed to the God of heaven at the open window now he did this when all was well with him perhaps he did it because he knew that the crisis was going to come and when it came it would discover the hidden flaws and lay bare the source of his strength I think Daniel knew that the crisis was bound to come you see the crisis sometimes tries all things in one day a man may reap the harvest of a lifetime have you ever thought of that one awful crisis determines a man's destiny all through his life he's travelled and then one awful crisis determines his destiny that's how it is sometimes the faith of Daniel was not a flash in the pan his reliance on God was not born suddenly usually people who pray effectively in a storm have discovered their needs in fine weather desperation of course is better than despair but the best cause

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    is to have commerce with heaven when the storm before the storm envelops us not when the storm has arrived of course it's good to pray when we are in the darkness but it's better to pray when we are in the light as well in preparation for the day of darkness very often open victory is the fruit of secret prayer over a long time now Daniel's secret was the ministry of the open window when the crisis came Daniel had nothing to alter did you notice that he did as he did before there's nothing to change in his life he continued to do then what he always done he went to the open window he gave thanks !

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    it says as a fortine verse 10 he did not suddenly need to change his life now of course that wouldn't be true with everybody would it I mean I can think of a man I'm not prepared to tell you his name but I reckon if the crisis like that had come to him he would have shut the window drawn the blinds locked the door and made his will Daniel was ready for that day because he was ready every day he stole an advance march against the enemy by discovering his need early when he faced the king's wine do you remember early in his experience in Babylon he faced the king's wine he knew what to do when he was faced with that problem and so God delivered him when he had to face the king's lions that was the experience of Daniel a praying man at the open window and he is revealed as a man who was praying ready for the crisis now I mention all these examples brethren and sisters because I wanted to say this to you in the last minute or two there are some people of course who want to tell us that these persons and many of us like them were all no doubt sincere but some how they were misguided and mistaken now if that's true that the testimony of saints and seers and prophets and priests and psalmists and martyrs if all this is to count for nothing then we ought to say if they were deluded then may God help us to share their delusion if they were because their delusion has been the cause of some

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    of the noblest characters and the most effective dynamic and some of the best work that's ever been done on this planet in the name of God now you do not believe nor I believe that they were mistaken so let nobody rob you of your conviction that these great things which they did were done because of the power of prevailing prayer let nobody rob you of that conviction and let us remember again that the conviction that this is true is based firmly first of all on the doctrine of the nature of the fatherhood of God and then well we could go over our reasons again I think as we thought about them in privilege and possibility our conviction about prayer is based first of all on the realisation of the nature of the fatherhood of God and then on the declaration of our Lord Jesus Christ himself and then on the history of the experience of the saints so that as you think in your heart about prayer so you will pray your conception your conviction about prayer as it deepens as you understand it will affect how you pray and as you are conscious of the privilege and the possibility so hopefully you will be able to come more surely to the next stage which is called preparation and practice that will be the title of the next address preparation thank you thank you for listening to the good Christadelphian talks podcast we hope this talk helped you in your walk if you would like to hear more please subscribe for new episodes and leave a review in apple podcast or whichever service you are using

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    and talk to you