What Power What Poverty by Ed Pruitt

Romans 8:16-17

WHAT POWER, WHAT POVERTY

Pastor Ed Pruitt

Amarillo Church of God

Sunday June 16 2002

Romans 8:16-17

We want to Praise the Lord again this morning for the good day that God has given us the privilege He has given us to assemble here in the house of worship once again.

We want to thank Him and give Him praise for the many things that He gives to us and for the way that He takes care of us, and for the way that He does things for us that no one else can do.

I want to continue speaking again this morning on the power of prayer and what that power can do for us.

I still feel that one of the greatest needs that we have today as Christians, is a need of getting a hold of God in a greater way through prayer.

And the reason that I feel that is because,
Anything that you can look for today, or want today will come to those who ask God in prayer.

So when we realize the things that we need and want and desire as Christians, God has.

And secondly we realize that God has ordained that there is only one way that we can receive it, is asking through prayer.

Aman.

So we want to study a little more this morning on the power of prayer, and how to receive that power.

And I want to say this, I never want to preach in a manner to hurt someone, and sometimes when we begin to lift up a standard from God’s Word just as it is, we have to realize that the enemy is right there working.

One thing that we all have to realize this morning is that the devil is right here working, right here among us.

We would like to have devil proof doors, and devil proof windows but we haven’t got them.

So while the Holy Spirit is here working to bless, and comfort, and strengthen, and help, the devil is ever ready to twist every statement that he possibly can, that the man of God makes.

He wants to crush you down, knock you out, he wants to kill everything that you have in you that’s trying to live for God, the devil wants to destroy everything that is good.

So we need to be reminded as the people of God, when the man of God sometimes stands in the pulpit and begins to lift up a standard, beyond that which you are living, right at the present.

You have got to be careful, the enemy will come around and condemn and make you feel that you haven’t got anything.

But remember that God is mearly lifting up something for you to point to and work to gain to.

And as He lifts it up if we will let the spirit of God help us He will encourage us, to move to that position that God will have us in.

I mearly say that, that we might clarify the thought that the enemy would not work in that manor.

Now if you will turn to Romans the 8th chapter again this morning, the same 16 and 17 verses, even though we will not just be preaching from them.

I want to draw your minds there for just a little and we want to talk to you just as quickly as we can about prayer.

Do you know there’s a lot of people that get discouraged among the people of God in praying, because they have prayed about some things, and felt that they didn’t get an answer.

And because of that, oh they still go through the form of prayer but they can’t get into it in earnestness with sincerely like they once did, because they prayed about some things that didn’t work out, and the devil used that against them.

See if there is anything that the devil fights I think that we said it last week, it’s praying.

He will watch us go through all of the ceremony’s of religion and set right in the midst, but friend when we get down to definitely praying, and getting a hold of God, he will fight that position.

This is why you have such a time sometimes when you get down to pray, Aman, really getting to the place of praying.

Because the devil will fight you to the last ditch of you getting to that place of a closed closet, where you can really get a hold of God, and draw the strength and help that you stand in need of.
Aman.

Let’s bow our heads,
Father we want to thank you just a moment to praise thee again, for thy goodness and kindness.

Lord God we are glad that you can look on our hearts and see that were really thankful for every blessing that you have given us up to this hour.

And Lord the privilege to serve thee above every thing else, and were glad that you haven’t left us alone.

Were not in this battle alone, Your the Mighty One, and my God you are still speaking to your people, your still laboring to encourage us and help us and strengthen us.

Now we pray that you will anoint me this morning and anoint the people here this morning that we might be able to gather from thy word that which you deem necessary this morning.

I pray that you will rebuke the powers of darkness and let your sweet spirit come into every heart, we pray in Jesus name, AMAN

Now let’s turn to Romans 8:16-17
16 The Spirit itself beareth 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

I want to repeat again this morning, right in the beginning, this is a magnificent passage for us as believers this morning, Aman, this is really something to think on as children of God.

This scripture says, If children, then heirs, I say that’s wonderful.

And then it goes stronger and says heirs of God, that’s more wonderful.

Then the next clause says joint heirs with Christ, that’s most wonderful.

Oh how we love to study in the word of God to see what’s really coming to us.

What God has ordained for us to enjoy, what God has ordained for us to be joint heirs with, and I would like to say this morning as I just break right into the study,

Oh what wealth there is for us to enjoy,

Oh what power, last week we talked about power belonging to God and before we got through we found out, that that same power belongs to us, Aman, we are heirs of it!

Oh what wealth of power and strength and spiritual ability that there is in God, but oh what poverty we see manifested in too much of that, that claims to be the church today.

Aman, somebody might say do you mean me?

I don’t mean anyone in particular I am preaching the message that God has laid upon my heart.

I say what power God has in store, but what poverty in too many cases is being shown forth in the lives of those that claim to be children of God.

Now we go back just a moment to the morning time church, we went back a while last week, but everyone realizes those first disciples of Jesus were poor, some of them were fisherman,

1 Corinthians, the First chapter said that not many mighty men were called.

So the mighty men were left out in that early group, but yet if you will study there lives they taught in terms of real wealth.

They believed that they were the wealthiest men on the earth.

In all of there poverty they believed and talked in terms of real wealth.

They had much to say about the unsearchable riches of Christ, and talked about the depth of those riches, and the depth of the knowledge and wisdom of God that had been given them through the Holy Spirit!

They didn’t want anyone to feel sorry for them, they believed that they had something that was far above any of the wealth or ability’s that this world could afford to rejoice in!

And I want to say this morning Church of God, if you are truly the Church of God, you need to throw your shoulders back and lift up your heads, like Jesus told us to do, in these closing days of time!

Friends, if we have got a hold of God and He’s got a hold of us like He wants to have, we have got a hold of a Power that’s greater than all of the Powers that’s in the world in any way!

We have got an avenue through which we can get a revelation of wisdom and strength and ability, Aman, that no other people in the world is blessed with!

I say this scripture this morning of being heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, My friend, means much!

That morning time church preached it straight, they believed in the depth of the riches of the wisdom and the knowledge of God in Jesus Christ!

They told the world how though He was rich yet for there sakes they became poor that through His poverty we might be made rich!

My friends, those morning time apostles went out to reach a world like men who had struck an eldorado, friends they had struck it rich.

Aman, They had found a source, they had found an experience, that not only satisfied there soul, but satisfied their soul in an abundance!

And they believed they had enough overflow to feed the whole world and give the whole world a drink of this greatness that they had found, in there soul.

I say that they were heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ, and nothing is a more direct challenge!
I say to modern Christians today than this consciousness of possessing this great Spiritual enrichment that we have through Christ Jesus!

You know that you can ask people today, do you believe in the revealed scripture that teaches of the goodness of God given us through Jesus Christ?

Everyone will easily say, we believe that.

You can ask a Christian, do you believe it’s needful to be born again to really be a Son of God?

And you will get an affirmative answer from everyone of them.

But friends when the New Testament this morning, begins to ask us whether in consequence of this new birth, our lives are resilient and a bounding and buoyant.

When the word of God began to ask us whether we live no longer slaves to sin and self and circumstances.

Oh how many are slaves to circumstances?

They are just happy when things go well, they are just up when things are right, and down when things are wrong.

And all of the time that they are up, they live in fear that any day it’s going to come again, and I can’t really enjoy being up, because I’ll most likely be down again in a short while.

AMAN, I want you to see something, you might say what are you after anyway?

Listen friend, when this thing is lived according to the blue print and according to the experience of the power, friend we shine as the stars!

We need to get away from mellimiun theories about shining as the stars off in some thousand year age, there will be no need to shine there, it will be too late to shine there!

My friends were living in this Holy Ghost dispensation which is the answer to Daniel’s prophecy, when right now the righteous shine as the stars, and friend the stars don’t turn off and on, up and down.

We try to tell the world and sell the world on a God that never changes, there’s no variableness with Him, Aman, and then turn around and live variable lives!

Friends, I want you to see there is a greater richness, Now you heard what I said in the beginning, some of you are scooting down in your seat already.

I am not after you, I don’t even know you.

Aman, I am just preaching the Word of God and trying to get you to see what God has given us through Jesus Christ!

I am not preaching a message about you!

If you strain a little harder you can get to a higher position.

I am talking about the riches that God has given us, our inheritance, a part of it, that God has given us through Jesus Christ.

So this morning there are plenty of people if asked, answer quickly about being born again, but I say that we need to come down closer with the question.

My friend, are we living buoyant lives, when I say buoyant, I mean sailing above the level of this old world!

We need to be living a life that will shine out to the people of this world.

A life that will make people turn around when we pass by, a life that is so full of the power of God that when people get close to us in a crowded room they will feel God’s power through us.

We need to know that greater is He that is in us than he who is in the world!

And after he that is in the world has done his very best, thank God you have got enough excess power left to stick your tongue out at him and shout in his face when he has done all he can do to you.

Aman, Well some of you might ask me.
I thought that you were preaching about prayer?

Well I am, I want you to see this morning what God wants to do for us.

When we begin to look at it, this is the real test that we have to face this morning, and here is the sadness that many are living under.

Suppose that there was a man that had received an inheritance, let me tell it this way.

A preacher friend of mine, Emerson Wilson, told us about a man, Booker T Johnson that came to Newark, Ohio on a freight train.

When he got off the train there in Newark the police picked him and took him to the out skirts of town and told him not to come back into the city.

Well, Emerson lived on the out skirts of town himself and this man walked up to his house and asked him if he would help him.

And then Booker reached in his pocket and pulled out a little piece of crumpled up paper that had a lawyer’s name on it.

He told Emerson that he was from down South, and that he was a poor man but he had been told to come to Newark because he had inherited a large some of money.

Then Booker asked Emerson if he would make a phone call and call that lawyer for him.

So Emerson called the lawyer and the lawyer told him if that man was in fact Booker T Johnson, he indeed had a large sum of money coming to him but there were some things that he would have to do to get the money.

There were some conditions that he would have to meet, and there was a price that he would have to pay.

Well anyway to make a long story short, Emerson helped him work it out, and in about 2 or 3 days there was a fine dressed man came to the door, and Emerson said that he hardly knew who it was until he looked twice.

Emerson asked him who are you and the man said I am Booker T Johnson, and I have come around to thank you for all that you did to help me.

Now listen this morning supposing that one of you had a rich inheritance, and you know it, but you won’t pay the dues, you won’t pay the price, you won’t meet the condition’s so you can have it.

So it lay’s right there in the lawyer’s office.

In too many cases that’s exactly what’s going on among Christian people, the inheritance is there, it’s clear, and the word of God is witness to you.

The spirit of god is a witness to you, that’s it’s yours!

But too many don’t want to meet the condition’s, they don’t want to pay the price as it were.

Aman, to lay hold of this rich inheritance that you could be enjoying this morning.

Somebody might say, Brother Pruitt, do you really believe there’s people like that?

Friend, if I didn’t believe it I wouldn’t be preaching along this line.

I say that heavens power house is over charged with dynamics, but there is a short circuit some where, it don’t much to make a short circuit,

I have seen when they tried to turn on the lights and they wouldn’t come on and everyone thought that it must have blown a fuse or something worse, but do you know what it was?

There was a little dust on the contacts.

There can be thousands of volts going through the switch, but a thin piece of paper between the contacts will cause the power to stop, and there won’t be a bit come through.

I want you to see this morning, the enemy of souls, makes us feel as if we are dealing with things that we look on as little things, that don’t amount to anything.

But friends it doesn’t take very, very much to stop the mighty workings of God’s power in our lives, and in our midst.

I pray that God first of all will refresh our minds again and cause us to look upon the greatness of Gods power, and how it belongs to us how bad He wants us to have it,

I often said that a man that went bankrupt wouldn’t delay in using checks signed by a millionaire friend that would pay him out of debt and clear him up.

He wouldn’t stand around when a friend said here’s the checks there are signed just take them and fill in the amounts and get yourself on your feet and go I am your friend.

Yet my friends, you and I have got exceeding great and precious promises signed by the pierced hand of Jesus in His own blood!

And He says to you, just take them, whatever amount that you need, just ask, there’s signed, you just fill them in.

Let me tell you friends, this morning we seem to have a terrible time laying a hold of them, and too many time we go along less blessed than God wants us to be.

We go along on a lower level than God wants us to live on, I have said before that we mortals never seem to need to learn and that’s to learn how to make excuses, we have a native ability for that.

Now in Revelation the 3rd chapter in that letter that certainly covers the day and age that which we are living, and I am not here this morning to sort between the true church and who isn’t the church.

I just want to refer you to the letter, I am not going to read it to you, I just want to pickup one clause out of there and talk to you a while.

Jesus said to the church of the Laodiceans, your naked!

Now the truth of that text is, the church has been caught naked, and naked through the Word of God means without excuse!

We have no excuse for not manifesting the Power of God in a greater way!

We think that we have got excuses, my friends people offer many excuses.

You can get free from excuses and you can get free from anything else that keeps you from being everything God wants you to be, whatever it is!

Now let me tell you, that the church as a whole doesn’t have the Power that they try to make you think that they have.

And the sad part of all of this is, we don’t have any excuse for not having the Power!

And let me tell you something else, when we have enough knowledge to read the Bible and read of this power,

Then we have no excuse what so ever, not to have that power of God shining in our lives!

Now we have all got to realize this morning that we have no one to blame for our Powerlessness but ourselves!

That’s why God said that you are naked, we have no one to blame but ourselves!
AMAN!

Without God in our lives, we are powerless!

We have no power!

We are fooling ourselves!

And we are fooling each other but we are not fooling God!

The truth of the matter is, that we need greater obedience to that which we already know!

We can’t blame the devil for this one,
Because the Word of God tells us that that God gave us power over every power of the devil, through the Holy Spirit,

But how many can be what they want to be because the devil hinders them today?

The Word of God tells us this morning that if we are not what we need to be, we have no one to blame but ourselves!

First of all, and I repeat we can’t blame the devil, because the God said that He gives us power over all of the power of the enemy.

Second, we can’t blame our enemies, but Romans the 8th chapter, just add it up.

All our enemies, things present, things past, things to come, every enemy that you can have and tells us that we can be more than conquers over every enemy that we have!

Through Jesus Christ!

Third, we can’t blame the weapons that would be combined against us.

Let me tell you, that there are plenty of preachers today that have lost their zeal, lost their fire, and lost their power, and are actually excusing themselves because of the day and time that we are living in.

Friend, you can’t do that, we can’t blame any weapons, Let’s go back to Isaiah 54:17,

I could quote it but I want you to read it with me, and I hope that you will mark it in your Bible like I have it in my Bible,

Let me tell you why I want you to do that, because I am just as human as you are, and unless I keep this body under the working of God’s Holy Spirit.

Unless I keep this body under the direction of God’s Holy Spirit, this old body begins to raise up, and make excuses.

And if you will allow it to make excuses, the next thing you know, you will be taking an attitude, and attitudes develop into wrong spirits.

Now if you have all turned in your Bible let’s read
Isaiah 54:17

17 No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn.

This is the heritage,( now come on, we are talking about being heirs of God )

This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is of me, saith the LORD.

Let me tell you this morning friends, that we have the righteousness of God, and when we have the righteousness of God, there’s no weapon formed against us that can prosper!

Somebody might say, well you don’t know what’s coming.

This covers what has been, what is now, and what will be!

No weapon, formed against you can prosper!

I say, we can’t blame the weapons, Psalms 91:10 you turn and read it, there it will tell you how it will guard you!

Psalm 91:10-11
10 There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling.

11 For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.

God will take care of you! Let’s turn to Ephesians 6:16
16 Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.

Everyone of them, you can put the fire out, it won’t catch fire, AMAN!

So again I say, we can’t blame the weapons!

We can’t blame God, because He has told us to ask and it will be given to us!

We can’t say that the supply lines have run out, for His word said in 1 Corinthians 3:21
21 Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours;

And friend that takes in a lot, all things are yours,

I say my friend, we could go on and on, but the word of god will let us know this morning that were naked, that we have run out of excuses and the real fault for our nakedness lies within us!

Friends let me tell you once again, we either have, or we don’t have what it takes!

There is no middle ground.

That’s why Christ was stirring the Laodicean church they had taken a middle position, neither, nor Revelation 3:15-17
15 I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot.

16 So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.

17 Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:

Now let me tell you this morning, the message is you either have it, or you don’t have it, there is no gray area in a true Christians life,

There is no lukewarm areas for you to be in, you either have it or you don’t.

We people this morning need to once and for all, get down to business and know where we are in our spiritual lives,

Away with the confusion that clutters our mind’s, away with this half hearted living for God

And once and for all know where we are going and get to God’s filling station and fill up on that power that is there waiting for us, start cashing those blank checks that God has given us and ask, and get those mountains out of your life once and for all!

I say this morning that we either have it or we don’t have it, and let me tell you this morning that if you don’t have it God has it waiting for you!
AMAN!

He has it for us just as sure as we are here!

I say that of all the weaknesses that we have this morning, prayer weakness is the greatest!

How little praying is done today?

I wouldn’t want to even ask you how time have you spent in praying today.

Somebody might say, don’t you have any confidence in us?

I have full confidence.

But I am preaching on an epidemic that’s effected the people of God from one end of the world to the other.

Our greatest weakness is in our prayer life!

How little praying is done in secret?

Then as I said last week, public prayer meeting, I have lived long enough and been around the Church of God long enough and most of you have too when a Wednesday night prayer meeting was just that.

But these modern day saints if you drag, I have to use the word drag, that’s what they use.

If you drag the prayer part of even a Wednesday night prayer meeting out to 45 minutes, they get restless.

I see from the looks on your faces that you people pray as much as you feel that you need to, so I won’t preach that part to you.

In most cases everything else is going on, on Wednesday night but prayer meeting.

I an not here to set up programs for the church, no sir, no sir, no sir.

I believe that the big end of the praying needs to be done at home, Aman, and I’ll give you a written guarantee and you can put it to the test.

You see people that spend lot’s of time in prayer at home and they will make short prayers in the church.

Somebody said, do you believe in short prayers?

That’s the only kind that’s in the Bible.

You start in Genesis and read the prayers of men, and you will find that you won’t find a one of them that lasted over a minute.

Why? In public prayer they didn’t have to pray clear around the world.

They had done the praying at home.

What kind of public praying did Jesus say?

Jesus said, Father, I am glad that you already heard me, you heard me when I was out behind the rock.

Now for these people, I just say these words, and bang, bang, bang, God went to work!

People today have forgotten how to pray as they ought!

Churches today have playtime on Wednesday night, or work night, or food night, or whatever night, anything but prayer!

Friends we need to see this morning, a pattern that the devil has thrown right in among the people of God.

When prayer is our supply line, prayer is the only thing that we do in our religious activities, where we talk to God, where we actually talk to God!

All of the rest of our religious worship, even the kind accordling to the bible, were doing it one to another.

And God has taught us accordling to His word that if we receive the great things that we are looking for,

We must ask for, and oh how little asking is done, in fact it’s almost offensive some places if you preach on prayer, people don’t want you to bring it up it bothers them.

They have lost the art of praying, they have lost the burden of praying, praying is hard for them, AMAN!

Now may God help us this morning, I don’t want to hurt with these words, no, no, no, do you know what I want you to see?

I would like to see in the next few months, several souls saved here, I would like to see our church grow, I would like to see our church become a church of power!

That’s not too much to ask for.

My friends, there are people that slip by all of the time that never ask anyone to church.
AMAN

I am not trying to find fault with anyone of you, but I am telling you this morning how each and everyone of us here this morning can change that!

God has ordained a way where your life can be more powerful than that, and I pray that you will see it.

Look at how little time that the average Christian spends in prayer!

Now let’s face it, since were too busy to pray, were too busy to have power!

It just boils down to that deduction!
Were to busy to pray, were too busy to have power!

We have a great deal of activity, but we accomplish little, we have many services, but few conversions!

Now we need to look at this, in it’s right perspective this morning!

How long would any company keep you as a salesman, if you never made one sale in a year?

Let’s look at this some people feel that if they get into the service on Sunday, Wednesday night, and every other night during a revival, we have done God a favour.
AMAN!

And we have ended up wanting the church to support us.

When the truth of the matter is, you are supposed to be supporting the church.

Aman, aman!

Do you know that I could get up here this morning and preach on sin and run down other religions and all sort of things but friends I want to encourage all of you this morning.

God is still on His Throne!

He is not governed by circumstances!
All days and periods of time are the same to Him!

Light and darkness are the same to Him!

He don’t know inflation or deflation!

He don’t know anything about sickness or good health!

Study about Him, Aman, He is omnipotent!

And you are an heir of God.

We need to get a little more of that omnipotency, that Power.

Aman!

And the way that we are going to get it, is just like I kept repeating last Sunday, ask, and you will receive, ask, and you will receive, you don’t receive because you don’t ask, cause you don’t ask, cause you don’t ask!

I want you to know that we don’t need to live in spiritual poverty this morning, we can have God’s power in our lives.

If we have asked God to come into our lives, and to be our personal savior,

We are his children and we can have the same power that He has!

We need to get that power that God is trying to give us, and the way that we are going to get it is just like I have been repeating all along,

ASK and you will receive, ask and you will receive, you don’t receive because you don’t ask!

The reason that we live in such a poverished condition is because we lack God’s Power in our lives!

Do you know, it is a master stroke of the devil, when he got the church busy, Aman, doing lot’s of things and laying aside the mighty weapon of prayer.

The devil’s willing this morning for the church to multiply it’s machinery and it’s organization for conquest of the world for Christ, if it will only give up praying.

Aman, I say that he laughs under his breath this morning, and he is telling the church you can have Sunday School, you can have YMCA, YWCA and the YPFCE and the WCTU and the Boy Scouts and the Men’s Clubs.

And Choirs and Organs and brilliant Preachers and great revival efforts, just as long as you don’t stir the people to praying!

I don’t care if you do all those things!

Like I said before, the devil doesn’t mind if we go to church, or if we teach or if we preach, or anything else, but what he does mind is if we pray!

Prayer gives us power over all of our enemy’s, and it gives us power over the devil, he doesn’t like prayer,

Prayer gives us power!

The devil will let us do almost anything today, if we will just give up prayer!

He doesn’t care what we do in church just as long as we don’t pray!

The devil fears only one thing and that is prayer, the kind of prayer that moves God, the kind of prayer that has power,

Because he knows that when we begin to pray that way and when we begin to pray as a group with the Power of God in our lives,

Things are going to happen and he doesn’t want to see that, we put him on the run when we pray!

Do you see, the devil in not afraid of anything but God!

And we have the power of God in our lives then he becomes afraid of us, or I should say our prayers!

I want you to see this morning that prayer can accomplish as much as it ever did.

Allow me to make this statement,
Prayer can do anything that God can do!

Prayer can do anything that God can do, for the arm of God responds to the touch of Prayer!

All of the infinite resources of God are at the command of prayer!

Prayer is the key that opens wide
AMAN

The inexhaustible storehouse of the divine grace and power of God!

There’s only one limit to what prayer can do, what is it?

What God can do!

If God can do it, prayer can do it!

All things are possible to God, so prayer is onipentint.

I want you to see that there is unlimited power in prayer, and I would just like to throw in for good measure,

That God always gives you more than we ask for!

Let’s look back in Genesis when Jacob was on the way down to get him a wife, and he laid down on that stone for a pillow and he begin to pray.

And he said Lord, if you will give me food to eat, and raiment to wear, and bring me safely to my fathers house again, let me accomplish this mission,

I’ll serve you, you will be my God, and a tenth of all that you give me, I will give to you.

That was the asking.

What was it again, just give me food and raiment, and give me a blessed trip so I can make the journey safe back to my fathers house,

That’s all that he asked for, but what did he get in answer to that prayer?

Take a look at him coming back!

He had hundreds of thousands of camels, hundreds of thousands of ass’s,

Thousands of sheep, he had such a large company that they had to divide in to groups of three to travel, that’s a pretty good answer to what he asked for!

AMAN!
Friends I want to tell you something this morning that praying and living for God, pays of in a much greater way than too many people are enjoying this morning!

And I am not against anyone of you this morning,

I am against the enemy of your soul that wants to rob you poor spiritually and he will do it by hindering in your prayer life.

You can go to every church service that you want to, you can teach, you can preach, you can give all that you have, but until you have a rich prayer life, you will have nothing!

God will honor a rich prayer life above everything else.

I want to encourage you this morning right in the face of people who would tell us well I prayed and nothing happened!

Well you come back next week and I’ll tell you why nothing happened!

You have got to understand that God is a prayer hearing God,
and some of you say that I pray but nothing happens,

Well like I have told you before when nothing happens it’s time to see if your power line is clipped.

For we all know that God hears every prayer that He hears and if He isn’t answering your prayers then your power line must be clipped!
God always gives you more than you ask for, look beck in the New Testament when the people bought the palsied sinner to Jesus to be healed and what happened,

And they asked Jesus will you heal him, the first thing that Jesus said is that your sins be forgiven you, the palsied sinner didn’t even ask for that he wasn’t even thinking about that,

But let me tell you this morning that forgiveness of your sins is always better than healing or anything else that you can think of,

But what happened the man asked to be healed and Jesus told him first your sins be forgiven, and Jesus rolled away his sins and healed him legs too,

He always gives you more than you ask for, don’t ever let the devil make you feel that God is diminishing His efforts in answering prayer,

He still gives you more than you ask for.

Do you know how God believes in dealing out, he tells you how, give good measure, pressed down and running over, that’s God’s measure!

There was the thief on the cross, one of them railed at Jesus and the other said, you shouldn’t do that, you and I have done wrong and were being justly dealt with, we should be crucified.

This man done no wrong, and then he looked over at Jesus and said, when you come into Your Kingdom, will you remember me?

That’s all that he asked for, but he got more than that, Jesus said, let me tell you, today you will be with me in paradise!

Thank God that thief not only got to be with Him in His Kingdom but Jesus took him along with Him to paradise in just a few moments,

I am here to tell you that He always gives us more than we ask for!

I am here to tell you this morning that there is a mean old devil out there that is always working through the powers of unbelief.

I want you to see that too much of the battle is right in the mind, Aman, and he is filling the mind with thoughts and ideas dark feelings and heaviness.

He will get you to look on circumstances with one thing in mind, he wants to rob you of the victory that God wants to give you.

I am here to tell you this morning that God still answers prayer!

And he answers just like He always did!

Like he always has, but let me tell you this morning that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever and when you live for Him He always gives you more than you ask for.

God is no respecter of persons, and when old Jacob asked for something, and got ten thousand times more!

God must do the same for me, when I ask Him, and God has done the same for me!

Someone might ask this morning, how blessed are you?

I don’t know what I am worth!

Bill Gates can tell you this morning what he is worth but I can’t.

I don’t know what I am worth!

I am a child of God!

You tell me what God is worth, and that is what I am worth.

People of the world have got to fight and war and fuss and fume to get what they want and even then sometimes they still don’t get what they want but,

Let me tell you this morning that a child of God doesn’t have to worry about what he is worth, all he has to do is live right,

Aman!

Do right and ask, and God will do the rest!

Let me tell you, prayer has unlimited power!

Power that we can’t even think possible.

I am talking about real eternal security.

Thank God!

My friend, this morning we want you to see even as our text has said, we have the privilege of being children of God.

And if we are children of God, if we are children of God, that is where the if is.

If children, if children, He didn’t say any if on the heirs.

That’s real, the if is on the children’s side!

There is where the if is!

If children, then heirs, and joint heirs with Jesus Christ!

Aman, aman, aman!

See, my friend, there is unlimited Power!

Prayed has power to bring us,

My friend, true knowledge of our selves, just as sure as we are here.

And our needs, oh how we need to pray, how we need to spend much time in prayer, so that we can know our true needs.

Know our true self, know what we really stand in need of.

Well I say this morning, and I just want to listen to the Lord just a little bit longer.

I sincerely believe this morning, that most of us will need the tears wiped away from our eye’s when we stand before God almighty and He looks at our prayer record!

When our personal prayer record is read.

It’s being kept.

Did you ever stop to think what would happen if your prayer closet could talk?

And I would ask, say Mr. Closet, how long has it been since you saw Brother so and so?

I haven’t seen him in quite a while.

Oh he ran in and out of here the other day real quick.
He used to spend quite a bit of time here, but he has gotten too busy.

Too busy to pray, and he is too busy to have Power!

And he has fallen from that high position that God had him living in once, where he could trust God.

Now he is down on the level of the world, he is fighting for what he gets.

Standing in line with the world.

Fighting for what he gets.

Oh friend, this battle of Armageddon, if I would say what’s on my heart I would say,

That the very center of the Battle of Armageddon, were getting right into the very center of the fighting when we get to this thing over prayer.

Yes sir, this is where you get your victory, just as sure as we are here.

So I believe my friend, if the prayer record was read, there would be people that will have wet eyes and sorrowful hearts.

Do you know what is really a strange paradox?

The people that are always feeling that they are not praying enough are really the ones that pray the most.

Did you hear what I said?

It’s a strange paradox, but those who pray the most feel that they have done the least, of praying!

It works that way.
Aman,

Or I might put it this way, no man who prays struts.

And I could go one stronger than that.

Show me a praying man, a praying man is easy to talk to, he never fights or fusses.

Could I give you an example?

And here is something to think about, look at the apostle Paul, he was like a wild cat, he was out to take the church of God single handed.

And just to make a long story short the light brighter than the noon day sun shone down, he fell under the power of it and looked up and said who are you Sir,

And what would you have me do, and the voice said I am Jesus, whom you persecute, and this is what I want you to do.

I want you to go into the city to a street called straight and it will be told to you that.

Paul went in there for three days and he fasted and prayed,

God spoke to Aniais and said I want you to go over and lay hands on Saul of Tarsus, and Aniais said to God, oh I can’t go over to him he is a killer,

Do you know how God calmed the fears of Aniais?

God told him that Saul was praying, and a praying man doesn’t cause any trouble,

If you can get people praying it will put and end to all of the trouble in a church.

Differences, misunderstandings will be swallowed up, come on I know from experience,

I know not only because the Word is true, I know from experience.

Aniais said Lord don’t you know him, he’s killing people!

And the Lord said Aniais, he’s praying, and Aniais said OK Lord I’ll go right over, I am not afraid of a praying man, no matter how rough he has been.

Praying people are easy to handle.

Thank God for the nods of the head, I am glad that I am not a blind preacher, cause I wouldn’t get no inspiration this morning, because the Aman’s have stopped.

I am telling you again, you can put an end to every problem if you can get people praying.

Why?

Friend when you get down to real praying, you take a real humble position.

Friend you can’t go to God with a spirit of arrogance.

You can’t go to God feeling that you are better than another person, you can’t go to God saying that your 100% right and everyone else is wrong.

You can’t go to God that way, you don’t even get started to pray till that attitude ceases to exist.

God said to Ananias, he is praying!

Now he was praying, and Brothers I want you to see that when you get to praying, God go’s to moving.

Paul didn’t have to send some man across town!

We have got so bound with the human we think that we can’t get a message to somebody unless we send someone over!

God didn’t have to say Paul, send a man over to Ananias and get him to come.

Brother, you get to praying and God gets to moving.

Paul went to praying and God went to moving.

Over on the other side of town was a man that didn’t even know that Saul was in town.

And if he had known that he was in town, he would have probably gone out the other end!

To save his neck!

But he didn’t even know that he was in town!

When Paul got to praying, God went to moving!

And God spoke to Ananias, go over, lay hands on him, lay hands on him, he needs help, lay hands on him that he might receive the Holy Spirit.

And thank God he received Him, he received Him.
Well somebody might say, Brother Pruitt, how come more people aren’t praying as they ought?

First, prayer is taxing.

When I say taxing, I mean hard work!

Were too lazy today.

Come on, if God would decide that he could give you prayer life in a pill, you would all line up to take it!

But friend, He is not going to give it to you in a pill form or a shot in the arm!

Were going to have to do it the way that all men have done it, in all ages, Jesus set our example of prayer life.

And he got into it till His sweat become blood, drops of blood!

What are you talking about?

He got that earnest in prayer!

Oh I pray that God will help us to see what God wants us to see!

Prayer is taxing, prayer is exacting, prayer means enduring, prayer means denying self!

What is the reason that more don’t pray?

Prayer means denying self!

Prayer means a daily dying by choice!

There is noting wrong with going fishing, going boating, going swimming with your family, if you are prayed up!

But if you are not prayed up it is wrong!

And about tomorrow morning, some of you will be tempted.

Well the children’s off to school, I believe I’ll spend some time in prayer.

Ring, ring, the phone go’s.

Hey did you hear about this, did you hear about that.

Man we ought to go there or we should do this or we should go to work just to see what’s going on.

Good by prayer, I’ll be there in 15 minutes.
Aman!

Now I don’t need to illustrate in other lines, the same go’s for the male.

Nothing with many things in the way of recreation nothing wrong with going shopping.

But I am holding to my point this morning, there is many things that there is no sin in.

It’s not unlawful to do it, if you are prayed up!

Now you are just getting just a little picture of why I have such a burden to preach along these lines.

We have just been ate up with the spirit of the age until we want the name Church of God, but we are going to run our lives like we want them to.

And we don’t even want God to infringe upon our program, if he does, we get our feelings hurt.

I am going to say it once again, there isn’t anything wrong with a lot of things, if you are prayed up!

If you are not, it’s wrong!

Thank the Lord.
Aman!

You know, I am afraid this morning that we don’t look at prayerlessness like God does in His Word.

We kind of call prayerlessness, neglect or a lack of spiritual appetite, or loss of vision.

But what we call it doesn’t matter too much, it’s what God calls it!

Friends let me tell you once again, it is time that we get down to real praying, praying that God can hear, praying that we can feel, praying that moves God!

People that try to live without prayer are just fooling themselves.

Let’s turn to
1 Samuel 12:23-25
Friends, I don’t want to hold you overly long, but friend I am dealing with something that’s vital!

I don’t know if you realize it or not, but this is the force that’s back of this, this morning.

Not only whether you make heaven your home, but right here in this group of people the decisions that you make about this message this morning is going to determine whether hundreds make heaven their home.

We need to feel the real pressure of it.

Why?

If you will straighten out and get down to a real prayer life, your life will become fruitful and only heaven will hold the record of the number of souls you can effect for God.

But if you refuse and go on, you will do it my friend at the sake and the cost of your influence plus your own souls.

1 Samuel 12:23-25,
And I would read some surrounding verses but you can catch it.

I’ll give you this much, Samuel probably as faithful a leader and prophet as God had.

But Israel got to the place that they didn’t want the man of God to lead them anymore.

That’s pretty hard to take, that’s hard on any leader to have his people raise up and say, well you have been all right but we have decided we don’t want you for a leader anymore.

We want a King like other people.

And after praying, Samuel said all right we will do what you said and he went and the King was anointed and listen to what Samuel said.

23 Moreover as for me, here he is talking to the people God forbid that I should sin against the LORD in ceasing to pray for you: but I will teach you the good and the right way:

Now I want to tell you something.

There’s very few that’s able to pray when they get put out of office.

But Samuel was put out of office, the people rejected him.

And he said, God forbid that I should sin against the LORD in ceasing to pray for you.

Now this may fall heavy, but do you know one reason the breaches among God’s people haven’t all ready been healed?

Because people take such rash stands today, even stands beyond that which the Holy Spirit would lead them in.

They have taken such stands that they don’t even pray for people that disagrees with them.

Is this right, friends?

Now how can God ever help us?

When we get our feelings hurt, Aman, let self get into the picture to the place that we cease to pray for somebody because they disagree with us.

Or even turn us down, reject us.

I want to show you the Spirit of God, Samuel said God forbid that I should commit sin in ceasing to pray for you.

Oh friends, this morning this thing of prayer just runs on and on and on.

All through the pages of God’s Word and never runs out of it.

It’s so needful!

Prayerlessness is disobedience!
Let me clinch the ends, God commands, we quoted two scriptures and we can give you more.

Prayerlessness is disobedience!

Prayerlessness is not doing as we ought in the eye’s of God!

God, commands that we should pray!
It tells us over in

Luke 18:1
And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint;
And over in

1 Thessalonians 2:13 taught us there, Aman, that it is the Will of God that you never cease in your praying

13 For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.
and let’s read in

1 Timothy 2:1-8
I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men;

2 For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.

3 For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour;

4 Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.

5 For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;

6 Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.

7 Whereunto I am ordained a preacher, and an apostle, (I speak the truth in Christ, and lie not;) a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and verity.

8 I will therefore that men pray every where, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting.

and let’s read

Ephesians 6:18-19
18 Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;

19 And for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel,

Over and over friends, God would speak to us and tell us that it is His will that we continue in prayer.

Aman!

I pray that God will help us, and friends I am not preaching to you something that I am not doing myself,

By the help of God I am spending more time and more time in prayer,

I see the need of it as never before.

And my friends as I talk to you this morning I can in no way impress upon you enough the need of real prayer in your lives and when you really get down to praying you will begin to see things like you have never seen them before.

Let me tell you again this morning, there are two ways that you can have a falling out with God!

One way is like David did, by openly sinning, he sinned and failed God and knew what he had done and knew his condition as soon as he had done it.

By doing things that you know that you shouldn’t do and by totally going against the will of God,

And we know that we are sinning when we do it and we continue it anyway!

And the other way is like Samson, compromised little by little and he whist not the Spirit of the Lord had left him.

Now there are two ways that we can lose out.

One by willfully, knowingly, openly committing sin and we know it when we do it!

And we know that we are wrong.

Or we can go like Sampson.

Just compromise a little, the first thing that he compromised was by touching that dead lion,

He was under an oath that he would touch no dead thing but he paid no attention, he went ahead and did it anyway.

Have you ever seen people today enjoying things that God told us to stay away from?

Come on, trying to be Christians over the top of it.

God told him not to take a wife of the enemy of God.

But he went right down and flirted with the Philistines he had to have a wife of the enemy of God, step by step he compromised and overcome.

And then when the final test come,
He was whipped and defeated, he thought that he was going to raise up, the Bible said, just like he had always did.

But he whist not that the Spirit of the Lord had already left him.

How could that have happened?

It happened so gradually, so easy, it was a day by day thing, little by little.

Which way have you lost the grace of God?

Have you openly raised up and rebelled against God and sinned against Him knowingly and cut yourself off and know that condition?

Or have you just allowed little things, step by step to work in your lives, until you ended up in a powerless condition.

Friends, this morning, heaven is looking in on our service right now.

Heavens interested in the decisions that we make, heavens interested in the life that you live from this moment forth,

And I am here to tell you, as one who loves your soul this morning, that a real prayer life is the beginning.

Without that, nothing else really matters, nothing else really matters.

That’s the starting place.

I wonder this morning how many of you feel that prayer is too hard, it is almost out of the question because it’s too hard to get started.

I just can’t seem to get interested in it,

I am too busy,

I just haven’t spent too much time in prayer,

I am trying to get by without it.

And because of the lack of prayer in my life I am powerless,

I am not radiant I am not fruitful as I ought to be.

How many of you feel that way this morning, how many of you this morning feel that you want to get that power?

How many of you want to ask God to come into your lives and forgive you of your sins, and by the grace of God no matter what it takes,

I want you to come into my life and fill me with that Holy Spirit power and give me that burning desire to pray!

Lord if there is no other time in my life then wake me in the middle of the night and fill me with the need to pray!

I have had God do it to me many times.

Friends, when He says Ed, the second that he does that I am as wide awake as if it was 2:00 in the afternoon.

And more than once I have gotten up and poured my heart out, didn’t even know what I was praying for, but burdened, heavily burdened.

My God have mercy, I have cried out.

If we are not careful the human side of us gets into it, and we say why pray, I don’t know what to pray for!

Well we will get into more of that, about praying in the Spirit.

Paul said, pray with the understanding, pray with the Spirit too.

Pray with the Spirit too, Aman!

Listen to me friends, were not only ambassadors, we are priests, and since we are priests we are intercessors.

He has taught us to pray the prayer of Thanksgiving and pray the prayer of intercession.

Those are not for our needs.

The world’s needs, the neighbor’s needs those around us, those that are not praying and ought to be praying, we must make intercession.

What a job we have ahead of us!

What a job we have got, if we only face it.

Friends let me tell you this morning that there is work in living for the Lord, but oh the rewards far out weigh anything that you can think of.

God is still the same God that rewards those that diligently seek Him, everyone that diligently seek Him,

We will feel the reward in our life, we will feel the reward in our services, God will reward us openly,

He said that if you will seek my face secretly in the closet,

I will reward you openly, right out in front of everybody, He said the He would bless us until we can’t stand it.

These are the things that the devil is trying to cheat us out of, God help us to be awakened to this morning!

Let us bow our heads,

Father, thank You for helping me to preach Your Word this morning.

Lord, we have just jumped around as Your Spirit led, My God we can feel the need this morning.

We believe that there are hearts here that have felt the need.

We believe that there are people here that are sincere in there experience.

They want to see and feel the Power that can come only from You.

We all want and desire the Power of You in our lives.

God help us this morning to receiver that power, in Jesus Name.

Aman
 

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