This address on prayer was given by specific request at the Stone Church Convention, Chicago, Illinois, May 15, 1922, and published in full in The Latter Rain Evangel (June, 1922).

Elder Brooks was a leading minister of the Zion Faith Homes in Zion, Illinois from 1910 until his death in 1954.

 

 

I will say, in the first place, that I am not here on dress parade, nor to preach a trial sermon.  I have no philosophy and no rhetoric and no epigrams, nor wonderful things to say, but I have in my heart a great, deep, intense yearning and a great cry to God that He may by the power of the Holy Spirit come into your hearts and make you to pray more than you ever prayed before in your life.  I do not care very much how God does it.  I do not care how He uses me; it doesn’t make any difference about that but the burning question with me is, “Is there any way that I can impress you with the fact that you do not pray enough?”  Is there any way I can make you understand that your safety, your security, and your peace with God depends upon your praying more than you do?  Is there any way I can make you understand that the great rapture you are looking for, the great coming of the Lord, the great glory that is to come upon the children of God will depend upon your praying more than you are now praying?

 

You know that it is a subject so remarkably large that it will be impossible for me to attempt to speak of it in a complete way, so I have just selected one phase of this subject:  the necessity of prayer, the necessity of more prayer, the necessity of much prayer.  I will call on you to deal with God about what you will do in your prayer life. 

 

I have perhaps one phrase that I might put as a foreword to what I am saying, and that is the words about my blessed Lord found in Luke 22:44:  “And being in agony He prayed more earnestly.”  I see our holy Christ, the One infinitely pure, Who never committed a sin, never did anything wrong – I see Him in the Garden of Gethsemane sweating bloody drops, pouring out His heart to God.  For what?  Just because it was a necessity.  It was just as necessary that He should have prayed as it is for you and me to pray.  When He left that great multitude and didn’t minister to them, but turned aside, it was as necessary for Him to do that as it is for these preachers here to get on their knees instead of spending all their time preaching.  And I do earnestly say to my brethren, your success or failure will depend on how many hours you put in in prayer.  Your ministry will not be counted by the number of sermons, nor by the eloquence with which you preach, nor by your wonderful logic, but it will be decided by the amount of praying you do, by the amount of knee drill you have.

 

Oh, I tell you, children of God, the Lord Jesus Christ when He spent all night in the mountains, when He spent nights in Gethsemane, did it because there was the necessity!  He was a man and He had to overcome all His natural disposition and all of His weaknesses, humanly speaking, just like any other man.  He was God, - I know He was God, but He had the nature of a man, and that nature had to be conquered just as you have to conquer your nature and become an overcomer.  I know of no way for you to become an overcomer save by the blessed example of our holy Lord who went down and prayed it through in Gethesmane, being in agony.  The intensity, the power of the living God was upon Him, but the power of all the darkness and despair was around Him, and there must be a breaking-through; there must be an overcoming.  He was fighting a great death struggle, the great Armageddon of His being.  He was fighting it out, and when He got through, the bloody streaks were down His cheeks.  But the glory of God was on His brow, and the victory was won.  The battle had been fought and He was Victor.  He had laid down His life, and He was ready to die for you and me.

 

If you would have a ministry that is worthwhile, you will have to put blood into it.  There will have to be nights and days marked with tears.  There will have to be a ministry that sweats drops of blood.  I tell you, you will not get to God with velvet slippers and silk gowns.  Ah, no!  You have to prepare for this ministry in the dark hours of the night.

 

If you want to find an example of how to pray, go to the old patriarch Jacob and find how he prayed.  I am talking of how he prayed at Jabbok.  I am afraid very few pray like Jacob prayed at Jabbok.  He was praying a kingdom prayer and preparing for the great possession that was to be his.

 

He had run away from his country and been gone twenty years.  Now he had become rich in the possessions of this world, but there was a tremendous lack in his life.  He was still Jacob, and when he got to Jabbok, there came a report that death was staring him in the face:  Esau was coming with four hundred men; Esau, the man whom he had cheated, whose birthright he had stolen.

 

Now what would you do?  He was facing a trial and something had to be done.  Just like you and me, once in awhile he got uneasy and  nervous and didn’t know which way to turn.  He had too many possessions about him, too many things to hold to.  And do you know, child of God, if you would be free, if you would have victory, you have to be stripped?  Things will have to be set aside.  And so Jacob sent his oxen and camels and asses, his men servants and maid servants, his wives and children all over, and then he was alone.  Now he was ready to pray.  When you get stripped of everything, when everything has gone into the hands of God, everything turned over and you have nothing left, when you have made the surrender, made a covenant with God and offered Him everything, then you are ready to pray.

 

Jacob prayed and wrestled with that angel until the breaking of the day.  What was he praying for?  Oh, he was praying for his possessions, for his inheritance, and before he could ever get back into Canaan, which was certainly a type of something better that the other place, he had this victory to win.  All night long he prayed until the day broke.

 

And you know when you have prayed all night, when you have called on God all night, when the great cry is in your soul, and the great yearning of your heart will not rest, when you cannot rest but you have to plead with God and call on Him, God will let the day break and the victory will come. If you have your sinew touched, it doesn’t make any difference.  When you pray, God will wither your old natural life, He will cut down these hard spirits and these stubborn wills, these ambitions and plans of ours, if we will pray enough.

 

The angel said, “Let me go.”

 

“No, no, I will not let you go.”

 

Oh, for a band of men and women in Pentecost who will say to God, “I will die here rather than let Thee go until Thou hast delivered me from this horrible iniquity, this horrible self that I am carrying around with me.”  Jacob knew how to pray. 

 

The angel said, “What is your name?”

 

“Jacob.”  It was a shameful name, “Supplanter,” Hypocrite.”

 

The angel said after that night of intercession, “It shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for as a prince you have prevailed with God and man.”

 

Do you know who a prince is?  He is the son of a king.  He had prayed until he had become a king and a priest to God.  You know we are talking and singing and testifying about being kings and priests to God, and we are looking for a kingdom.  Tell me, men and women, what sort of an effort are you making to get into the kingdom?  Do you tell me these little paragogical prayers you are praying will take you into the kingdom?  Do you tell me the little lackadaisical ways we are praying will take us into the kingdom?  We get there with strong crying and tears.  We go through like the Christ of God went through.

 

He said, “Take up your cross and follow Me,” and you have to follow His example.  If you go into Gethsemane, act like the Son of God acted. Walk in His steps.  “Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin.”  Have you ever shed blood in your prayers?  Have you ever prayed and wrestled with God for days and nights?

 

O brethren, I call Pentecost back to her knees!  Pentecost got her past experience by getting on her knees and praying and Pentecost must again go on her knees before the next step is taken.  I do not hesitate to say that God is calling mightily for another step to be taken in Pentecost.  I believe God has men and women hidden away in this and other lands who are preparing for the next great move that is to come, and that will be a kingdom move. It will not be a church; it will not be a little glory, a little praise.  There have to be manufactured sons and daughters of the Lord God Almighty; there have to be manufactured kings and priests of God. They have to be hidden away, find their night experience, their Jabbok experience.  O beloved, I know God will hear and answer, and you need not be discouraged when you do not get an answer at once.

 

Turn to the fifteenth chapter of Matthew and read the story of that woman from Tyre and Sidon who came and cried to Jesus, “Thou Son of David, have mercy on me.  My daughter is grievously vexed with a devil.”  He turned His back on her and didn’t say a word.

 

She went to His disciples, and they went to Jesus and said, “Send her away.”

 

Then Jesus said, “I am not sent but to the lost sheep of the House of Israel.”

 

And she cried, “Lord, help me!”

 

He said, “It is not meet to take the children’s bread and give it to the dogs,” and He turned on His heel.

 

Could she be daunted or denied?  No.  There was persistency in her.  There was determination.  She had a daughter that was being destroyed by the devil and she had to do something about it.  She went again, “I acknowledge it, Lord, I acknowledge that I am but a Gentile dog. I take my place as a little puppy, but the little dogs eat the crumbs that fall from the master’s table. Give me the crumbs and your people will have enough.”

 

She could not be denied, and Jesus said, “O woman, great is thy faith.  Be it unto thee as thou wilt.”  What became of all the national walls?  What became of all the ecclesiastical walls?  Jesus had said,  “The time for the Gentiles has not yet come.  I am sent only to the lost sheep in Israel,” but, dispensations or no dispensations with the woman, she called on God and would not cease calling until God opened the heavens and all national walls, all ecclesiastical walls, all sectarian walls were broken down, and Jesus said to the woman, “You can have your desire.”

 

Beloved, if you will pray like that, you will get your mission built up.  There will come tremendous temptation to take you away from prayer, but I say to these my brethren in the ministry, if you will get to God and get the victory, you will have to say, “No” to many, many things that come up.  It is more important for you to pray, sometimes, than it is for you to visit the sick.  Why do you not say, “Now I will pray for you; trust God and you will be well,” then go back to your prayer?  I honestly declare that one-half of the time ministers spend in their work could be devoted to prayer without any loss to the kingdom of God.  Your congregation will not be built up by visiting people and being sociable.  Your work will be done by going on your face before God and staying there until you get God’s voice, until you get God’s hand upon you, until you get God with you and He undertakes.

 

I remember when I was seeking the baptism, the doorbell would ring when I got down to pray; then I would remember I had that engagement to keep.  Then I would get down to pray again, and it would not be five minutes before I would think of a letter to write.  I found I was losing time, and I finally screwed myself down to the floor and said, “I will stay here, no matter who comes or who goes,” and I got to the place where I could stay seven hours on my knees.

 

A sister told me today that she could do more work in her home by half than she used to because she took time to pray; she said she used to run and hurry and get so nervous, and it took her all day to do her work.  Now she keeps her house clean and neat, but she is so restful because she gives part of the day to God and He helps her.  Oh, God, will You not in some way show us how important and how necessary it is for us to pray?

 

Beloved, you and I are looking for something better, something higher, and something deeper than we have yet had.  We are not satisfied with Pentecost as it is.  If you are, I am not.  I believe there is more to obtain than has been obtained.  I believe Pentecost has only opened the vestibule to the kingdom door.  In that vestibule we are now waiting until the kingdom door is opened, but that door will not be opened until it is pried open by prayer.  Never!  Never!  NEVER!!!  “Pray without ceasing” is God’s command to us, and we will obtain the victory when we have learned to pray as a man of God.

 

Just look at Moses, how when they made a golden calf, he put his life in the breach and said, “O God, take my life but spare this people.”  That is the spirit of prayer.  That is the intensity to pray as a man of God.

 

So with Elijah, this man of God who could shut up the heavens and cause that it rain not for three years and six months and could pray again and the heavens were opened and gave rain.  James said of Elijah that he was a man of like passions as we are.  He prayed as much for the heavens to be closed as he did for them to be opened and you remember how he prayed for them to be opened. You remember after he fought his great battle he went on the mountain top and got his head down between his knees and cried to God.  How long did he cry?  You think about twenty minutes.  I do not know how many hours, how many days, how many nights, but I do know he prayed “until seven times.”  It was a perfect standard.  He prayed a perfect prayer, a prevailing prayer.  It took a tremendous praying to get those brassy heavens to give rain, but God was able to bring the clouds.  There was persistency, determination.  God had said he would have rain, and he based his prayer on God’s Word and stuck to it until his servant saw the cloud the size of a man’s hand and that was enough.  He had gotten his prayer answered.

 

Beloved, we must pray until the cloud appears; we must pray until the rain begins to fall.  There is no time to stop.  I would like to go up and down this world and plead for Pentecost to get on her knees again. I would like to plead that the men and women who used to pray until three or four o’clock, the men and women who used to pray all night for six weeks at a time, the men and women who knew how to prevail, would again go on their knees.  They don’t pray like they did before their baptism, but God has a greater victory to be won in getting you prepared for the kingdom than there was for you to be baptized in the Holy Spirit.  Are you looking for anything deeper, anything higher?  Are you expecting any greater blessing than this?  I call you back to the feet of Jesus, I plead with you, get down and call on God.

 

Beloved, there is a victory to be won.  Do not deceive yourself by supposing that you can go on in this loose state with an occasional praise and thanksgiving and a few shouts.  Oh my God, there is something greater than a few shouts and hallelujahs!  There is a life that is to be hid with Christ in God; there is a life that is to be overcome and become victorious over all the powers of the enemy and every work of the devil.  God is endeavoring to make you a victor, an overcomer and prepare you for the kingdom.  And when you have come with Jacob to be a prince with God, and therefore a son of a King, you will have come to the Kingdom experience where there will be dominion.

 

God is calling us to go to our knees to pray as we have never prayed until God comes down and does a new thing in the earth.  I would that we might find our place at the feet of Jesus once more and find out that He was a living Example as well as a Teacher, and that we are to follow His example of prayer as well as to obey His precepts. 

 

I read that there was an archbishop in the English church who stayed five hours a day on his knees. Is it any wonder that he was made an archbishop?  Old John Wesley said, “Give me one hundred men who fear nothing but sin and desire nothing but God, and with these the gates of hell will be shaken and the kingdom of heaven set up on earth.”  God does nothing but through prayer.

 

If you want to know what men of God have done, what victories have been achieved, go into the jungles of Africa.  Go with me to the little bush hut and see David Livingstone down on his knees, cold and stiff in death, praying his life away.  Prayer made this explorer, this preacher, this missionary, a great man, made him what he was.

 

Go with me to the cold, bleak, barren hills of New England and see that godly man, David Brainerd, pouring out his life in prayer for those heathen Indians.  It was prayer that made David Brainerd the mighty man he was.

 

What made George Muller’s reputation go all over the world?  That man got over six million dollars for his own work and the work of the missionaries abroad.  After feeding those thousands of orphans he had a million dollars for the foreign field.  It was because he knew how to pray.  He prayed as but few men ever prayed, and I tell you, men and women, that the day has come for much prayer.

 

I finish this talk with the same cry in my heart, with which I began, Oh, God, is there any way to get these men and women to pray more?  I have in mind a young man, very insignificant, just a boy, almost no power at all, no education, but I knew that young man to pray.  He opened a little mission, and he prayed and kept praying, and today he has a most prosperous mission and strong men and women in it.  He is just a stripling, but he is mighty in God because he knows how to pray.  God will do anything if moved by prayer.  The very heavens can be moved. The very foundations of the earth can be broken up.  Everything can be accomplished by prayer.  Any disease has to go by prayer; sickness must depart.  Anything that any man may need can be won by prayer.

 

Take that woman who went to the unjust judge.  She was persistent, and the judge said, “This woman will wear me out,” and he gave her what she asked.  That man who came for the three loaves of bread knocked and knocked and knocked, and the man had to get out of bed and grant his request.  You and I need three loaves.  We need life for body, soul, and spirit that the whole man may be perfect, that it may be preserved blameless unto the coming of the Lord.  “Faithful is He that calleth you who also will do it.”