Forty-First Meeting
(March 10, 1964 P.M.)
Chapter
nine of the Book of the Acts, at verse ten through
twelve, "And there was a certain disciple at
Damascus, named Ananias; and to him said the Lord in a
vision, 'Ananias.' And he said, 'Behold, I am here,
Lord.' And the Lord said unto him, 'Arise, and go into
the street which is called Straight, and enquire in the
house of Judas for one called Saul, of Tarsus: for,
behold, he prayeth, and hath seen in a vision a man named
Ananias coming in, and putting his hand on him, that he
might receive his sight.'"
The last
words of verse eleven, "BEHOLD, HE PRAYETH."
From these words, we see that the life of the Apostle
Paul in relation to the Lord Jesus commenced in prayer.
Although he had spoken to the Lord on the Damascus road,
this was really the first time of prayer that he had with
the Lord Jesus. Perhaps it will surprise you to know that
this time of prayer between Paul and the Lord Jesus
lasted for three days and three nights. I wonder how many
of us here have prayed for three days and three nights
continually. Well, three days and three nights of prayer
lays a fairly good foundation for a Christian life, and
no doubt this time laid the foundation for the life of
the apostle.
Have you
realized that some of the greatest things that ever the
Lord has revealed to us came through the prayer life of
the Apostle Paul? You have only to call to mind some of
his prayers, and you will see that they were a revelation
of which there is nothing like it anywhere else. If you
look in the Letter to the Ephesians, you will see the
wonderful things that came out when Paul prayed. The same
was true in his Letter to the Colossians; and there are
many other prayers of Paul in his letters. In those
letters, he tells us what he prayed for, and they were
very wonderful revelations of God's mind. Now we are not
going to study those prayers tonight. We are not even
going to read them. But we are simply pointing out that
prayer is a wonderful way in which God makes Himself
known, and prayer is the basis of everything else in the
life with the Lord.
Now I
expect you are wondering what Paul was praying about
during those three days and those three nights. If we
could answer that question, we should have a fairly good
basis for prayer. That is, we should understand what true
prayer is, we should know some of the things which
constitute true prayer. I think that I shall be right
when I suggest some of the things that Paul was praying
about in that first wonderful time of prayer. And I feel
that these are the things which ought always to find a
place in our praying.
We shall
not be wrong if we say that the first thing in that first
prayer was humiliation and confession. It was the prayer
of a broken and a contrite heart. I am quite sure that
was the first thing in Paul's prayer. You see, he had
just come to realize what he had been doing with his
life. It was not so long before this time that he gave
his consent to the death of that remarkable young man,
Stephen. It says that the witnesses laid down their
clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul. And it
says that Saul was consenting unto his death. Then Saul
had obtained authority from the high priest to put men
and women in prison. And Paul tells us, himself, that he
persecuted the church unto far distant cities. Again it
says, Saul, breathed out threatenings and slaughter
against the people of this Way. Thus, he had just come to
realize what a great mistake he had been making. How
terrible was the thing that he had been doing. What
injury he had been doing to the Lord Jesus. He had been
responsible in spirit and in principle for the crucifying
of Christ. His sin had really nailed Jesus to the Cross.
And now
he was alive to all this terrible truth. His prayer,
therefore, must have commenced in deep humiliation and
contrition of heart. He must have been confessing to the
Lord how wrong he had been, and asking the Lord for
forgiveness. You know, dear ones, that is the first
element in any true prayer, the acknowledgment of our own
sinfulness, the confession of how unworthy we are of the
mercy of God. We can never come into the Presence of the
Lord without a sense of our sinfulness. We can never
stand before Him without bowed heads because of our
unworthiness. No pride or self-righteousness is allowed
in the Presence of God. The Word of God says, "To
this one will I look, even to him that is of a broken and
contrite spirit" (Isa 66:2). And I am sure that this
spirit was in this man in his first prayer. I am quite
sure that there were many tears shed by Paul during those
three days and those three nights.
Then the
second thing in that prayer, I am quite sure, must have
been a spirit and attitude of surrender to the Lord.
There must have been in him a spirit of absolute
submission to the Lord. The complete committal of himself
to the Lord Jesus. Many times after that, he called
himself the prisoner of the Lord, and many times in his
letter, he said, "Paul, the bondslave of Jesus
Christ." I am quite sure that it was in that first
prayer that Paul took that position of the prisoner and
the bondslave of Jesus Christ, with an absolute
submission and surrender to Jesus as his Master. And I am
sure you will agree with me that that must be a feature
of all our praying. First, a confession of our own
sinfulness, and then an absolute submission to the Lord
Jesus, as His prisoners, and as His bondslaves.
Then
there was a third thing, which I am quite sure was in
this prayer of Paul's. It was complete adjustment to the
will of the Lord. Up to this time, he had followed his
own will, he had allowed his own will to control his life
and his actions, he had directed his own life, and he
would have said, 'My will be done.' And we can see how
thoroughly he sought to do his own will. But now, at this
time, he was getting adjusted to the will of the Lord. If
he did not use the actual words, I am sure this is what
he meant, 'No longer my will, but Thy will, Lord, for my
life.' That must have been a feature of this prayer;
because it is so evident that from this time to the end
of his life, there was only one thing for which he lived,
and that was THE WILL OF THE LORD.
Now,
while that has to be our attitude at the beginning of our
Christian life, that must always be a feature of our
prayer life. There are many ways in our Christian life
where we have to get adjusted to the will of the Lord.
The will of the Lord is not always an easy thing for our
flesh; and so very often, we have to have a real battle
to get adjusted to the will of the Lord on some
particular matter; and prayer is the time in which that
adjustment has to be done. It is just possible that some
of us here this evening are having a battle over the will
of God on something. Well, this is the time to get
through with that issue. Our prayer times give us the
great opportunity of getting right into line with the
will of God on all matters.
Well,
just collect up these things before we go any further. True
prayer is the prayer of confession and humiliation! True
prayer is the time of absolute committal and
surrender and submission to the Lord! True prayer is
the time for getting right into line with the will of God
on all matters!
Now
these three things, we could call negative things. Of
course they are not negative when we have to face them,
they are very positive matters. But when we come to the
fourth thing, we move over a bit to another side; and I
am sure that this first time of prayer in the case of
Paul was a time of deep worship. What does worship come
out from? What is it that leads us to worship? What is
the true nature and spirit of worship? Is it not a deep
unspeakable gratitude for the grace of God?! We only
worship in the measure in which we appreciate the grace
of God. I am sure that this man on his knees during that
time was just pouring out his heart with gratitude for
the mercy of God. Realizing what kind of a man he was,
realizing his guiltiness, and what an enemy of Christ his
nature had been, and yet that risen, persecuted Lord had
come down to save such a man as he was, that must have
made Paul pour out his heart in the deepest gratitude for
the grace and mercy of God. You remember that a favorite
way to Paul of opening his letters was with three words:
"Grace, mercy, and peace, be unto you." That
was the foundation of everything for Paul. Wonderful
grace, grace that could never be explained; boundless
mercy; and peace with God. That was surely the
consciousness of this man during his prayer. It was the
prayer of deep worship for the grace of God, and that
must have a place in all true prayer.
Now, you
notice that given these four things, there is an open way
for the Lord to come in. The Lord had His eye upon that
man in that room as he was praying. He knew what Saul of
Tarsus was doing. He said to Ananias, "Behold, he
prayeth." And the Lord knew what he was
praying about. And He knew that these four things made up
that prayer. THEY OPEN A WAY FOR THE LORD. So the Lord
said to Ananias, "Go to a certain house in a certain
street, to this man, Saul of Tarsus. That man is praying.
Ananias, you go in and lay your hands on him, that he may
receive his sight and be filled with the Holy
Spirit." The Lord had an open way to meet that man.
First of all, to open his blind eyes. They were
physically blind, but you may be sure that he got a
spiritual eye-opening at that time. If Saul of Tarsus was
still under a heavy cloud as he knelt there in prayer, if
there was still any darkness over his mind, when Ananias
put his hands on his head, and said, "Brother
Saul," all the darkness went; and his heart was
filled with the Light of heaven.
Then,
secondly, Paul was filled with the Holy Spirit.
The Holy
Spirit is called the Seal of our Redemption. "We are
sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise" (Eph. 1:13).
We are sealed with the Holy Spirit unto the day of
redemption (Eph. 4:30). You know what that means in
business. If your seal is upon any goods, you have a
right to claim them. You can go anywhere and say,
"That is mine, I take possession of it." In the
same way, the Holy Spirit is the Seal of God, the Seal of
Christ. The Holy Spirit is the Seal of that which belongs
to Christ, and He can claim it at any time. It is a great
thing to have the Seal of the Lord upon our lives.
Now we
know that to receive the Holy Spirit is to receive our
equipment for our life's work; because Ananias said this
unto Saul (later called Paul). And he said, "The God
of our fathers hath chosen thee, that thou shouldest know
His will, and see that Just One, and shouldest hear the
voice of His mouth. For thou shalt be His witness unto
all men of what thou hast seen and heard" (Acts
22:14,15).
These
three things happened when Ananias put his hands on the
head of Saul, and used that wonderful word,
"Brother" Saul. That was a triumph of grace!
But the Lord had an open way to come into that life, and
it was because of those four things that we have
mentioned which composed his prayer. This may help us a
little in our time of prayer, not only for tonight, but
for all times of prayer. If this is the way, the heart
way of our praying, the Lord will have a clear way with
us.