Give Me Children Else I Die

 

The heartbeat of the church ought to be fishers of men, to reach into the depths of sinful hearts with God’s word and to pull the lost soul of humanity from the pits of hell.

 

James 5:16-18

16 Confess your faults one to another and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.

 

17 Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months.

 

18 And he prayed again and the heaven gave rain and the earth brought forth her fruit.

 

Let me read you a story of John Knox: Perhaps more than anything else, John Knox is known for his prayer “Give me Scotland, or I die.” Knox’s prayer was not an arrogant demand, but the passionate plea of a man willing to die for the sake of the pure preaching of the gospel and the salvation of his countrymen.

 

Knox’s greatness lay in his humble dependence on our sovereign God to save His people, revive a nation and reform His church.

 

1         As is evident from his preaching and prayer, Knox believed neither in the power of his preaching nor in the power of his prayer,

2         But in the power of the gospel and the power of God, who sovereignly ordains preaching and prayer as secondary means in the salvation of His people.

 

Although Knox had been imprisoned and enslaved, and though he was often infirm and under threat of persecution, he consistently lived out his theology believing that “One man with God is always in the majority.”

 

As such, the prayers of one man heard at the throne of God were a threat to the throne of Scotland. During the time of the sixteenth-century Scottish Reformation, Knox’s ministry of preaching and prayer were so well known that the Roman Catholic Mary, Queen of Scots, is reputed to have said, “I fear the prayers of John Knox more than all the assembled armies of Europe.”

 

Most notably, what inspired the pastors perhaps more than any other characteristic in Knox was that he did not fear men, because he feared God—he was a man willing to offend men, because he was unwilling to offend God.

 

 

The Apostles were so full of the Holy Ghost that even though their lives were threatened they refused to stop preaching Jesus

 

Acts 5:27-29

27 And when they had brought them, they set them before the council and the high priest asked them,

 

28 Saying, Did not we straitly command you that ye should not teach in this name? and, behold, ye have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, and intend to bring this man’s blood upon us.

 

29 Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, “We ought to obey God rather than men.”

 

There is coming a time when men must stand for Jesus and we are closer to that time now more than any other time in the history of America.

 

A time when Christians will have to decide to either stand for Jesus or take the Mark of the beast!

 

Mark 13:9-11

9 But take heed to yourselves: for they shall deliver you up to councils; and in the synagogues ye shall be beaten and ye shall be brought before rulers and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them.

 

10 And the gospel must first be published among all nations.

 

11 But when they shall lead you, and deliver you up, take no thought beforehand what ye shall speak, neither do ye premeditate: but whatsoever shall be given you in that hour, that speak ye: for it is not ye that speak, but the Holy Ghost.

 

This is the reason the Lord leads me to push the church to pray and be strong because weak prayer will not make you strong enough to stand. You will deny God without a strong prayer life.

 

If the devil can keep you from his forces will be after you because when you are out from under the shadows of God you will be easily deceived and brought under the influence of demonic spirits.

 

Being in the will of God is more important then anything else!

1         When you cannot put God first you will always be last.

2         When you cannot do God’s will if your will is more important.

3         When material things are more important then Spiritual things you are falling victim to the spirit of the Antichrist.

 

The disciples were weak before the outpouring of the Holy Ghost but on the day of Pentecost. They were asked to pray but their sleep was more important then their obedience to Jesus when he asked them to pray.

 

Matthew 26:30-41

30 And when they had sung an hymn, they went out into the Mount of Olives.

 

31 Then saith Jesus unto them, All ye shall be offended because of me this night: for it is written, I will smite the shepherd and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered abroad.

 

32 But after I am risen again, I will go before you into Galilee.

 

33 Peter answered and said unto him, Though all men shall be offended because of thee, yet will I never be offended. (He actually thought he was ready to die for Jesus but wasn’t)

 

34 Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, That this night, before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice.

 

35 Peter said unto him, Though I should die with thee, yet will I not deny thee. Likewise also said all the disciples. (How many of you right now are willing to go to jail and stand for truth?)

 

36 Then cometh Jesus with them unto a place called Gethsemane and saith unto the disciples, Sit ye here, while I go and pray yonder.

 

37 And he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee and began to be sorrowful and very heavy.

 

38 Then saith he unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death: tarry ye here and watch with me.

 

39 And he went a little further and fell on his face and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.

 

40 And he cometh unto the disciples, and findeth them asleep, and saith unto Peter, What, could ye not watch with me one hour?

 

What is your excuse when I ask for one hour of prayer? Whose will comes first with you?

 

41 Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.

 

If you know the story you know they all fled and left him in the hands of the unbelievers.

 

A         I don’t want us to go before the courts and sell out God, because we haven’t got time to pray.

B         I don’t want us to get this far and be lost. Church, we must pray! Or be lost!

 

 

Evan Roberts another man of prayer:

In Luke it does not say, “preach and faint not,” but “pray and faint not.” It is not difficult to preach. But while you pray, you are alone in some solitary place, fighting in a prayer-battle against the powers of darkness. And you will know the secret of victory.¹

 

More than anything else, Evan Roberts was a man of prayer. The whole world felt the impact of revival that swept Wales from November 1904 through 1905, but certainly the extent of his public influence was a direct result of his personal commitment to prayer.

 

• Note: More than a 100,000 Welsh came to Christ during an unprecedented nine months of intense revival that closed bars and cancelled sporting events.

 

• It triggered revival around the world, including the famous Azusa Street revival of 1906, which forever changed the landscape of Twentieth Century Christianity.

 

As with all great heroes of the faith, a deep hunger for the Word of God and an unquenchable thirst for more of the Spirit of God began at an early age.

 

Of his early years, he later wrote “I said to myself: I will have the Spirit . . . for ten or eleven years I have prayed for revival. I could sit up all night to read or talk about revivals. It was the Spirit who moved me to think about revival.”

 

Because of his unique desire for the Lord, Evan gave himself to fervent prayer and intercession. So much so, that by the time he was twenty-one years old, he was known by some as a “mystical lunatic.”

 

It was during this period that Evan would get so caught up in the Lord that he reported his bed shaking. He would awaken every night at 1:00 a.m. to be “taken up into divine fellowship” and would proceed to pray until 5:00 a.m. when he would fall back to sleep for four hours before waking again at 9:00 a.m. continuing in prayer until noon.

 

 

The Dawn of Revival

 

By December 1903, Evan knew in his heart that God had planned a great revival for the Welsh community. Although he had been accepted to Bible College, he could not continue his studies because of his desire to preach and pray.

 

Throughout that year Evan wrestled over what was expected of him and what he felt the Lord calling him to do. He battled with depression, which would prove a life-long struggle for him, eventually rendering him ineffective as a minister.

 

But in September of 1904, Roberts discovered a breakthrough as he sat listening to the evangelist Seth Joshua plead with the Spirit to “Bend us! Bend us!”

 

Later that night, Roberts cried out to the Lord, “Bend me! Bend me!” and fully surrendered to the will of God, allowing His compassion to fill him. It was the very next month that Roberts had his first vision.

 

While strolling in a garden, Evan looked up to see what seemed to be an arm outstretched from the moon, reaching down into Wales.

 

He later told a friend, “I have wonderful news for you. I had a vision of all Wales being lifted up to heaven. We are going to see the mightiest revival that Wales has ever known – and the Holy Spirit is coming just now. We must get ready.”

 

Note: It’s prayer that changes things and without it nothing changes.

 

1               The Apostles created an atmosphere for revival through their sacrifice their and their willingness to give God their best.

2               They changed the world and though they were persecuted and put in prison and finally to death.

 

Note: Their message of salvation still rings in pulpits across the land to Repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.

 

The message is still being preached across the world and multitudes are turning to Jesus for deliverance.

 

Romans 13:11-14

11 And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.

 

12 The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.

 

13 Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying.

 

14 But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof.

 

This is the hour we must turn people to Jesus. The time is at hand for people to realize that unless they are born again of the water and the Spirit they cannot enter into the Kingdom of God.

 

John 3:5 Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.