Transforming, energizing, life-giving — there’s nothing like praying to Almighty God. Yet so many of us struggle with spending dedicated alone time with Him. In this motivating message, Dr. Stanley details how to build a powerful prayer life and explains the benefits that come with doing so. As we spend time on our knees before the Lord, He is busy transforming the world around us and the world within us. What could be better? This message is Part 4 of the series: How to Talk With God – Volume 2 How to Talk With God – Volume 1 CD Series: https://store.intouch.org/purchase/ho…
Part 1: Unveiling The Hidden – 
• Unveiling The Hidden – Radio Classic … Part 2: Praying With Authority – • Praying With Authority – Radio Classi… Part 3: Praying And Fasting – • Prayer And Fasting – Radio Classic – … Part 4: A Prayer Burden – • A Prayer Burden – Radio Classic – Dr…. Part 5: Answered Prayer – • Answered Prayer – Radio Classic – Dr…. Part 6: When It’s Spiritual Warfare – • When It’s Spiritual Warfare – Radio C… How to Talk With God – Volume 2 CD Series: https://store.intouch.org/purchase/ho…
Part 1: Why Our Prayers Are Unanswered – • Why Our Prayers Are Unanswered – Radi… Part 2: How To Pray In The Will Of God – • How To Pray In The Will Of God – Radi… Part 3: A Time To Stop Waiting In Prayer – • A Time To Stop Waiting In Prayer – Ra… Part 4: The Power Of Your Prayer Life Part 5: Praying For Others – Releasing Soon Part 6: Praying Is Where The Action Is – Releasing Soon For more messages from Charles Stanley, including this week’s broadcast, go to www.intouch.org/watch
[Music]
with a message from God’s word here’s
Charles
Stanley a powerful prayer life and if
you’ll look in Luke 11 and I want us to
read the first four verses of this
chapter together and it came to pass
that as he that is Jesus was praying in
a certain place when he ceased one of
his disciples said unto him Lord teach
us to pray as John also taught his
disciples and he said unto them when you
pray say Our Father which art in heaven
Hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come
thy will be done as in heaven so in
Earth give us this day by day our daily
bread and forgive us our sins for we
also forgive everyone that is indebted
to us and lead us not into
temptation but Deliver Us from Evil
the apostles had watched the Lord Jesus
Christ heal they had watched him teach
they had watched him perform Miracle
after Miracle but there was something
very unusual about him when he had come
out of a place of private prayer and so
in this particular verse it says it came
to pass that as he was praying in a
certain place when he finished one of
those disciples said to him Lord teach
us to pray now not just so much how to
pray but Lord teach us to pray
as John also taught his disciples to
pray I want you to listen very carefully
to this statement your private prayer
life can
transform your life and your human power
your natural power into the
supernatural power of God your private
prayer life can transform your natural
power your human power power into the
supernatural power of
God when you look at the life of Jesus
Christ and watch how he prayed I want
you to look at some scriptures if you
will and if you’ll begin with Mark
chapter 1 because what I want us to talk
about today is your personal prayer life
and if I should ask you to describe your
personal prayer life some of you could
write it on the end of your little
fingernail and you’d have to write n o n
e because the real truth of it is you
don’t have one you may pray on the run
but that’s not what I’m talking about
and I want you to look how the Lord
Jesus prayed in verse um in chapter one
of Mark and and beginning in verse 34 he
healed many that were sick of different
kinds of diseases cast out many devils
and suffered not the Devils to speak
because they knew him so he was busy
healing and teaching and Performing
Miracles and verse 35 says but in the
morning or in the morning rising up a
great while before day he went out and
departed into a solitary place and there
he prayed after a very V busy day of
serving his father the scripture says
that Jesus went aside early in the
morning which I believe was the habit of
his life just about every day and he got
along with the father and talked to him
about his life and about the events of
the day if you look in Matthew chapter
24 chapter 14 for a
moment and um Jesus in this 14th chapter
of Matthew has
um this is the discussion about John the
Baptist being beheaded and so forth and
um then comes the Performing of the
miracle of feeding the 5,000 and in the
midst of all that uh verse 22 says and
straightway or immediately after he’ fed
these 5,000 besides men women and CH
women and children verse 22 says and
immediately Jesus constrained his
disciples to get into a ship and to go
before him and to the other side while
he sent out or sent the multitudes away
so having performed these Miracles he
says it’s time to stop all this and
verse 23 says he went up into a mountain
apart to pray and there was a loone when
the evening time came so he finished the
Day of Service in prayer look if you
will in Luke 6:2 and Luke uh is the um
uh writer of the New Testament who gives
us and teaches us more about the prayer
life of Jesus than anyone else
but Luke chapter
6 uh Jesus had been having some real
problems here with um the people who
were arguing with him about this that
and the other and verse 10 says and look
around about on them he said to the man
stretch forth th hand and he did so and
his hand was restored whole as the other
they were filled with Madness and
commune one with another what they might
do to Jesus and it came to pass in those
days that he went out into a mountain to
pray and continued all night in prayer
to God and when it was day he called
unto him his disciples and of them he
chose 12 of whom also he named Apostles
now that night he prayed all night long
because he knew that the next day he had
one of the most momentous decisions in
his life to make and that decision was
he had to choose among all of his
followers 12 men who would follow him
now you know that Jesus prayed at his
baptism he prayed um uh when he was
tempted by Satan all throughout his life
he was praying and he was God now if the
Lord Jesus Christ who was God felt the
need to begin his day in prayer and felt
the need to end his day in prayer and
felt the need to pray all night long
before he made great decisions how much
more should you and I feel the need of
personal private prayer and that’s what
I want us to talk about today and that
is your prayer life and my prayer life
and the first thing I want us to look at
in this 11th chapter and that is the
motivation what is it that motivates us
to get alone to pray I’m not talking
about praying in groups now I’m not
talking about praying with your family
not talking about praying with your
friends I’m not talking about a Bible
study I’m talking about you getting
alone with God and spending time alone
with him just the two of you together
which many many people who name the name
of Jesus Christ do almost none of
because their excuses that they’re so
busy doing so many things that they’re
too busy to pray but I want you to
examine for just a moment several things
and I want you to listen very carefully
what is it that motivates you to pray
let me just tell you what motivates some
people to get alone to pray but many
people they do not get alone to pray
unless there’s a time of decision that’s
what motivates them when there’s a
decision that they don’t seem to be able
to get an answer for then they’re
willing to stop and take time to get on
their face before God or kneel and talk
to him for other people it is a time of
great difficulty when the surroundings
or the situation is such they don’t know
what to do next and so they begin to
pray and ask for the Lord to give them a
sense of guidance and direction for some
people they have to get to the point of
being absolutely desperate before they
fall on their face before God in private
communion with him and begin to pour out
their heart and express their desire and
their need out of difficulty and
discouragement and Desperation decision
making we are driven and motivated to
pray privately and earn ly before God
but would you not agree that the one
thing that ought to motivate us to pray
above everything else I mean to get
along with him is the fact of our own
Devotion to Jesus Christ should that not
be sufficient reason to motivate us to
get along with him because we love him
because he’s done so much for us because
he desires fellowship with us and
because we ought to desire fellowship
with him of all the things that ought to
motivate us to spend time time alone
with Jesus Christ ought to be that we
have a genuine allc consuming love and
Devotion to him and in order to build a
relationship to him that’s what we must
do we must spend time with him but then
there’s the last reason that I think is
so essential one that ought to motivate
us in our own private devotion and that
is the desire to develop our
relationship and to strengthen our
relationship to him there’s not a woman
in here who will not agree with this and
that is she would say to her husband if
you want to build a relationship with me
you and I must spend time alone every
man in here knows that if he’s going to
build a relationship with his wife or
his children he’s got to set aside some
time to spend time with them alone I
don’t mean the family outing and the
family vacation I mean personal private
time alone how in the world can you and
I develop a relationship with God the
Father through his son Jesus Christ if
we’re always with someone else and
always in the midst of noise and always
in the process of doing this and going
there and being busy here and Y it is
absolutely impossible to build a
relationship with Jesus Christ where
there is no time given to him alone he
longs to have time with us alone where
he has our undivided attention where he
has us shut up unto himself where he can
love us where he can cover us with his
presence where he knows that we are
absolutely and totally consumed with
loving him Express in our love toward
him and worshiping him in private not
going to church you can go to church
every Sunday of your life you can read
the Bible every day of your life but if
you neglect that time alone with God on
your face somewhere I want to tell you
you remember this that you will live no
better than you pray a man preaches no
better than he prays sings no better
than he prays teaches no better than he
than he prays we do nothing any better
than we pray and the reason the body of
Christ is so weak and the church is so
weak in preaching and teaching and
singing and leading and and all the
areas of service in the body of Christ
the reason there’s so much weakness is
because our prayer life is so weak we
are so uned with so many things that
absolutely flood us and cover us and
harass us and fill our minds with so
much we say to poor God I don’t have
time to pray when every single one of us
knows that we may have excuses for not
having private time with him but there’s
not a man woman boy or girl alive who
can offer God a reasonable
acceptable reason for not spending time
with
him well what motivates you to get along
with god listen will it take God causing
the bottom to drop out in your life to
get you on your face before him or do
you love him enough that every day you
just want to get along with him you
don’t need any troubles you don’t need
any heartaches you just love him enough
that want to be alone with him listen
list you show me a teenager young person
college student or an adult who is
really and truly in love man they can’t
F can’t wait to get home the guy can’t
wait to get over to his G’s house or
vice versa you know why because love
draws
them and you see a prayer life that is
weak and feeble and filled with
everything else but relationship to
Jesus Christ says something about I love
to him man we can sing that we blew in
the face oh how I love Jesus and he’s
not impressed in the least what he wants
is not our
singing he wants our silent
submissiveness unto him quietly
prayerfully before him and then when we
have been alone with him he doesn’t mind
us being publicly with him talking and
praising and praising him there a second
area here I want you to notice and that
is the battle we have of mastering a
time to pray and to be alone with him
the devil will fight you over your
private Devotion to Jesus Christ above
every single thing in your life it is a
constant battle in my life it is a
constant battle in the life of every
person who wants to be what God wants
him or her to be there’ll always be a
struggle in that sixth chapter of
Ephesians when Paul has described the
armor of the believer he says the helmet
of salvation breastplate of
righteousness loin G about with truth
feet sh with the preparation of the
gospel of peace he says the sword of the
spirit and above all the shield of faith
then he says praying always what is he
saying that a man must be prepared to
pray that we will often times have to
battle Satan Even in our prayer
L Satan had rathered you read the Bible
than to pray he’d rather me preach than
pray you sing then pray you teach then
pray witness then pray do anything you
want to do but stay off your knees at
all cost because the devil knows that
when you and I fall upon our face before
God he begins to transform our natural
into the supernatural our human into the
Superhuman God does a very special work
in the life it’s like he covers that
life with that which is absolutely
humanly Indescribable when you and I
fall upon our face before him and begin
to worship Him and love him and listen
to him and express our devotion to him
in privacy alone with him and no one
else he’ll transform your life your
family God can ignite a little teeny
itsy bitsy flame in this place that
could spread across the world but I want
to tell you he’s not going to do it by
preaching he’s not going to do it by
singing he’s only going to do it by
praying and that doesn’t start with
corporate praying it starts with private
praying so there four things I want to
say to you first of all if you’re going
to develop a prayer life that’s going to
make your life powerful in the eyes of
God the first thing you’ve got to do is
you’ve got to decide that you’re going
to set aside some time now let me just
let’s think about this and let’s just
throw off all the cloaks and forget all
about I’m the preacher and I want you to
listen this hear this from God Almighty
if people who Nam the name of the Lord
Jesus Christ in
America would spend one tenth of the
time on their knees that they spend
watching
television God would bring about an
Awakening in America that would Shake
every square inch of this
globe now the only way for me to say
this to you is just say it this
way it is a
sin for
Christians who have heard the gospel for
years and years and years and have
watched God answer prayer over and over
and over again to sit down and spend 1 2
3 4 hours a night watching ing
television and get up where their minds
boggled with the
world and then whisper oh Lord bless me
tomorrow and help me in my job and bless
my family take care of my kids and
Supply needs in Jesus name on my way to
sleep you know why I didn’t get too many
laughs because you know it’s the gospel
truth amen amen it is the truth and
that’s where God’s people spend their
time bowing down before the god
worshiping the God of this world the
pleasures of this world before
television when there is Almighty
Supernatural omnipotent omniscient
loving God sitting in heaven waiting to
pour out his blessings upon his people
but they’re too
wellfed with the
world and there is absolutely
no
excuse amen there is no
excuse don’t ever tell me you don’t have
time to pray
don’t tell God you don’t have time to
pray there is always time
listen if you don’t I have a start could
I make a
suggestion would you just decide Lord by
your help and your strength and I going
to tell you this don’t say now Lord if
you’ll help me forget it when you and I
know what to do we can do it if it is
God’s will we have all the assistance we
need I want to challenge you to do
something
I want to challenge you to start today
not
tomorrow to set aside 15 minutes
beginning
today by yourself alone before God and
just start talking to them you say well
now look I don’t know how to pray let me
tell you how to pray you just talk to
him like you’re talking to your best
friend don’t use any the big words don’t
try to impress him just talk to him now
here’s what’ll happen for some people
you’ll pray about 5 minutes and you’ll
say goodness I’ve been praying an
hour let me show you something something
very
interesting you’ve been there haven’t
you let me tell you something very
interesting and I see this and just
blesses me you watch your fell get saved
and God began to work in his or her life
and they first start praying they pray
about 5 minutes and they’ve prayed all
the way around the world they’ve covered
everything there is to cover they think
I’ve been praying an hour and then as
God begins to deepen their
life he just turns that over and they’ve
prayed an hour and they think my
goodness haven’t been praying very long
long been praying must have been praying
about 5 minutes and then it’s an hour
you see it says something about my
relationship to Jesus
Christ got to set aside time listen
there’s not a man woman boy girl don’t
care how early you have to get up in the
morning what you have to do there’s not
a person here who can’t start with 15
minutes and you just open your Bible to
some passage of scripture and read it
and tell God you want him to get you
ready and start the day off listen if
Jesus Christ who had the ministry he had
could spend all or the early hours you
say well he didn’t have to go to work at
a certain time don’t fool yourself the
crowds were thronging him often times at
Daybreak that’s why he had to get up a
great while before day to
pray 15 minutes to start with and tell
God that you want to develop a
relationship with him like you’ve never
had before and just tell them I don’t
know how to I don’t know how to pray I
don’t know what to say but I’m just
going to tell you the best I know and
somebody said you know this lady said
she said I discovered with a group of
ladies and we started praying together
we didn’t know how to pray but when we
got burdened we learned how the only
play only way to learn how to pray is to
pray you don’t learn to pray listening
to sermons reading books and going to
seminars You Learn To Pray by praying
those things may help but they don’t
teach you to pray second thing you’ve
got to have is a place you say why can’t
I pray driving down the expressway and
going to church and all these things
sure you can but let me ask you this
isn’t it evident in the life of Jesus
Christ that as he walked the Dust the
roads of Galilee and as he preached and
taught and heal and perform Miracles and
discuss with his disciples that he was
in a prayerful mood all the time but
that wasn’t sufficient for
him a great while while before Daybreak
he prayed all night he prayed somebody
says well you pray all night you’ll be
so dead the next morning you can’t even
pray you can’t even work I want to tell
you something that is the devil’s lie
there is a mystery there is a
supernatural mystery about prayer for
which there is no human explanation
allthough world that a man can pray all
night long and the next morning he’s
absolutely fresh as a blooming
Daisy he said how do you explain that I
wouldn’t even begin to try an off an
explanation for that there is no
explanation for that that’s the
supernatural power of God but I can tell
you this there’s a little verse in
Isaiah 40 which I have to quote to
myself very often but they that wait
upon the Lord shall renew their strength
they shall Mount up with wings like an
eagle they shall run and not be weary
they shall walk and not faint but what
about that place
when I was growing up as a kid sometimes
live in two rooms as so I didn’t have a
place I had to go to the bathroom pray
that’s the only place I could go only
place I could get by myself and close
the door you may have a place in your
home maybe your Den when everybody’s
gone in your bedroom or an extra room or
a closet I went to visit a family in
this church not long ago and they were
playing a tape for me of some music and
in the midst of doing that the fellow
opened the door of his a folding doors
of his a large closet there in fact not
too large but um May maybe about 3 ft
deep and maybe 7 ft long and so forth
and he opened it to get another tape out
and I noticed I could see a Bible on the
floor with a pencil and and a
pad I Knew by looking in his closet
that’s where he prayed there’s always a
place to pray when I was growing up and
there wasn’t any place it got a little
older I found the Sunday school class
room we in the basement about you had to
go through four doors to get to that
room just a tile floor hard cool back
then the summertime cold back then the
winter time but I knew that was a place
that I could get along with God and
battle at all the decisions and all the
battles I had to face there’s something
about a place and let me tell you why
the place is important when there’s a
place in your home or somewhere where
you come with God and you battle out the
big decisions in your life all of a
sudden you wake up to realize one of
these days that place has become your
altar before God that place is very
special and if it can be a different
room and a place that you don’t do
anything else in necessarily or an extra
room in your house or or a some other
place maybe it’s in the basement
somewhere put you up a few 2x4s and put
you some old wallboard and make you a
place to pray it doesn’t have to be
pretty in fact you don’t want anything
in it but four walls if necessary
because you don’t want to be distracted
by
anything you don’t want to glorify and
picture and beautify a place to pray you
want it absolutely with nothing there
but a place that lie down stretch out
before God but I want to tell you
something that place will become sacred
and holy to you you and here’s what will
happen if it can be a place that’s
separate when you walk in it’s like God
prepares you just like that because
that’s the thing you do when you get
there and so your mind is programmed
that when you walk in that place and you
kneel at that particular place it can be
down beside your bed if you’ve got a
particular spot or over in a particular
chair where you kneel in over behind the
chair in a corner now if you say well I
can just pray just as well any old way
then you haven’t tried what I’m talking
about it’s interesting to me that the
Bible says that Jesus went up in the
mountain apart to
pray he was always getting up there away
secluded to pray because he knew the
value of seclusion being shut up to the
father without being interrupted by
anyone else there’s something precious
and special about the
place then let’s talk about the purpose
when you get along with the Lord what’s
the purpose of that you say well that’s
very simple you’ve been talking about
praying no now wait a minute what is the
purpose of our spending time along with
the Lord
is there any purpose except interceding
for others and petitioning God for um my
needs is there any other purpose for
prayer than that and I want to tell you
that there is a higher purpose than
making petition a higher purpose than
interceding for God in the behalf of
others the greatest purpose of prayer is
not so much what I get from God but it
is the fact that I am in the Lord’s
presence and I am aware of his presence
shut up to him loving him pray praising
him worshiping him being quiet and
listening and talking to him what does
he do I’ll tell you what he
does when you and I get along with God
kneeling before him it is like the Lord
begins to move over our life like he
covers Us with an awareness of his
presence you say well I’ve been praying
I never felt that keep praying brother
if you’ll just keep praying and you’ll
ask God and tell him that that more than
you want anything that he has to give
you want him and you see the the
greatest profit in praying is not what I
get from God or by some material thing
the greatest profit of praying is what
as we are in his presence we are being
gradually conformed to his likeness for
example what we look at and what we
focus our attention upon what we think
about most is what we become like so
what so you on your face before God and
you’re looking to him now you’re not
going to see him physically but you can
close your eyes you don’t even have to
picture what it looks like because none
of us know what he looks like you can
close your eyes and talk to the Lord but
one thing for sure whether you’re face
down flat on the floor or kneeling and
looking up to him your face is pointed
toward almighty God now listen what is
happening while you’re praying and
talking to
him your countenance and my countenance
is going to reflect what we look upon
the most what we think about the most
when you and I get on our face before
God and we concentrate on him and we
talk to him and we share our heart with
him and we open our soul to him and we
pour out our innermost being to him what
are we doing with focusing our
countenance upon him and what does he do
in the process of our praying privately
along with him he is very silently but
quietly doing what transforming us into
his likess fashioning us into his
likeness giving us his mind working into
our life his very being pruning out of
our Lives those things ought not to be
there you can never come out of a place
of private Devotion to him
like you
entered but there’s one last thing and
that is you ought to have a plan because
if you’re not careful here’s what you’ll
do somebody will say I need you to pray
for them and you’ll pray two days and
that’s the end of it you forget it so
let me just tell you a real simple thing
that you can do just buy yourself a
stenographers pad it’ll set up because
it has um little wire on the end of it
it either set up if you want to set up
you can flip the pages lie it down
anything you want to do at the top of it
you write on the left hand column left-
hand side what you’re praying about at
the end of that put the date you started
praying and then as God answers that
prayer draw one line through it don’t
draw more than one line so you can see
what you have there draw one line
through it and write the date that God
answered your prayer and here’s what’ll
happen as you begin to add things to
that prayer list and as God begins to
answer your prayers and you keep drawing
lines through those things every time
you pick up that pad and you see all
those lines every one of those lines
says that what God answers prayer God
answers prayer God answers prayer God
answers prayer because each one of those
lines represents an answer and out to
the side of it you have a date you’re
talking about building your faith
nothing will build your faith nothing
will deepen your desire to be alone with
God like keeping a record of what God
has been doing and is doing in your life
and don’t get you a pad and go home and
fill it up you get your pad and you go
home and before God you say the Lord I
want you to show me what to pray about
God will show you what to pray about
what he intends to answer answer and God
will work now that’s four simple little
suggestions that every single one of you
can utilize if you are wise enough to
take heed to what you’re listening to
now here’s the question the big question
is always this what am I going to get
out of
it what’s God going to make me if I if I
if I really give myself to prayer is God
going to make me more eloquent so I can
speak better is God going to make me
more eloquent so I can teach better is
God going to call me to the mission
field make me a great missionary am I
going to be able to sing better am I
going to be able to exercise leadership
better what thing is going to happen to
me if I
pray well what would happen to you if I
told you as far as the world is
concerned more than likely
nothing some of you would say well I I
don’t have time for that well I want you
to do me a favor I want you to turn to a
beautiful Pastor scripture that more
than likely you’ve never seen it like
this in
Isaiah chapter 32 now don’t want I want
you to read it I just want you to turn
there for just a moment Isaiah chapter
32 and when you get that I want you to
hold that just for a moment and I want
you to think about
something when you and I develop a
relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ
and we become devoted to him we want to
spend time with him because we love him
want to open the word in his presence
want him to work in our life here is the
most beautiful picture in the scripture
I believe of what what happens to a man
or woman who really and truly develops a
private intimate relationship with Jesus
Christ through prayer now watch
this chapter 32 of
Isaiah verse
two and a
man shall be as in hiding place from the
wind and a covert from The Tempest as
rivers of water in a dry place as the
shadow of a great Almighty rock in a
weary land and listen to this I want you
to look this way
watch when you and I begin to pray and
God when you and I begin to establish
that private time alone with him being
quiet and God is able to hover over our
life hover over our life and cover us
for those minutes orever how long you
choose to pray God begins to conform you
and transform you know what’s going to
happen the anxieties disappear the
worries disappear the direction becomes
clear the Fogg that hinders your
decisions begin to lift God begins to do
a sweet wonderful work in your life for
which and where which whereof you will
find no other place and no other action
that’ll bring about the same
result but all that’s private here’s
what God will do in your life in behalf
of
others as you become a person
whose life is characterized by prayer
listen he will make you a
man who is like a hiding place to others
when the Winds of trouble begin to blow
against them he says you’ll be like a
hiding place to those who are being wind
blown with the troubles and the
heartaches of life he says when the
storms beat down upon them they’ll find
you like a covering where they can run
to and find some help and some
encouragement and some protection he
says when those lives are walking
through deserts and they’re empty and
lonely and frustrating and hurting he
says what you’ll be like a beautiful
spring of water flowing in the desert
like a river in dry
places when our prayer life is like God
wants it to be he says that you and I
will be like what like he says
watch as the shadow of a great rock in a
weary place and you know when you have a
great Rock and you have a shadow and the
Heat of the day is there in the shadow
there is coolness and when I read this
page of scripture I thought
Lord you want your people to be like
that rock a place in the midst of
heartaches and burdens and storms and
the Heat of the day and the blood
blowing winds the hot Winds of trouble
that come across us when a man’s in that
kind of trouble he needs or she needs to
meet a person who’s been alone with the
Lord nobody in the world may Ever Know
You by name except the folks around you
but let me ask you this would you say
that to become that type of
person to the people around you would be
worth you spending time alone with God
because what he’s really saying is
you’ll become an
Oasis in somebody else’s desert if you
learn to stay alone with God until he
transforms your life and until that
becomes a habit of devotion and love and
praise to him