A Prayer Battle

A Prayer Battle

Men go about with darkened faces, to the distress both of themselves and of others. This is a morbid condition, and wholly abnormal for a child of God. Let us notice how David broke through this state. The moment he discovered what it was, he set his will to work. “I will remember the works of the Lord; surely, I will remember Your wonders of old. I will meditate also on all Your work and talk of Your deeds.” Is this the same man? Yes, it is the same man—one who by an act of his will turned towards the light instead of the darkness. Observe what he remembered before: “I remembered God and was troubled; I complained.” The help lay in this, that he began to contemplate the great works of God. “I will remember how He brought His people out of Egypt; how the whole host of Pharaoh, which pursued them, was overwhelmed by His power; and how for forty years He led them through the wilderness, working great signs and wonders.” “I will remember the years of the power of the right hand of the Most High.” As soon as he began to remember the power of God, the spirit of oppression was compelled to retreat. “I will remember Your wonders of old.” You will never see a greater wonder than the conversion of a soul. And when you are truly converted, you are a new man, “a new creation.”

When Satan attacks me, I remember my conversion, and I say, “That is a fact, anyway, because I am not the same man as I was before that time,” and I show him the Cross of Christ on Golgotha, where God’s greatest wonder took place—the infinite love of God. See how the overwhelmed spirit of the Psalmist became liberated. “I will remember Your wonders of old,” and then he goes a step further: “I will meditate on all Your work.” As he meditates, the fire begins to burn within him, and his spirit is made alive. His remembering gives place to meditation, and as he carefully contemplates the works of God, he becomes so filled with the Holy Spirit that it overflows. What happens? Yes—testimony. “I will talk,” and he began to praise God!

Jesus talked to the two disciples on the way to Emmaus, and He opened to them the Scriptures. By and by they said, “Did not our hearts burn within us while He talked with us on the road?” This is the fire that brings revival—a flame that carries divine power within itself. “I will remember God; I will meditate upon Him; I will talk of His great works,” and as I talk, the flame that burns in my spirit kindles other hearts. Thus, the revival begins. Do you expect revival to drop from the skies? No—it always begins in a person, in one whose inner life is burning with the fire of God, and who through continual surrender keeps the flame alive.

The Psalm throws light, not upon a normal state of the man of God, but upon a state of infirmity—a condition of weakness in which many believers find themselves. The moment David realised that all his self-reproaching and depression were infirmity, he understood that the powers of darkness were at work, not the hand of God. And because he had light, he also knew the remedy. He turned to God, and his relationship with God was at once changed by the light he had received. “O God, Your way is holiness; who is so great a God as our God?” Do you believe that all things are possible with God? Then you believe that all things are possible to you, for “all things are possible to him who believes.” We have a mighty God. Let us be bold in our faith. We fail so often because we try only to do what people in general do. But the man of God is called to do the impossible. Leave the possible to the world—that is its calling. Our calling is the impossible. The world calls us “impossible people;” should it not then be the impossible people who accomplish the impossible?