By any distraction or any demand is laying siege upon God that will permit no interception, no counteraction, or any possibility of failure. That's what it means to pray without ceasing. Now we've got something to repent about. Because I suspect there's many of us learn how to do that. I'm talking about the how.
People say, “Well, I pray all the time.” The pastor mentioned this morning about praying out loud. I suggest that you begin your praying daily out loud because something about your own voice began to stir the passivity, the reluctance of your own spirit. Begin to cause vibration to begin alive with power. And it helps you in your concentration, your focus while you have your audible voice. Once you have that, that anointing, that powerful presence upon you, then you can go into that and your focus is not distracted. Like a dog at every garbage can. Then you can go into the silent realm. And you can stay there for hours or days or weeks. And never get out of it.
When I worked at North Island Naval Air Station, I come in one morning, for four hours I was full of God. I've been praying all night.
Someone asked me, “How are you Brother Cronquist?”
“Oh, wonderful. I have been praying all night.”
“All night. What in the world did you have to say? I could pray 15-20 minutes and I don’t know what else to say.”
That shows how little he knew about the art of prayer.
I got a message out there - Seven Ways of Praying. You all ought to get it. Because you need to exercise all those ways. But it is wonderful to pray all night. It was wonderful to pray all day and all night. It's even more wonderful to pray for a few days, all day and all night. It's even better to learn how to pray for a few weeks, all day and all night. Careful. Don't do it too much, because you just might pull an Enoch on yourself. I'm serious. You're laughing. I'm serious. It gets so good. You wonder what happened to the earth.
You can have an intimate relationship with Jesus Christ as badly as you want. Or you can go ahead and gratify yourself and have no relationship at all and be a miserable Christian. And that's where most people are - miserable Christian. But I am not very miserable.
Now back to prayer. Pray without ceasing. If I could give you the key to all success in prayer. The key to understanding all doctrine in your experience. The key to possessing all the promises in your life and the very substance of Jesus Christ in your experience. The key that would help you to discern every false prophet from a true prophet. The key is that what causes you and enables you to absolutely be equal to Jesus Christ. Would you do it? Something you can do. I'm not only going to show you this key, but I'll show you how to do it. Right? And how to do it consistently and how to do it until you are possessing it.
Ephesians 1. I got this 23 to 24 years ago from God. And I started praying this and things began to happen. Wonderful thing. I couldn't open the Bible anywhere. But boy, boy is just terribly exciting, terrible, wonderful. All kinds of miracles were happening. Everything. And I got distracted by my peers in the ministry. And I never advanced from that day on.
Then in 1981, 21 years later, I preached this similar message in St. Paul, Minneapolis, or Minnesota. I went home. That was in September. Then in February of 82, I was called to a conference in Massachusetts to preach. And as the plane was taking off the Lord Jesus appeared in my room. That's what He said. He said, “The message that I gave you to the King Jesus Church in St. Paul, not one person has done it.”
That was a message that was so clearly presented for something that they could do. He said, “Not one person has done it.” I know people hear preachers and never do it. Many of you here will hear me but you'll never do it. Because to do this you're going to have to sacrifice or deny yourself. Some of you shook your head if you're going to do this key today.
And then I said, “That's terrible, Lord.”
You know what He told me? He said, “Neither have you.”
Wow, that hit me between the eyes with a 12-pound sled hammer. Oh boy. Did I humble myself? Start repenting.
And then He said this before He left my room. He said, “If you had continued to do, what I taught you to do 21 years ago, you would have already arrived and then made complete in Me.”
Can you get the impact of that kind of remark? That if I had done what I'm going to teach you today, and the ways that I would want to teach you, if I had done, if I had continued on I would have already arrived and made me complete in Christ. 21 years in Christ down the tubes. He blessed me up, caused a lot of increase, but I missed being complete. I must be finished in this life. Now I'm gonna teach you what to do.
Ephesians 1:16-23 Cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers; 17 That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: 18 The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, 19 And what is the exceeding greatness of His power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of His mighty power, 20 Which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places, 21 Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world but also in that which is to come: 22 And has put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be the head over all things to the church, 23 Which is His body, the fullness of Him that fills all in all.
Good stuff in it.
Look at Ephesians 2:5-6 Even when we were dead in sins, has quickened us together with Christ, (by grace you are saved;) 6 And has raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:
Jesus is seated in the heavenly places at the right hand of the Father far above all principalities and powers, might and dominion. And He's made you alive with Christ. And He's raised you up together with Christ. And He seated you with Him at the right hand of the Father, far above the principalities and powers, and dominion, amen.
Now, you need to learn how to get off your position. It's that thing you're sitting on. And you need to get into the experience of this, don't you?
Jesus Christ appeared to me in Tulsa in my room, and He said, “If the doctrine of positional Christianity is prolonged, it will cause you to be caught in deception.” And He emphasized the word “prolonged.” If you're going to allow your position in Christ to be prolonged in your life and never be experienced, it's a good sign you're caught in deception.
And I've heard all my life, “This is our position in Christ,” and people accept that as acceptable. God will not accept it as acceptable. You got to get off your position into the experience. And this key is going to teach you how.
When I got a hold of this message 24 years ago and I loved the word, but there was an awful lot I didn't understand. There's still a lot I don't understand. But this is why I started praying. I'm going to show you how.
The latest time that I could get out of bed was quarter to six in the morning because I had to go to work. I worked for 12 years, had a full-time ministry. So I roll out of bed on my knees and I pray like this. “God, give me the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Christ Jesus. Enlighten the eyes of my heart with understanding so that I may know, in my experience, what the hope of Jesus' calling is, so that I may know in my experience, what the riches of the glory of Jesus' inheritance in the saints, so that I may know, in my experience, what the exceeding greatness of His power is towards me, because I believe, (and that word power is “dunamis” miracle power), so that I may know, in my experience, what the dunamis power of Jesus Christ is towards me because I believe, that I may know what the exceeding great, so nothing less, nothing less than the powers.”
Let us go back into chapter one very closely.
Eph 1:19 And what is the exceeding greatness of His power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of His mighty power,
And what is this capacity? Verse 19, what is this surpassing greatness of His power towards us that believe? Now that word is dunamis miracle power. These are in accordance with the “working.”
The word “working” Is energeia power. Energeia means strong, effectual efficiency and operation of the strength. Now that word is kratos. That's manifested vigorous power to the perfect tense of His might. That word is ischus. It is a vigorous ability, direct forcefulness demonstrated in divine strength.
Now Paul is praying here. And I want you to start praying on an individual basis or corporate basis, that God would give you the spirit of wisdom.
What is the spirit of wisdom? The spirit of wisdom is the ability, the divine ability to make divine knowledge work. If you never have the spirit of wisdom, along with knowledge, your knowledge will never work. For knowledge is who what and where. Wisdom is how, when, and why to make that who what and where work.
Eph 1:17 That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him:
So Paul is praying that God would give you the spirit of wisdom and the spirit of revelation, and the knowledge of Christ Jesus.
The word knowledge is epignosis and it means the end, the exact completed, finished, intimate knowledge that exists in Christ Jesus Himself. That's the spirit of wisdom from God that causes a very intimate knowledge of Jesus Christ to be completed in you.
Eph 1:18 The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of His calling, and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints.
And that the eyes of your heart. The word “heart” is dianoia. It's an action of deep thought in the intuitive mind. It's the divine power of God in you to know the meaning of everything. It's the infinite commingling. It's the literal incarnation in all its fullness in you if you have a spirit of wisdom and revelation that would come from Him, in you to do that.
That you may know what is the hope of His calling. What is the hope of His calling? The hope of His calling is to bring many sons to glory. Not babies, not children, but sons, the measure of the stature of the fullness of Himself.
And the reason why nobody has come to sonship because they have not really sought God for the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Christ Jesus. They settled for a little blessing here, a little blessing there. Blessings many times will shortchange you and you'll get your eyes off your need. Your need is to know Him not to have a blessing. Children want blessings but they don't even want the responsibility. The people of God want a blessing of God but they don't want the responsibility.
And I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened. The word enlightened means photizo. That is revelation workings of divine insight with exact knowledge. Did you hear me?
That you may know what is the greatness of His miracle power. Nothing less than the powers of energeia, kratos, and ischus that He wrought in Christ Jesus when He raised Him from the dead.
Look at me in the spirit. I want you to start praying to the Lord Jesus to the Father in His name, so He can give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation and knowledge of Himself.
That's nice. So I get out of bed. And I pray, “God give me the spirit of wisdom, revelation knowledge of Him.”
That's nice. Probably He hadn't heard you yet because you see, He'll never hear anything that has its origin from you. He's only going to hear what has its origins from Christ Jesus in you. And that's your spirit.
The Lord won’t receive the testimony of your prayers. He's only going to receive the testimony of His Son's prayer. So you got to learn how to get out of you to get into union with Jesus Christ. And I have learned, and I think it's the fact most people never even begin to get out of their self dominated life until they have prayed for a minimum of two hours. No wonder we have such a weak, anemic church. Takes about that long. Some days, I get into the spirit in about five minutes. But most days, I don't really get into the spirit really get into spirit until I worked at it through prayer for a minimum of two hours. All the things that I've been praying for two hours amount to zero.
But once I get into the spirit, I can go back and say the same thing that I was saying when I was in myself, and I can have the answers. Are you listening to me? Learn to concentrate. Did any of you missed what I said? Come on, listen to me. Concentrate, concentrate, concentrate. I can be praying very validly needful things from my soul-life, my self-life but as long as it's me praying, I'm not praying it in the spirit. I have to pray until I get out of my self into the spirit. And when I get into the spirit, I can say the same thing that I was saying in my self and I'll say it once and have the answer. While I am in my self, I'd be praying a 100 times and never get the answer.
So I gotta pray 100 times, 200 times, 300,400 1000 until I get out of my self into the realm of spirit, and now I get the Rhema word. I speak it and possess it. Most people don't want to pray that much. They'd like to deceive themselves. Many times when I pray I have to ask how much time they got left. 15 minutes. Many times when I pray I'll ask myself, “Royal, is your heart in it?” You'd be surprised how many times I found out my heart was not in it. I was being so religious. I was doing so nice in my prayer life.
But I hate myself in my religiosity, in my self, the indication of my good friend, self-life. I had to repent of my lip service to God, get my heart into it. Because it's only when I get my heart into it, will God even begin to listen. Because He can't hear self. He can only hear heart and spirit. Oh, I never heard myself say that before. He can only hear heart and spirit. He can't hear self. Are you getting it? You're getting anything yet?
So anyway, there's the way I pray. I'm gonna tell you how I pray. So as I roll out of bed, I roll out of bed on my knees. And I go through that whole thing of praying to God, “Give me,” and I would focus right from the center of my forehead. I am just vicious in my focus and locked my mind upon Him.
I said, “God,” and I'd mean it from all my heart said, “God, give me the spirit of wisdom and the spirit of revelation and knowledge of Christ Jesus. Enlighten the eyes of my heart with understanding so that I may know, within my experience... that word know is eido and it means the absolute experience of God in you. That I may know in my experience, what the hope of Jesus’ calling is, that I may know what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints and that I may know what exceeding greatness of His miracle power is towards me, because I believe, that I may know nothing less than the power which You wrought in Christ Jesus when He raised Him from the dead.
Do you know what would happen to you if you would seek God for the spirit of wisdom and revelation and knowledge of Him? He would begin to work within you the dunamis power, the ischus power, the kratos power and energeia power which will give you immortality. Because it was those powers, those four powers that God wrought in Christ Jesus that raised Him from the dead. Of course, most of your life, you're suffering mortality. Now you don't like to suffer mortality and you got sick of the pain that you got. Yeah, I am too.
You start if you can, if you seek God or you pray, “God, give me the spirit of wisdom and revelation and knowledge of Him. Enlighten the eyes of my heart that I may know in my experience what the hope of His calling is, what the riches of the glory of His inheritance is, what the exceeding greatness of His powers towards me who believe, according to the working of His mighty power that you wrought in Christ Jesus from the dead.”
And I remind myself, “Royal, He's made you ally with Him. He's raised you up with Him to see the view within Him at the right hand of the Father, all empowered within Him.”
Until I get up off my knees, I pray that while I'm walking down the hall, go to the bathroom and pray, “Father, in Jesus' name, give me the spirit of wisdom, the spirit of revelation, and the knowledge of Christ Jesus, enlighten the eyes of my heart with understanding, so that I may know in my experience, what the hope of Jesus calling us with the riches of Your glory is in that inheritance in the saints, to know the exceeding greatness of Your miracle power towards me, because I believe.”
While I was coming out of the bathroom, I would get breakfast ready. I sit down, and say grace, “God, give me the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Christ Jesus. Enlighten the eyes of my heart with understanding, so that I may know what the hope of Jesus’ calling is. So that I may know in my experience, what the riches of the glory of Jesus' inheritance is in me because I am a saint, so that I may know what exceeding greatness of Your miracle power toward me..” and I kept praying that and I bow right in the middle of my food, and I pray that. I go through that whole thing.
While I'm putting on my coat, I'm praying. And while I was walking out to the car, I was praying it. And I rode in carpools with four men. One week I'd drive, other weeks they would drive. I sat there and with my lip service, I'd be praying all the way for 25-30 minutes, “God give me the spirit of wisdom, and revelation, and the knowledge of Christ Jesus.”
I go through that whole thing, word for word, again, with my focus, whatever is, every second might be with my heart on it. And while I was working at work, while I was driving the nails because I was a carpenter, I prayed, “God give me the spirit of wisdom and revelation, in the knowledge of Christ Jesus...” while running a saw through a board, “God give me the spirit of wisdom and revelation and knowledge of Christ.” I was going to pray that until I would not be denied. I was going to pray it until God Almighty began to work it in my life.
Persistent, unrelenting, unceasing persistence. I want to tell you something. If you don't get this spirit of wisdom and revelation, and knowledge you need to work in your life, you can't be a good Christian and die in faith never received that promise. All of a sudden, I prayed that way I give up all other praying. I stopped praying for my loved ones. I stopped praying for the President. I stopped praying, no chance of me praying for anybody. Because I get no answers for anybody.
And I started praying, “God give me that spirit of wisdom, revelation and knowledge of Christ Jesus.” Some days, I'll pray it 100 times some days, I'll pray 300 times. Even now, some days I'll pray 500 times because I know that if the spirit of wisdom of God, revelation working God is not working with me, I ain't get nothing from God because it all comes out of His wisdom and His revelation working from my conscious understanding.
Pray without ceasing. I know the scripture says in Matthew 6:7, But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.
That vain reputation is that you keep praying something of your self interest. You cannot pray that. You pray for God's interest. 1 John 5:14-15 And this is the confidence that we have in Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us: 15 And if we know that He hear us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of Him.
Until you start praying that you're never going to be able to gratify yourself in any of that because He ain't going to give it to you to gratify you. Have I made it clear? Do you know now what to do? Do you know how to do it?
Have I demonstrated enough for you? Don't tell me you don't have the time. If I could walk with you people day by day, close, intimate walk with you. I can prove to you where you waste 80% of your time being unproductive and uncommitted and uncreative in life. Because why? Special things are always wanting some gratification. Or people are sitting around their house and waste time looking at the world go by. They go here, they go there, gratifying the senses as the world goes by. I hope I've made it clear for you. And I want to say something else.
There was a man by the name of Kenneth Hagin, anybody knows him? This is the story of his son. He says, “When my dad was a young man in the ministry back in Texas, we were in a little house, one bedroom, decrepit wooden floor. I saw my dad one night, get up from the table and went over and he knelt down by a desk that was by the bedroom door. I saw him start to pray. When I got up in the morning, he was still there. I come home from school, he was still there. Went to bed that night. In the morning, he was still there. I come home from school that day, and he was still there. This went on for days. I saw my mom bring him a little broth once in a while and they take a little broth. He was still there. By that desk near that door. He was praying.”
That's what we call praying with all your heart. That's what we call persistence.
And this is what he was praying.
Father, give me the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Christ Jesus. Enlighten the eyes of my heart with understanding. So that I may know in my experience what the hope of Jesus calling..”
This is what kind of Hagin was as a young man. Today, in my estimation, he's one of the finest prophetic teachers in the world.
Smith Wigglesworth, you ever hear about him? He lived in the country, I think if I relate it right. He would go in and out of town. He drove by this neighbor's house and he saw a man out in the pasture, knelt by the fence post hanging onto barbed wire praying. He comes back later in the day and he's still there. And this went on for several days, five days I think. It was one week. He was a man of prayer who averaged six to eight hours a day in prayer. Finally, after five days, he was moved by God to step through the fence by the road and walk across the pasture to this neighbor that was kneeling down praying.
“My brother, who are you praying for?”
“I'm praying for my daughter. She can't hear.”
“The Spirit of the LORD came on me and He says you can stop praying. Your daughter is restored. She is made ever whole.”
See that? The answer would never have come if he hadn't been one who was dedicated to having a period of praying without ceasing.
Maybe you've been praying for the same thing for 20 years. You never did that unceasing act. Sometimes we need to help one another. You husbands need to help your wives to have time to pray. You wives need to help your husbands have time to pray. Your husband and wife need to help other husbands and wives have time to pray. Take their kids, take their responsibilities for a weekend for a holiday to pray. We need to learn how to pray.
You need to get the spirit of wisdom and revelation. You need to learn how to be unceasing in prayer, unrelenting, unremitting, no reset, no probation, no other demand, no other distractions. You need to learn how to pray things through. If you aren't going to do this kind of praying, you might as well forget about praying for everything.
I have never advanced in God in my experience and understanding the scriptures until I gave myself to repetitious, unceasing praying, repetitive, unceasing. “God, give me the spirit of wisdom.”
Or if it's for a loved one, I tune into my loved one. My son-in-law's marriage was on the rock. I loved him and don’t believe in divorce. I know people get caught in divorce and probably some here. No, we're not gonna get on that subject. His marriage was on the rocks.
So I locked him in a carpenter shop, bars on the windows, key in my pocket. I told him, "The only way you're going to get out there is hurt me and get the key off of me. I'm going to tell you what you need to know. To my own hurt. My daughter, my kids adore me."
So I talked to him as kindly as I could get yet firmly as I could - reproving and rebuking him for his carelessness, laziness, selfishness. I did just what I thought. He is estranged from me and he took my daughter away from me. I was a heartbroken father.
One day, I decided to start praying for my son-in-law 1500 miles away. I started tuning into him with my spirit with my focus always right there. But I keep him right in front of me. I talked to him. His name is Thomas.
“Tom. Forgive me for not having enough love in that carpenter's shop. Forgive me for not having enough grace. Forgive me for being so harsh and so hard and so firm. Forgive me for not knowing how to feel empathy.”
I would repent and I would repent and confess repentance while talking to him 1500 miles away. I was talking to him as though he was right in front of me. I prayed many hours a day that way. I wanted my daughter back, I wanted my son-in-law back. I can't live without that part of my life. So I kept daily taking the time, undivided time, undistracted time to pray. And in prayer. I would tune in to him and talk to him.
One day, in August, I have to be home. Four o'clock in the morning the phone rings wakes me out of a sound sleep. A voice on there says, “Dad, dad.”
“Who is this?”
“This is Tom.”
“Tom?”
“Yeah. This is Grandparents Day and I called you to wish you Grandparents Day.”
“I didn't know there was such a day.”
“It is really today.”
Then he says, “I bless you.”
Oh, oh, heaven turned loose. Oh, heaven turned loose. And I tried to contain myself. My son-in-law was blessing me again. Not resenting it a bit. He was better. And I went on my itinerary speaking and preaching. I called my wife about two, three weeks later.
She says, “You know they're coming home for Christmas. They are.”
“Why are they doing that?”
“I don't know. They just come home for Christmas.”
“They are? I can hardly believe it.”
They come home my son-in-law, my daughter, two grandkids. My other son that's married come home. We had 10 days of heaven on earth. We held hands a lot. We kissed a lot. We hugged a lot. We're very close. We touched a lot. We cried a lot. We prayed together. We loved together. It was heaven on earth.
It only happened because I made the decision. I don't pray it through. It was gonna be unceasing. I was humbled. I didn't have any right to be right. I had the right to be broken. I identified with all of the faults. It is always mine – repented, repented, repented, and repented. Please forgive me, forgive me, forgive me. He did.
Have I helped you? Hope you learned something today about the art of prayer.
Come on. Get that spirit of wisdom and revelation and knowledge of Him. I want you to know something from the days that I've met you. You'll never be out of my prayers again. I'll never sin against the Lord ceasing to pray for you night and day. When I go to the throne, I'm gonna take you with me, probably some by name. But every one of you by faith because you'll never be affected when you find yourself in trouble. Blame me. I don't pray very pussyfoot.
I asked God put you in trouble. Only when you get in trouble that you can mean business. Most people never pray until they're in a crisis state. I don't want to pray in a crisis state. Because if we pray out of our emotion out of our need we can never pray the prayer of faith. I want to pray every day. I want to talk with my King. I want to have a loving relationship. I want to know that I know that I know that I know that I know that I know that I have touched the Lord. And that He is walking in me. And that I'm different. Let the world not be ashamed of it. It takes a lot of guts. All my enemies are Christian. I don't have an enemy this is a saint. Not all Christians are my enemies, thank God. It’s my enemies that have made me, help make me. It is my enemies that have been my blessing.
It's been the pain of relationships, where I chose to stay sweet. And chose to pray and to bless but not curse, not criticize, not whine and nag, moan and complain about my life. It's my enemies, that God has used to perfect that which concerns me. They're the ones I'm grateful for. I'm grateful for you. But you people are too easy to lead to love. I have to go out here to find some Christians or I can have enemies. They're the ones that give me the chance to put on the fruit of the Spirit. They're the ones who have the greatest aid to me to advance. Hope I've helped you.
Now, Father, thank You for the chance to share my experience in the sanctuary. Thank you for the chance to show the way that You showed me and taught me.
Oh, by the way, if some of you got any secrets that you've learned that I haven't learned, would you share them with me? I want to learn them in some way that worked for you. Try different things until they worked. And you find something work try to wear it out to get better.
Come on, beloved. We can bring in the kingdom by the end of this decade. We can bring the King back. We can do it. We can do it. I'm dedicated. I'm dedicated to doing everything I can to bring it to the end of this decade.
I don't want my children living into the 90s in the way that the world has gone. I want to have a relationship with Jesus Christ so that I can be so complete, that I can rule the nations with a rod of iron. For the kingdoms of this world can become the kingdom of the Lord in His Christ. I'm committed to this.
Oh, Royal has that same problem as anybody else. He has the same testings, the same enticements. Sorry Royal, you know, you're gonna have to just deny your own self today. You're gonna live for God. Oh, Royal hurts in it. I'm not telling you this is easy. This is a painful life. If you're going to reign with Me, you're going to suffer with Me. Suffer and I will do blessings.
I don't want any more blessings. I want Him. I want to be like Him. Blessings retard me. Blessings make me lazy. Blessings make me too comfortable. I want Him. I want Him to give me nothing. But what I need will finish me in Christ. If it's suffering that's what I want. The blessings I don't know. I'm a little afraid of them. A little freedom. I want Him. Oh, to taste to see Him. To walk with Him. It's worth it all. Let every heart be fertile soil here. Everyone be changed, but to be some real repentance of ourselves to be some real spirit of wisdom and revelation knowledge of Christ Jesus. You said your word will not return the void. But I realized the condition of that not returning your word void is that we love the Lord God with all our hearts and all our soul with all our mind. With all that I commit this word to You.
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