Wrestling in Prayer

God has been revealing to me, the difference between receiving what most are seeking, which is power from God, and what is even more powerful, how we can receive power with God. In Genesis 32, we have the story of how Jacob wrestled with God all night. At the end, God turned to Jacob and said, "As a prince, you have power with God and with man, and have prevailed!"

If you want to be active rather than passive as a believer, then you need to have power not only from God, but also power with Him! You cannot have real power with men until you first learn to have power with God, hence this wrestling (in persistent prayer). That is why I have so many battles in my life - in the communist prison, cancer twice - so that these last twenty years have been the most effective in my whole life!

The greatest thing in your life is to learn how to pray - and that is one of the hardest things to do. I have been a Christian for over sixty years and I still ask, "Lord, teach me how to pray!"

Wrestling with God is a question of learning how to pray. Any one can 'pray', especially in a crisis. But it is prevailing prayer, learning to pray until we get the answer, which is the hardest lesson. It is a privilege when God places us in extreme circumstances so that we can learn how to wrestle with Him! My life seems to go from one crisis to the next, until I even say to God, "Isn't it time You made my life a little bit easier?" But He has a simple answer, "Without the crisis you will stop learning!" That is why, old as I am, however many years I have been evangelising, I am still saying, "Lord, teach me how to pray!" So thank God for the crisis in your life!

The important thing with prayer is, like Jacob, to prevail with God until He answers!

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Does God care?

We all at times ask: 'Does God care? Does God understand?' I want in some way to encourage you. God sent His Son to live as we do, to experience what we experience. He doesn't sit in heaven aloof to our concerns and fears; He experienced them Himself, that is why Jesus had to come. It was the only way He could identify with our humanity.

Jesus is Son of God yet Son of Man. God allowed Him to suffer. He was rejected and despised. Isaiah said of Jesus that He would be a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. Jesus was not born in a palace with all the advantages of wealth and privilege, He was born in a filthy animal stable. He never owned a house. He wore borrowed clothes. When He was killed, He was buried in a borrowed tomb. He had no salary, no pension, no state support.

Jesus needed to suffer so that God could identify with us, so that He could understand and feel our pain. Hebrews 4:15 teaches that Jesus is able to sympathise with our weaknesses because He Himself was tempted and tried as we are, yet He was without sin. That is why we can boldly come before God to find mercy and help in our times of need.

The cross enabled Jesus to identify with us, and for us to identify with Him. Through Jesus we can understand that sometimes suffering leads us to God. The Apostle Paul encourages in 2 Corinthians 7:10, 'For God sometimes uses sorrow in our lives to help us turn away from sin and seek eternal life' (LB).

Podcast: There is power in the Gospel

Current Podcast: Sunday 1 February 2015 (13 minute audio)

There is power in the Gospel

My father was born in Morriston, South Wales, in 1892 and was there in the great Welsh Revival. When the power of God fell, the churches were filled, there was not enough room for the people. The power of God was so strong that ungodly coal miners would go down in the lift and fall on their faces under powerful Holy Ghost conviction. We are seeing the same today across the former Soviet countries. 

Click here to listen (to download right click on the player and select 'save as')

The importance of touch

The sense of touch is one of the most important emotional bonds we have. Touch directly affects the way we view the world. The softer the touch, the happier and more content we are; the harder the touch, the more aggressive and defensive we become. When we greet one another, the sense of touch instantly determines our emotional response to them. When we are in trouble and need reassurance, touch can ease the fear and calm the torment. How does a parent bond with their child? Through touch. How does a relationship breakdown? Through lack of touch. What a difference touch can make.

The woman with the issue of blood in Luke 8 was desperate just to reach out and touch the hem of Jesus' garment. She knew that touch would change her life. The moment she touched Him Jesus asked, Who touched me? When all denied, Peter and the disciples who were with Him said, Master, the multitude press You, and yet You say, Who touched Me? But Jesus knew somebody had touched Him. We have all experienced that moment in a crowd when someone touches us differently; our body immediately identifies that something has happened. It was the same for Jesus. She was the only one to touch Him with faith; it instantly singled her out from the crowd around.

I want to encourage you. Like with this woman, whatever the crisis in your life, reach out to Jesus. In your darkest moment, when you are hurting more than you've hurt before, Jesus is there. He's not forgotten you. He is one touch away. Jesus said, 'I will be with you always'. Every day, every hour, in the middle of every storm, in the middle of every sickness, or lying on a road as the result of a car accident, Jesus will always come. Whatever the crisis, there is never a moment when He's not there. Jesus is only one touch away from you. One cry, one call, and He is there to answer.

Call on Him!

In the Bible Jesus says, "Behold I stand at the door and knock. If any man will open the door, I will come in!" (Revelation 3:20.) Jesus is more willing to come to us than we are to receive Him. I try to tell people how simple it is to receive Jesus. All you have to do is be like a drowning man: stop struggling, let go of your tiny piece of flotsam and let Him rescue you. I understand that one problem the rescuer has is that while the drowning person is struggling so much, it is hard for the victim to trust their saviour! The panic and desperation to be saved actually makes being rescued even harder.

Healing, deliverance, forgiveness… stop struggling to rescue yourself, relax and let Him deliver you. That wonderful hymn writer put it so powerfully: 'Just as I am without one plea, but that Thy Blood was shed for me… I come.' We all need the touch of someone who loves us. So many of you reading this have secret problems you cannot share; they are too deep, too personal. Tell everything to Jesus. It's the only way to be healed, delivered, set free. He already knows, He understands and He's waiting for you to come to Him. He lived here on earth like you in order to understand all the problems we face, that's why He does not condemn. Talk to Him. He's listening. Ask Him for help. And receive His peace.

God has a plan

God has a clear plan and strategy in everything He does. From creation to salvation, nothing has happened in heaven and earth without the foreknowledge of God. You are an important part of His strategy. He knew you before you were formed in your mother's womb. He has planned out all of your days. No experience is wasted. It has all been designed by a master architect. The Bible says in Hebrews 11:3 that it is by faith we understand that our lives are framed, fashioned and formed for their intended purpose by the Word of God (Amp).

God's plan for your life is for good, to give you a future and a hope. His plans always bring blessing. When you look at the historic sufferings of Israel, we can see how God brought them through persecution and slavery into blessing. There is always a deliverance; He will always bring you through every difficulty. God has a tremendous future for you. I want you to move forward with a renewed sense of purpose and hope. Our God is a God of power, miracles and deliverance. He will not leave you in your tragedy but has come to bless you.

An important part of God's strategy is that He wants to show His power is not just in heaven, but also on earth. God wants to use you to fulfil this plan. But God can only use willing, obedient, committed people who will make His glory the first priority. God needs the right men and women in the right place in order to do what He wants, to bring glory to His Name, to bring deliverance to nations, to build His church. Do you want to be where God is? Do you want the power of God? Then go where God is telling you, do what He is telling you to do.

The incredible power of God in us!

The power of God is absolutely without limit! Yet His power is only as big as our ability to believe. That's why Ephesians 1:19-20 talks of the 'exceeding greatness of His incredible power to us who believe'! The power is only released according to what you believe. At the start of this year, I want to encourage you to be bold in your praying; if God has revealed a promise to you for 2015, have the same attitude as David who declared in 1 Chronicles 17:25, 'O my God, I have been bold enough to pray to You because You have revealed to Your servant that You will build a house for him, a dynasty of kings!' David only dared to  pray such an outlandish promise because God revealed it to him. Just think for a moment, unbeknownst to David, contained within that promise was the birth and resurrection of Jesus, and its fulfilment is found in Revelation 19:16 where Jesus is declared to be King of kings!

When God raised Jesus from the dead, that wasn't an ordinary miracle. Our annual rituals and repetitions can make it seem meaningless. We've got to come back to the realisation as to how big the miracle actually is! Jesus was dead and buried in a tomb, but God through the power of the Holy Spirit raised Jesus from the dead - and He is alive today! That same resurrection power is in you and me! I need this incredible power, you need this power of God.

In the Bible we read what God did with Israel in Egypt: the plagues, the crossing of the Red Sea, it's a nice encouraging story. But do we realise that Egypt was the greatest power on earth at that time, one of the greatest empires the world has ever seen?! God overthrew the power of the greatest empire, destroyed all Pharaoh's army and delivered Israel! What a triumph! Moses said to the Israelites in Deuteronomy 4, "Don't you see, this is the greatest miracle ever seen on the face of the earth?!"

I am talking about the absolutely incredible, unbelievable power that God has! If only we understood! That power is available to every one of us who will believe.