September 15th, 1990 "Before They Call, I will Answer" Mrs. N.D. Daniel
Isaiah 65:23 & 24
Here we read the prophecy of Isaiah the prophet of God and his experience. The Word of God says, "...before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear." Last time we considered Matt.17:20 & 21. "If ye have faith as much as a mustard seed, nothing shall be impossible unto you." Today we shall consider Isa.65:23 & 24. "Before we call God will answer and while we are yet speaking God will hear." Jesus stood at the grave of Lazarus and He lifted up His eyes to heaven and said, "I thank you Father that you have heard my prayer." He knew that God had already heard His prayer. He had only to thank God. Isaiah 65:24 speaks of this same thing. Jesus did not say, "Lord raise up Lazarus from the grave." Jesus knew God had heard His prayer. Therefore Jesus thanked His Father. He knew God always heard His prayer. The prayer of true children of God will always be heard by God. The Spirit of God was always upon Jesus Christ and God always heard His prayer. If the Spirit of God is with us He Himself will pray through us. The Spirit of God helps and teaches us to pray. Jesus Christ told us that we should pray and God will hear our prayer. "Ask and it shall be given you; seek and ye shall find; knock and it shall be opened unto you." That kind of persevering prayer also should be learnt. For all our problems, we need faith. We must ask the Lord for that mustard seed level of faith. Not only that, we must have the experience that even before we ask we get the answer. God wants us to have that experience. If we get the Spirit’s thoughts we can receive the Spirit’s prayer also. So if the Spirit of God leads us in prayer it will be very easy. It will be also very edifying and it will bring us great joy. Then we can bring great glory to God.
Romans 8:26 says we do not know how to pray. But if the Spirit of God is upon us, we will know how to pray the Spirit’s prayer. Even for prayer we need the help of the Spirit of God to guide us. Jesus always sent out His disciples, two by two, for the ministry. If both the disciples prayed in oneness of spirit it would bring great blessing to the ministry. We do not see that bond of oneness in some of our workers. "This is my area, these are my souls," they claim. That is not what the Word of God says. The whole world is a field for the service of God. We have to go to all the world and preach the gospel. When we went to labour for God, my husband, Joe and myself were of one spirit to glorify God. There was nothing in which we differed. Our only aim was to the Lord Jesus Christ. The Word of God became a power. The spirit of prayer was upon all those who attended the retreats. We were encouraged to go forward in the work of God. Since the Spirit of God was in our midst the work of God was not difficult. There was no confusion in the work. No trouble-makers were able to disturb the meetings. The Word of God gripped the attention of the people. Oneness of Spirit is needed in the Fellowship. If all can join whole-heartedly in our united prayer, it shows that we have the spirit of oneness. Satan will not sit still when any good work is going on. He will tempt us. But Jesus will keep us from falling. We will be tested and tempted, but Jesus will seek to uphold us so that we may glorify Christ.
The Lord honours those that honour Him. There is much grace made available for those who take the gospel to other countries. The Lord has got great things for us which we are yet to see. We should be humble to glorify God according to the Word of God, that we are allowed to preach.
Big problems had to be faced in the ministry and there were hard nuts to crack. A certain man became very ungrateful for all the love the Fellowship had showed him and was grieving the Lord by his ungodly ways. He began to tremble when we sent word to him to come. He said, he never expected it and began to fear and perspire. Another person, a lady, who refused to listen to her husband began to change. A hard-hearted boy, who did not respect his parents began to hear the Word of God. He asked pardon of his parents for his disobedience. These mountains began to move. But on the whole, we tend to veer off from tackling hard cases. We pray for a person for sometime. Then we say, "It is a very hopeless case." With that attitude we start praying for that person. We do not believe our prayer will be answered. How then can we get results? So we do not see victory.
We have to rise to the level of this prayer: "Before they call I will answer." That means we must learn Spirit’s prayer. We must fast and pray also for hard cases and then only we can see results. Such prayer will not be a laborious one. The Spirit will guide us into all truth. We went with fear and trembling and came back rejoicing. The Fellowship’s prayers surrounded us and so it was answered. We did not get sick. We did not catch even a cold or cough or fever. We went healthy and came back healthy. The Lord was very gracious to us. In the retreats the Lord did not allow any deaths. Even if a baby dies in a retreat it is a blow to our faith. The Lord protected all of us. There is an open invitation to all to attend our retreats around the world. There is no restriction in the invitation. Jesus said, "Go ye into all the world and move the hard mountains and win souls to the glory of God." We shall go forward in following Jesus. God bless you.