Prevailing Prayer

Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. JAMES 5:16

Finney’s fourth lecture on revivals, which Ochorus also carries as a sermon, gave the church a phrase: prevailing prayer. By it he meant prayer that obtains what it asks — not good wishes or a daily recitation, but prayer that takes hold of God for a definite thing and does not let go until the answer comes.

Two kinds of means

Finney began with a sentence that sums up his whole approach to revival. There are two kinds of means, he said: one to influence men, the other to influence God. “The truth is employed to influence men, and prayer to move God.”

He was careful to explain what he meant. Prayer does not change God’s mind or His character. God was always willing to give the blessing. But prayer produces a change in us and fulfils the conditions on which God has promised to act, so that it becomes fitting for Him to do what it would not have been fitting for Him to do otherwise. As a sinner’s repentance makes it proper for God to forgive, so the church’s prayer makes it proper for God to pour out His Spirit.

Ye have not, because ye ask not. JAMES 4:2

He insisted that both kinds of means are needed. Some preach and distribute tracts with great zeal and pray little, and wonder at their poor success. Others pray and use no truth. “To expect the conversion of sinners by prayer alone, without the employment of truth, is to tempt God,” he wrote. The two belong together.

The marks of prevailing prayer

Finney then set out what such prayer requires, and his list is worth working through slowly.

It must be for a definite object. Many Christians, he said, go into their closets because it is time to say their prayers, pray for whatever floats into their minds, and afterwards could not tell you what they asked. Would anyone petition a legislature like that? The mind cannot fasten its desires intensely on many things at once. Prevailing prayer fixes on one thing.

It must be according to the revealed will of God — His promises in Scripture, the plain indications of His providence, or the leading of His Spirit, who helps our infirmities when we do not know what to pray for as we ought.

Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. ROMANS 8:26

It must be offered with submission — but Finney would not let submission be confused with indifference. He pointed to David praying and fasting for his sick child. While the child lived, David did not know God’s will, and so he pleaded. When the child died, he rose and washed and ate. That, said Finney, is true submission: acquiescence in the will of God once it is revealed, not a shrug offered in advance to excuse a lukewarm prayer.

It must spring from right motives — from a desire for the glory of God, not merely from natural affection or private comfort. It must be offered in the name of Christ, whose name gives us, as it were, the use of His own credit at the bank of heaven. It must be offered by one who has renounced his sins. It must be persevering. And it must be offered in faith, expecting the thing asked.

And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. JOHN 14:13

Jacob at the brook

Above all, Finney said, prevailing prayer carries a desire that matches the greatness of what is asked. He pointed to Jacob, alone at the brook Jabbok, wrestling through the night and crying, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me. He pointed to Moses standing in the gap for Israel when God threatened to destroy them. He pointed to Christ in Gethsemane. And he told of an old blacksmith with a stammer who, burdened for his dead church, shut his shop one afternoon to pray; that Sunday he asked the minister to call a meeting, and people from every quarter of the town came under conviction, dating it from the hour he had prayed.

And he said, Let me go, for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me. GENESIS 32:26

Finney was honest that such prayer often affected the body. He had known people pray until they were drenched in sweat in winter, or exhausted with the agony of their minds, and he quoted Jonathan Edwards at length to show that this had been common in earlier revivals. But he also said plainly, “These effects of the Spirit of prayer upon the body are themselves no part of religion.” They were simply what happens when a weak body carries a great burden.

Where care is needed

This is a searching lecture, and much of it is plain Scripture. But two of Finney’s emphases need a gentler hand.

The first is his claim that “Prayer is not effectual unless it is offered up with an agony of desire.” He went so far as to say that he did not believe in any other kind. Scripture does show us agonising prayer, and we have too little of it. But it also shows us prayer that is short, quiet and heard. Nehemiah, standing before the king with a cup in his hand, prayed to the God of heaven and then answered. The publican beat his breast and said a single sentence, and went down to his house justified. And Jesus warned against supposing that we are heard for our much speaking.

But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. MATTHEW 6:7

Intensity is not a price we pay to obtain an answer. God hears because of Christ, not because of our sweat. If Finney’s standard makes you despair of ever praying well enough, remember that the Spirit helps our infirmities and intercedes when we cannot.

The second is his severity about motives. He was right that much prayer is selfish, and right that we should care for the glory of God as well as for the welfare of those we love. But he was hard on the mother who prays for her son because she cannot bear to lose him. Scripture is kinder. The Syrophenician woman prayed for her daughter out of a mother’s anguish, and Jesus granted her request and praised her faith.

The question that remains

Finney closed by turning to his hearers: Have you confessed your sins and got them out of the way? Can you pray now? Most of us know a great deal about prayer. What we lack is the will to take a definite burden to God and hold on.

Pray without ceasing. 1 THESSALONIANS 5:17

FOR REFLECTION AND ACTION

1. Choose one definite object for prayer — a person, a church, a need — and write it down. Pray for it daily this month.

2. Before you pray, ask what God has promised that bears on it. Find a verse and pray it back to Him.

3. Examine your motives. Add to your natural concern a desire that God be glorified in the answer.

4. If there is unconfessed sin between you and God, deal with it first, as Finney urged.

5. If you find you cannot pray with intensity, do not stop praying. Tell God so, and ask the Spirit to help your infirmity.

A PRAYER

Lord, I have prayed at random and wondered why nothing changed. Teach me to pray for definite things, according to Your Word.

Give me desire that matches the greatness of what I ask, and perseverance to hold on as Jacob held on.

Yet let me never think I am heard for my agony or my many words. I come in the name of Jesus alone.

Here is the one thing I bring You today. I will not let You go, except You bless. Amen.