E. M. Bounds - Understanding Prayer: Its Purpose, Its Power, Its Potential

2013 by Barbour Publishing, Inc.

ISBN 978-1-62029-803-9

eBook Editions:

Adobe Digital Edition (.epub) 978-1-62416-014-1

Kindle and MobiPocket Edition (.prc) 978-1-62416-013-4

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Churches and other noncommercial interests may reproduce portions of this book without the express written permission of Barbour Publishing, provided that the text does not exceed 500 words and that the text is not material quoted from another publisher. When reproducing text from this book, include the following credit line: From Understanding Prayer, published by Barbour Publishing, Inc. Used by permission.

Text of this book has been excerpted from the E. M. Bounds books Purpose in Prayer, Power through Prayer, and The Weapon of Prayer. Text has been lightly updated for ease of reading.

All scripture quotations are taken from the King James Version of the Bible.

Published by Barbour Publishing, Inc., P.O. Box 719,

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My Creed leads me to think that prayer is efficacious, and surely a days asking God to overrule all events for good is not lost. Still there is a great feeling that when a man is praying hes doing nothing, and this feeling makes us give undue importance to work, sometimes even to the hurrying over or even to the neglect of prayer. Do not we rest in our day too much on the arm of flesh? Cannot the same wonders be done now as of old? Do not the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth still to show Himself strong on behalf of those who put their trust in Him? Oh that God would give me more practical faith in Him! Where is now the Lord God of Elijah? He is waiting for Elijah to call on Him.

J AMES G ILMOUR OF M ONGOLIA

T he more praying there is in the world the better the world will be, the mightier the forces against evil everywhere. Prayer, in one phase of its operation, is a disinfectant and a preventive. It purifies the air; it destroys the contagion of evil. Prayer is no fitful, short-lived thing. It is no voice crying unheard and unheeded in the silence. It is a voice that goes into Gods ear, and it lives as long as Gods ear is open to holy pleas, as long as Gods heart is alive to holy things.

God shapes the world by prayer. Prayers are deathless. The lips that uttered them may be closed in death, the heart that felt them may have ceased to beat, but the prayers live before God, and Gods heart is set on them and prayers outlive the lives of those who uttered them: outlive a generation, outlive an age, outlive a world.

That man is the most immortal who has done the most and the best praying. They are Gods heroes, Gods saints, Gods servants, Gods representatives. A man can pray better because of the prayers of the past; a man can live holier because of the prayers of the past. The man of many and acceptable prayers has done the truest and greatest service to the incoming generation. The prayers of Gods saints strengthen the unborn generation against the desolating waves of sin and evil. Woe to the generation of sons who find their censers empty of the rich incense of prayer; whose fathers have been too busy or too unbelieving to pray, and perils inexpressible and consequences untold are their unhappy heritage. Fortunate are they whose fathers and mothers have left them a wealthy heritage of prayer.

The prayers of Gods saints are the capital stock in heaven by which Christ carries on His great work upon earth. The great throes and mighty convulsions on earth are the results of these prayers. Earth is changed, revolutionized, angels move on more powerful, more rapid wings, and Gods policy is shaped as the prayers are more numerous, more efficient.

It is true that the mightiest successes that come to Gods cause are created and carried on by prayer. Gods day of power, the angelic days of activity and power, are when Gods Church comes into its mightiest inheritance of mightiest faith and mightiest prayer. Gods conquering days are when the saints have given themselves to mightiest prayer. When Gods house on earth is a house of prayer, then Gods house in heaven is busy and effective in its plans and movements, then His earthly armies are clothed with the triumphs and spoils of victory and His enemies defeated on every hand.

God rests the very life and prosperity of His cause on prayer. This condition was put on the very existence of Gods cause in this world. Ask of Me is the one condition God puts on the very advance and triumph of His cause.

Men are to prayto pray for the advance of Gods cause. Prayer puts God in full force in the world. To a prayerful man God is present in realized force; to a prayerful Church God is present in glorious power, and the second Psalm is the divine description of the establishment of Gods cause through Jesus Christ. All inferior commands have merged in the enthronement of Jesus Christ. God declares the enthronement of His Son. The nations are incensed with bitter hatred against His cause. God is described as laughing at their powerless hate. The Lord will laugh; The Lord will have them in derision. Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion (Psalm 2:6). The decree has passed immutable and eternal:

I will declare the decree: the L ORD hath said unto me, Thou art My Son; this day have I begotten thee. Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potters vessel.

P SALM 2:79

Ask of Me is the condition for a praying people, willing and obedient. Prayer also shall be made for him continually (Psalm 72:15). Under this universal and simple promise men and women of old laid themselves out for God. They prayed and God answered their prayers, and the cause of God was kept alive in the world by the flame of their praying.

Prayer became the settled and only condition to move His Sons kingdom. Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened (Matthew 7:7). The strongest one in Christs kingdom is he who is the best knocker. The secret of success in Christs Kingdom is the ability to pray. The one who can wield the power of prayer is the strong one, the holy one in Christs kingdom. The most important lesson we can learn is how to pray.

Prayer is the keynote of the most sanctified life, of the holiest ministry. He does the most for God who is the highest skilled in prayer. Jesus Christ exercised His ministry after this order.

That we ought to give ourselves to God with regard to things both temporal and spiritual, and seek our satisfaction only in the fulfilling His will, whether He lead us by suffering, or by consolation, for all would be equal to a soul truly resigned. Prayer is nothing else but a sense of Gods presence.