The following Bunyan sermon is rich in helps to understand the Christian prayer life, particularly, obstacles, distractions and the great value in knowing the necessary role of the Holy Spirit in your prayer life.
I listed most of the sermon points to enable interested people in seeing what is discussed; however, these are just points, not the sermon explanations. Therefore, listening carefully to the sermon would be much more beneficial than just reading my list of points.
[All underscoring, emboldening and square brackets are mine]
- What prayer is; what it is to pray in the Spirit
- God examines our motives and spirit while we pray
- 8 KEY WEAKNESSES that prevent effective prayer
- 1, not having the Holy Spirit in us, He is the one who illumines effective prayer
- 2, not having the Spirit is not the same as lacking in quality of voice; earnestness; or affection
- 3, not being aware of our unconfessed sins: the Holy Spirit reveals our sins to us, we need a clear sense of our sins to pray effectively
- 4, being aware of our sins and being unable to pray: without the Holy Spirit’s help, we would not pray, but run away: e.g., Adam, Cain, Judas; the Comforter calms the soul…
- 5, not knowing how to come to God; or what should make Him desirable to us
- 6, not being able to call God our Father, and therefore not being able to claim a share in God, Christ and mercy
- The Spirit makes one aware of his sin and moves him to cry out for mercy to the Father
- The Lord’s prayer, the creeds…are just words without the Spirit’s illumination of your sin– explained
- That is, without a work of grace in your soul, you lie when you call yourself a Christian
- 7, being unable to keep our heart in our prayers, the Holy Spirit must hold it up, illumine it so that, for example, the creeds are not just words
- Mat 15:8 This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me. Mat 15:9 But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men [lacking self-knowledge and knowledge of God, and being filled with pride]
- Praying without the help and strength of the Spirit – explained
- What it is to pray with the Spirit and with the mind, as the Apostle Paul advocated in Corinthians
- Extraordinary gifts were called “excellent” by Paul, but he stated that it was more important to edify the church than self
- Spirit, mind, heart and mouth must be involved in prayer
- Praying with the mind, is to pray with an understanding of those things one is in need of from God – forgiveness, requires a thorough knowledge of your own sins, that you may not leave any unrepented sin: the Laodicean’s wanted understanding, but they did NOT know that they were wretched [which indicated lack of self-knowledge and wrongheaded focus intended to glorify self]
- When one is praying with his mind, God is willing to give the needs sought by the sinner – examples given
- When one understands that God has a willingness to save sinners, it will be the primary motive for seeking Him in prayer: for mercy and forgiveness
- When one understands the value of the things of God, he will run after them
- Praying with the mind enables one to argue with God in accordance with His word for one’s needs – examples of King David doing so
- Praying with the mind will enable one to continue in prayer even if it seems not to be heard, as delays in God answering will be heard as: “pray more,” “depend more,” tests to enable understanding of responsibilities – his own experiences shared
- Applications: Word of Wisdom; Word of Encouragement; Word of Rebuke
- Prayer is the duty of every child of God
- A broken and contrite spirit
- Obstructions to prayer: cherishing sin in the heart; praying only to be heard by others, for pretense (types who do so); praying for things; not asking in the name of Christ
- Coming to God in Christ, explained
- Word of Encouragement: carefully articulated
- The value of the “blood” carefully explained
- The value of being very acquainted with your own wickedness when coming to God
- How it is possible to come with your wickedness
- The blood, justice, mercy carefully explained
- YOU ARE NOT A CHRISTIAN IF YOU ARE NOT A PRAYING PERSON
- HELL, the consequence of not praying
- Advice: Children of God will experience many temptations
- Beg God to carry you through them
- Be suspicious of your heart, Jeremiah 17:9
- Beware of the flatteries of false brethren
- Abide in the word
- Fix eyes on what is unseen
- Watch out for the little sins
- Keep eternal life in mind
- Honor pastors and teachers of the word
- Emulate godly Christians
Study Recommendations:
Read The Pilgrims Progress by Bunyan if you have read through the Bible, it illustrates many of the diversions, tricks…that Satan plays on true believers.
From the YouTube site: Christian sermons and audio books.