Samuel Dickey Gordon was a widely
traveled speaker in high demand in the early 1900's. A prolific author, he
wrote more than 25 devotional books, most with the phrase "Quiet Talks" in the title. His
first book sold half a million copies over 40 years. He was born in
Philadelphia August 12, 1859 and died June 1936. A public school education was
all the academic training he had. But, as a young man, he was hard working,
consecrated and sought the best God had for him. He served as assistant
secretary of the Philadelphia Young Men's Christian Association in 1884-86. He
did so efficiently that he became state secretary for the YMCA in Ohio, serving
from 1886 to 1895. In this period he developed a quiet style of devotional
speaking which was quite the opposite of the powerful forensics which dominated
the pulpit style of that period. E.W. Kenyon said that "S.D. Gordon is a
sporadic outburst of divine grace. He is unusual; as are all of God's rare
tools... he is perfectly balanced in the Word and in the Spirit. He represents
that rare but vanishing class of spiritually minded men of the last
generation." In his second book "Quite
Talks on Prayer" Gordon writes about the meaning and mission of prayer,
hindrances to prayer, how to pray, and Jesus's habits of praying.
There is power in us as believers, a
power that can be accessed through the Holy Spirit, the Spirit which God gives
as a guarantee of our inheritance when we believed (Ephesians 1:13-14). Each of
us has that power available; access to that power is proportional to our
willingness to give control to Him. Gordon writes that there is one inlet of
power, the Holy Spirit in control.1 According to Gordon there are
five outlets, five avenues where the One who lives within us chooses to reveal
himself. These avenues are; what we are, what we say, service, money, and
prayer. Our quite time establishes our identity in Him; giving us a desire to
serve and talk of His love. Doing our best will bring in a harvest and giving
our best monetarily gives us more to sow thus giving us a larger harvest. Jesus
said to His disciples, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are
few. Therefore pray to the Lord of the
harvest to send out laborers into His harvest" (Matthew 9:37-38). Pray for
the Lord to send laborers should be that sacrifice from our lips every day. Gordon
writes that service is a high privilege, but it is only one spot, prayer
however can touch the planet; a person can touch Ukraine or Iran through
prayer, this is power and prayer is the greatest outlet of power.2
"An open life, hand upward is
the pipeline of communicating between the heart of God and the poor be fooled
old world."[1] “When
prayer is put in its right, when one truly understands prayer, the power from
within drives the motive for doing and when one is doing from that power the
greatest impact is felt. Further still if one understands that intercession is
in itself service, one understands that ‘his service becomes as broad as his
Masters thought’” and "that this service is superior to any other in that
it is limitless".[2] Gordon explains that intercessory prayer is
like a battle ground. The Victory has been won through Christ; however because
of the love that God has for us, He allows the battle to continue so that spirits
can be born again, reconnected to God. He allows the enemy to continue as the
ruler of this world, thus the fighting continues. When we become willing
soldiers in this spiritual battle, we take ground from Satan. However, as in
any warfare the enemy counterattacks and he will fight hard to retake the lost
ground, harder still depending upon its importance. Prayer is the deciding
factor in a spiritual conflict and earth is the battleground.
In the battle ground of the war that
we live in, Gordon writes that God needs man for His plan. God gave man
dominion over the earth (Genesis 1:26-28) and man is deeply involved in this
plan, a mysterious plan that angels and men have marveled over, even more so
that God became man and dwelt among us to fulfill His plan. Gordon writes that
prayer is intercourse with God and that this intercourse contains three forms;
communion, petition, and intercession.[3] Communion is fellowship with God on the basis
that we are made righteous through Jesus’s sacrifice on the cross and that we
come to God through Jesus.[4] “Of
necessity it includes confession on our part and forgiveness upon God’s part,
for only so can we come into the relation of fellowship. Adoration, worship belongs
to this first phase of prayer and communion is the basis of all prayer.”[5] Petition
is simply asking God to provide for our needs. Intercession is reaching out for
others, “It is the form of prayer that helps God in His great love-plan for
winning a planet back to its true sphere.”[6]
Gordon writes, “that there is a prayer that is the greatest, ‘Thy will be
done’”.[7]
According to Gordon, God does answer prayer, however there are hindrances
to prayer which is why many prayers go unanswered. There are three hindrances that are given in
the word of God. The first hindrance is sin; sin is breaking the transaction of
praying with God. “If I regard wickedness in my heart, the Lord will not hear.”
(Psalm 66:18). The second thing that hinders prayer is that we ask for things
for our own wants. Gordon uses an illustration of a woman asking God for her
husband to come to Christ so he will stop drinking and be polite. However, if God touched this man’s heart to help reach the
world by reducing their income and social position she would not want that. She
has prayed for her own selfish wants.[8]
The third thing that hinders prayer is an unforgiving spirit. “If you forgive others for their
transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not
forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions.” (Mathew
6:14-15).
There are other reasons prayers go
unanswered, as “Answers to prayer are delayed, or denied, out of kindness, or,
that more may be given, or, that a far larger purpose may be served. But deeper
down by far than that is this: God’s purposes are being delayed; delayed
because of our unwillingness to learn how to pray.”[9] In
the garden of Gethsemane we get a glimpse of the man Jesus, “this great Jesus!
Son of God: God the Son. The Son of Man: God a man”[10],
as He struggles with what is before Him; He is to be made sin. Jesus asks for
this cup to be taken from Him, the pressure so great He is sweating blood. However, He knows that for the joy that is set before Him He
must endure the cross. He then prays that greatest prayer, “Father…your will be
done.” (Mathew 26:42)
We see an answer to prayer being
held back by spiritual powers, an angel from God delivers this message to
Daniel, “the first day that you set your heart on understanding this and on
humbling yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in
response to your words. But the prince of the kingdom of Persia was
withstanding me for twenty-one days; then behold Michael came, one of the chief
princes, he came to help me" (Daniel 10:12-13). While we do not know of
everything that goes on in the spiritual realm, we are for the most part
ignorant to what the Bible says about it.
“The intense fact is this: Satan has the power to hold the answer back—
for a while; to delay the result— for a time. He has not the power to hold it
back finally, if someone understands and prays with quiet, steady persistence.
The real pitch of prayer therefore is toward Satan. Our generation has pretty
much left this individual Satan out.”[11] This
is the great outside hindrance according to Gordon.
Gordon goes on to write about the “How
To” of prayer. He mentions the “How of relationship” where our relationship
must be established in Christ to do transactions with God and there is a
controlling purpose to do His will. Next, he
talks of the “How of method”, explaining that prayer for the most part is a
secret service, the great ones, the prayer warriors of God, we might not know
of them until we learn of them in heaven. But be assured that any great thing
done on this side of earth fulfills God’s purpose and is matched with man’s
willingness to follow Him on bended knees. In the how to “the first thing in
prayer is to find God’s purpose, the trend, the swing of it; the second thing
to make that purpose our prayer. We want to find out what God is thinking, and
then to claim that what shall be done.”[12]
Gordon lists six suggestions on how
to pray; make a time, a place, study the word, let the Spirit teach you, pray
in Jesus’s name, and pray in faith.[13] We
make time to pray as sacrifice is the continual law of life with Christ and the
quiet time and place trains the ears for discernment. “Prayer needs … First an ear to hear what God
says, then a tongue to speak, then an eye to look out for the result. Bible
study is the listening side of prayer.”[14]
Jesus is the Word (John 1:1, 14); a relationship with the Word is a
relationship with Jesus. Gordon writes, “Obedience to the leading of the Spirit
is the Highest Law of a Christian life.”[15]
We pray in Jesus’s name as He has been given all authority on earth and in
heaven and as He sits at the right hand of God as He intercedes for us. The sixth suggestion is faith, born of four
simple characteristics as it is; intelligent, obedient, expectant, and
persistent. If we know God’s will and that He is immutable we know that a delay
to the answer of prayer must be caused by the enemy. “Stubborn persistence in
the victor’s name will rout him in battle.”[16]
Finally,
Gordon writes of Jesus' habits of praying. “Jesus prayed. He loved to pray.
Sometimes praying was His way of resting. He prayed so much and so often that
it became a part of His life. It became to Him like breathing— involuntary.”[17] Gordon
writes of His places of prayer; how He liked to be at a quiet place away from
people, often on a mountain. Gordon
mentions Jesus' times of prayer, how the busier he got the more He prayed, and
how He prayed for others interceding as He did in John 17. Jesus set an example
for us by showing us how much prayer meant to him. It was His regular habit and His resort in every
situation.
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