Odyssey of an Albatross: Prayer Secret #9: Do Not Lose Heart

This next prayer secret will perfectly follow up with the last prayer secret. In the last prayer secret, which was Prayer Secret #8, we showed you how it was definitely biblical to ask God more than one time on whatever your personal prayer request may be. We gave you several good verses from Scripture showing that you can pray earnestly, fervently and without ceasing.

We showed you how you can go into a major prevailing prayer mode with God where you can try and take a hold of Him, try and wrestle with Him, and continually ask, seek and knock with the specific petition that you may have for Him. By asking God more than one time for whatever your personal prayer request may be, you are showing God some level of passion, intensity and desire for what you are asking Him for. As a result of showing that kind of desire, passion and intensity to the Lord in your own personal prayers to Him, many times you can create a desire in God to actually want to answer your prayer. However, what you will find when you start to go into these kinds of prevailing prayer modes with the Lord is that sometimes He will not answer your prayer request - or at least He will not answer the prayer on the timetable that you would like for Him to answer it on.

As a result of not getting some of your prayers answered, you will start to get discouraged, frustrated and impatient. And before you know it, you will want to throw in the towel, quit, and walk off the playing field thinking that God has no intentions on wanting to answer your prayer - not realizing that God may have been testing your patience, stamina, resolve and perseverance on the particular matter. And this will now lead us into the next major powerful prayer secret. This next powerful prayer secret is not to lose heart, not to quit, not to get mad and walk off the playing field with the Lord.

This next powerful prayer secret is coming direct from Jesus Himself. The title of this passage is "The Parable of the Persistent Widow." This is very similar to the verse I gave you in Prayer Secret #8, which was titled "A Friend Comes at Midnight." That verse was from Luke 11:5-9. However, this next verse will give us four additional key phrases that will really add some more meat to this revelation that we can go into these mighty prevailing prayer modes with the Lord when the situation dictates that we take this kind of heavier approach with Him. Here is the specific verse where this powerful piece of revelation is being given to us by the Lord. It is being given to us in a parable: “Then He spoke a parable to them, that men always ought to pray and not lose heart, saying: "There was in a certain city a judge who did not fear God nor regard man. Now there was a widow in that city; and she came to him, saying, 'Avenge me of my adversary.' And he would not for awhile; but afterward he said within himself, 'Though I do not fear God nor regard man, yet because this widow troubles me I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me.'" Then the Lord said, "Hear what the unjust judge said. And shall God not avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to Him, though He bears long with them? I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?" (Luke 18:1-8)
There are four powerful key phrases in this parable that is giving us major revelation and insight - with all four key phrases showing us that we can really press in hard with the Lord on a heavier type of prayer request. Here are the four key phrases: always ought to pray, do not lose heart,continual coming, cry out day and night.All four of these key phrases are being tied in to this woman asking an unjust judge to avenge her from her adversary. These four key phrases are being directly tied to one special request. And then notice what the unjust judge ends up doing. This judge is so unjust, that he has no fear of God or any kind of regard for other people. As a result, he initially does not want to bother to grant this woman's special request. But then notice why all of a sudden he is going to change his mind.

He is now going to change his mind and grant her request due to one main reason - her continued persistence that he grant this request for her. He says that he will have to grant the request because he will end up growing weary as a result of her "continual coming" to him. In other words, this woman is not going to be letting this matter go and she will continue to press in and petition him with the request. Jesus then ends this powerful parable stating that if this heathen, unjust judge is going to grant this woman's request due to her continued persistence with him, then God the Father will do the exact same thing for all of His own!

Notice that Jesus specifically starts this parable out with the command that we should "always ought to pray" and that we should "not lose heart" in our personal prayers to God the Father. Not losing heart means that we are not going to give up and that we will stay the course with the specific prayer request that we have for the Lord unless He tells us otherwise. Also notice the last two key phrases in that we are to "continually come" and that we are to "cry out day and night." These two powerful phrases are also showing us that we either have to stay with the prayer request with the Lord until He answers the prayer, or He comes back and lets us know that He doesn't want to answer the prayer for whatever His personal reasons may be on the matter.

So not only must you learn how to go into a mighty prevailing prayer mode with the Lord when the situation dictates taking this kind of heavier approach with Him, but you must also learn not to lose heart and give up and quit if you do not get the answer to your prayer as fast as you think you should with the Lord.

Sometimes God is watching and testing you on your prayer request. He is watching to see how much of a desire you really have for the prayer request. He is watching and testing you to see how much desire and passion you will really show Him by your "continual coming," by you "not losing heart" and giving up, and by you "crying out day and night."

In other words, God is watching you to see if you will make a continued and determined effort to keep on praying to Him. I wonder how many prayers are never answered by the Lord because someone lost heart and gave up after just a few meager prayer attempts with Him. This parable from Jesus, and the above 4 key phrases in this parable, is giving all of us a major powerful prayer secret to be able to use with God the Father. Not losing heart and giving up could be one of the main determining factors, if not the main determining factor, on being able to get some of your personal prayers mightily answered by the Lord.

Here are several good examples of where this particular prayer secret will come into major play with the Lord. There are some situations that are so serious and so severe, that this kind of intense, powerful and persistent prayer strategy should be used with the Lord.

1. Unsaved Loved Ones

Without question, the very first area that every single Christian should use this particular prayer strategy with the Lord is in the area of any unsaved loved ones who are in our immediate circle of influence. This would include any unsaved family members, personal friends, neighbors and co-workers. Many Christians have spouses, parents, and even some of their own children who are running around in this world who are still not saved.

All of your loved ones, especially any of your close loved ones, should be put at the top of your personal prayer list with the Lord. Nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing, is more important that getting others saved and brought home to the Lord. Each Christian only has one shot, one window, and one opportunity in this life to try and get as many people saved as they possibly can before their day in the sun is finally over.

If you have any unsaved loved ones who keep stubbornly refusing to accept Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior, what I would do is put each one of them at the top of your personal prayer list and apply this particular prayer secret to this situation. In other words, you will continue to pray to God for their salvation either to the day they literally die or to the day they finally accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior. This means that you may end up praying for some of these people for 20, 30, 40, or 50 years - sometimes literally to the day they die and depart from this life, as some people will actually get saved on their death beds with the Lord. As a result, you can never give up on these people and "lose heart" with this particular prayer request. Lives are hanging in the balance, and many of these people's eternal destinations may end up depending on your own personal stamina, endurance and persistence in your own personal prayer life with the Lord.

2. Heavy Addictions

With the heavy amount of drug use in this country and throughout different parts of the world, there are many who are severely bound up with some of the heavier drugs like crack cocaine, heroine and meth. I just recently saw a clip on the Dr. Phil show. There were two twin teenage daughters who had gone from being totally normal, sweet, innocent young girls to heavy crack cocaine and heroine users. It was so bad they were literally selling themselves on the streets as prostitutes so they could get the money to continue their drug use. They had pot marks and open sores all over their faces and the limbs of their bodies. They were slowly dying and wasting away. It was the most graphic and horrible display of the drastic effects these kinds of heavy drugs can have on the human body that I have ever seen. They knew they were dying. They knew what they were doing was wrong. But the death grip of this addiction was so strong and so powerful, that they literally could not take themselves off the street or stay in any kind of therapy or rehab for any length of time to help break the addiction off of them. Not only were the drugs and the effects of these drugs holding them captive, but you also know that there were demons operating behind the scenes holding these young girls captive. Many parents across this country are battling this problem with either their own children, their own spouses, or some of their own close friends or relatives.

These kinds of situations are so severe and so serious, that I believe every Christian who knows of someone being held in this kind extreme bondage and captivity should also put these people at the top of their personal prayer list and go into this prevailing prayer mode with the Lord until they either get help and pull out of these horrible addictions, or they end up dying and leaving this life much earlier than what the Lord would have really liked. Sometimes the only thing that will rescue and deliver these people from these kinds of heavier addictions is the supernatural power of God. Friends, family members, medical treatments, psychological therapy and counseling will not work for some of these people.

Some of these addictions have such a heavy death grip on some of these people, that only the supernatural power of God will be able to pull these people of it and set them completely free from it. And sometimes the only thing that will get the supernatural power of God to come into these kinds of extreme situations are the prayers of mighty prayer warriors who know how to go into the gap with the Lord - and who know how to stay the course with the Lord until something happens either one way or the other. Again, if any of you have any loved ones who are caught in the death grip of a heavier drug or who have become an alcoholic, I would highly recommend that you add this person to your personal prayer list and apply this particular prayer secret to it. In other words, do not ever give up or lose heart until God either moves to deliver this person or that person dies and departs from this life.

3. Cults, False Religions and the Occult

Another very heavy and extreme area where this prayer secret has to brought into play is in the area where people have fallen into some kind of cult or false religion, some area of the occult like witchcraft or Satanism, or some part of the New Age movement. All of these areas are major enemy-demonic territories and any person, whether they be Christians or unbelievers, need to be seriously prayed for if they have fallen under the spell and influence of these kinds of demonic groups and organizations.

If the person is an unbeliever, they will be in serious danger of ever being able to find and accept Jesus as their true Lord and Savior due to the demons and the false beliefs that are heavily operating in these kinds of organizations. Demons and the members of these groups will blind them to the real truth of the big picture, and they will brainwash these people into accepting lies that will be coming straight from the pit of hell itself.

These types of situations are extreme emergency situations. If you know of anyone that has fallen into some of these kinds of demonic groups, they should also be added to the top of your prayer list. They should all be prayed for until something happens either one way or the other with the Lord. This is another extreme situation that you will not ever want to lose heart over or give up in your personal prayers to the Lord for their deliverance and salvation.

4. Terminal Diseases and Illnesses

Another heavy area where this prayer secret can be brought into play is in the area where someone has just been diagnosed with a terminal disease or illness. I am going to talk much more about this specific possibility when I do another prayer secret article titled "Mighty Prevailing Prayer." Mighty prevailing prayer will be the heaviest of all of the prayer secrets and strategies I will be giving you. This will be the nuclear bomb that you will use in your own personal prayer life with the Lord.

If you have a solid green light from the Holy Spirit to be praying that God heal someone with a terminal illness, then this kind of extra heavy prevailing prayer may be the thing that will get God to release His supernatural healing power into the situation.

And part of this extra heavy type of prevailing prayer is not to lose heart and give up on it once you start it up with the Lord - and to stay the course with the Lord until He either actually heals the person or the person dies and departs from this life to be with Him for all of eternity.

Conclusion

Some of the above are just a few examples of where this particular prayer secret can brought into play. Again, here are the 4 major key phrases that Jesus Himself is giving us in the above parable of the persistent widow: Always ought to pray, Do not lose heart , Continual coming,Cry out day and night. Put all 4 of these powerful phrases within the context of this parable of the persistent widow, and Jesus is telling us loud and clear that we can go into a major prevailing prayer mode with God the Father when we are faced with a heavier type of adverse situation as described in the above examples. We can continually pray day and night to the Lord when faced with a heavy storm cloud that may either be coming direct at us or someone else we may know - and we can pray with the intentions on never giving up or ever losing heart - which means that we can pray until God either moves to answer the prayer or He tells us to let the matter go for whatever His personal reasons may be for the situation. This is another extremely powerful prayer secret to add to your own personal arsenal with the Lord. Professional athletes have found that dogged persistence, stamina and endurance - and never giving up, letting up, or losing heart is one of the main keys to becoming a great professional athlete. And you too can add this powerful prayer secret in your own personal prayer life with the Lord to help you become a mighty prayer warrior for Him!

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