Evangelist Dea Warford

Isaiah is my favorite Old Testament prophet. Many are the times I found comfort from the book of Isaiah. I quote Isaiah regularly in my prayers. In fact, if we only had the book of Isaiah as our “Bible” we would know volumes about the ways of God, especially in prayer.

Isaiah promised the day would come when “before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear.” (65:24). What a glorious day that will be when you can think, “I sure would like a hot fudge Sundae. Lord, could you please . . . (But, before you finish your prayer, “ring” goes the door bell at your heavenly mansion. And, there standing with a 31 scoop hot fudge Sundae is your delivery boy (probably me! Ha, ha).   Prayer will be nothing but a joy in that day: Oh, glorious day! No more prayer warfare. Hallelujah! But, until that day, we need to understand how to make our prayers more effective. Isaiah, as much as anyone in the Bible, helps us learn how to do that. Let’s examine some key verses in Isaiah. . .

Isaiah’s first teaching on prayer in 1:15-18 reveals how sin hinders God from answering our prayers: “When you spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear:” (why?) “your hands are full of blood. Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes. Cease to do evil; Learn to do well.”   The “New School Prayer” poem (at bottom of this page) graphically showed how our schools no longer teach children morals. You can’t teach morals without a moral compass. The Word is that moral compass, and it has been excluded from the curriculum.

Why did God allow 9/11? 59:1, 2 explains, “Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear” If God is going to hear our cries for national revival, he must first hear the cries of repentant hearts. Getting saved and then delivered from our sins is foundational in making our prayer lives effective. Isaiah says so! Assuming you wouldn’t be reading this unless you were already seriously dealing with your soul’s salvation and conquering your sins, let’s consider that foundation laid, and move further in prayer.

Isaiah reveals Satan fell from heaven and was cast down to hell because of pride (14:12-15). This is an important clue to another hindrance to prayer: pride. “The wicked, through the PRIDE of his countenance, will not seek after God.” (Ps. 10:4). Seeking God in prayer is an act of humility. Not seeking God is an act of pride. When Christopher Reeves was paralyzed in a horse-riding accident, he boasted “I didn’t pray one time”. He thought this was a sign of great personal strength. He obviously didn’t know the word. His refusal to pray was a sign of pride - a sign of great weakness. Want revival in your life? Humble yourself before Him and seek his face. Isaiah put it this way (57:15): “I (God) dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble” God will revive Todd’s [Bentley] revival ministry, if he’ll humble himself in prayer. God will revive you too.

Isaiah is the only Old Testament prophet who teaches prophetically about tongues: “With stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to this people. To whom he said, This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing.” (28:11, 12). Isaiah said that “another tongue” would bring rest and refreshing to God’s people. We know he’s referring to tongues because Paul himself, in his great discourse on the Pentecostal experience, quotes 28:11, 12 in 1 Cor. 14:21. Do you need rest and refreshing in your soul today? Pray in tongues. Isaiah said so!

Probably the thing about prayer that perturbs Christians most is that it often seems to take so long to get prayers answered. Isaiah reveals this is the plan and purpose of God in prayer (30:18): “Therefore will the Lord wait, that he may be gracious unto you, and therefore will he be exalted, that he may have mercy upon you: for the Lord is a God of judgment: blessed are all they that wait for him.” God “waits” for the appropriate time to be “gracious unto you”. Why? “Therefore (in this way) will he be exalted”.

God knows the most effective prayers are those that are prayed by one who has exhausted all his other resources, given up all hope, (except his hope in God), and who after a long period of waiting, finally has his prayer answered. God is thus exalted in his eyes, because he knows it was God alone who answered Him. And, this brings the most glory to God because the resultant testimony of answered prayer shows His goodness in the face of difficult or even impossible circumstances. This was described by James 5:11, “We count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful (compassionate) and of tender mercy.” The world looks at long term suffering and says, “This proves God is not a good, loving or just God.” But, the Word teaches just the opposite. Trouble + prayer + a long time + the answer = glory to God (revealing His mercy) which Isaiah says is just: “The Lord is a God of judgment (justice)” (30:18). This truth is one of the hardest for humans to understand, and proof of (55:8): “My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.” To believe God answers prayer, though it’s been years of crying out with still no answer; to believe God is love, though your suffering has been long; and to believe God is righteous and just to operate this way, takes faith. Faith comes by hearing the Word (Rom. 10:17). By faith receive Isaiah’s word today!

In the spirit of holding on in prayer through long delays, Isaiah tells us further that God has called certain prayer warriors as “watchmen” (62;6, 7): “I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never hold their peace day nor night: ye that make mention of the Lord, keep not silence, And give him no rest, till he establish, and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth.” Are you one of those watchmen? If so you are crying out to God day and night. “Shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them?” (Luke 18:7). Even God’s chosen elect watchmen who cry day and night in prayer must still anticipate God will “bear long with them.” This is truly why prayer is “waiting on God.” Isaiah further exhorts watchmen to “keep not silence, and give him nor rest, till . . . “. This is the basic fundamental of effective prayer. You cry day and night, refusing to give up and be “quiet” about it. In fact, you in essence, “give him no rest” until your prayer is answered. Think of it! God wants you to keep bugging him, literally, until you get what you want. God is your father. Even as any earthly father would have difficulty denying a child who relentlessly came again and again to plead for something that was very important to him, so does our heavenly Father! And, He’s given us two things to help us get prayers answered:

1. Church: “My house shall be called an house of prayer for all people.” (56:7). God’s house (His “church”, His “people” gathered together to seek Him) is a holy place of seeing prayers answered. I talked with someone recently who said he told his pastor who was scolding him for missing so much church lately that he had been at a lake, fishing, and that he felt closer to God on that lake than he did in church. This “feeling” was deceptive. because you can’t be any closer to God than when you are in church, in the “house of prayer”: “Where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” (Matt. 18:20). You can’t be closer to Jesus on a lake, because on Sundays he’s attending church! Not joining your prayers with a local church body is further evidence of pride (self-sufficiency) resulting in ineffective prayer. Use this prayer tool: joining others who meet in prayer!

2. Fasting: Isaiah promises that after fasting, “Then shalt thou call, and the Lord shall answer; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am.” (58:9). When all else seems to fail, fasting enhances prayer. (See also Matt. 17:14-21, Joel 2:15, 25-32).

One of the most powerful examples of the power of prayer is in Isaiah 38:1-5. Hezekiah was told by the prophet he should get his house in order because he was going to die. Instead of writing out a will, he “turned his face toward the wall and prayed”. It didn’t matter if the mightiest prophet in Israel predicted his death, Hezekiah knew the power of prayer and prayed to God. The result? God gave him 15 more years. Isaiah indeed teaches us much about prayer. I have been standing on many of his promises for a long time. One I am especially standing on now is (40:29-31): “Even the youths shall faint and be weary and the young men shall utterly fall, but they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.”

I am approaching 60. I need a miracle of renewal of the strength of my youth to continue this work. Isaiah promises it. I am waiting on God in prayer for it. Search through Isaiah: find your personal promises, and wait on God in prayer!