meditations – HARVEY Christian Publishers

“Prayer is not our message; it is the method of God for the message.” This is the opening statement of the first reading in Kneeling We Triumph Vol. 1. in which many of God’s saints are quoted on the subject of prayer. Edwin and Lillian Harvey, who compiled this book and its companion Kneeling We Triumph Vol. 2, quote from a variety of sources which span centuries and denominations.

The above statement comes from the pen of Armin Gesswein who was a Lutheran pastor who visited the Bethlehem Congregation in Oslo, Norway in the early 1930′s., where what was known as “the Great Revival” had broken out. He stayed there two years and met his wife-to-be who was converted during the revival. Returning eventually to America, Armin was never the same. He traveled from coast to coast speaking on prayer and revival and is best known as the founder and director of Revival Prayer Fellowship Inc. and Ministers’ Prayer Fellowship. One of Armin’s frequent sayings was “When Jesus went back to heaven, all He left behind was a prayer meeting.”
Armin was passionate about the importance of prayer in the Christian’s life. He writes:
“Our generation has yet to see prayer as a ministry, and to take God at His Word on this subject. It is while we pray that God works, if we can but see Him—not merely before, or after prayer. Our idea is, “Let us pray, and then get on with the work.” But prayer is our real work. We so often think of prayer as a prefix or a suffix to an otherwise busy.”

The above quotations are taken from Kneeling We Triumph Vol. 1. This book is published by Harvey Christian Publishers and is available in their online Christian Bookstore.

When the glory of the Father
Is the goal of every prayer―
When before the Throne in Heaven
Our High Priest presents it there―
When the Spirit prompts the asking,
When the waiting heart believes―
Then we know of each petition
Everyone who asks receives.

This poem is on the back cover of the book, How They Prayed Vol. 2, written and compiled by Edwin and Lillian Harvey. This volume particularly emphasizes the need for ministers of the Gospel to be steeped in prayer and quotes from various preachers and pastors of past generations to show how they have stressed and practiced the importance of prayer in their ministry.
The opening chapters stress the importance of early rising as can be seen by the following excerpts:

On the lone mountain side,
Before the morning’s light,
The Man of sorrows wept and cried
And rose refreshed with might:
O hear us, then, for we
Are very weak and frail;
We make the Savior’s name our plea,
And surely must prevail.
―Charles Spurgeon. p. 8

This (early rising) used to be easier than it is now. The whole habit of life of the modern world has been changed, and for the worse spiritually, by two inventions, rapid locomotion and brilliant artificial lights. By the latter, night can be turned into day; the world sits up late and cannot rise early. The evident rule of the Creator for His creatures is disregarded by man, and one inevitable result is that while birds and beasts go on without nervous disorders, the human race gets more and more neurotic and undependable.―From An Ordered Life, by G. H. Lang, by permission of Paternoster Press, Exeter. Quoted in Royal Insignia, p. 14

If you receive what I call ‘the full composure’ in the morning, the mind stayed upon God, the solid rest, this will carry you into all your little concerns with the utmost patience, and the daily cross will be the blessed means of increasing your heaven. And this is a constant heaven; this is your place―to have God your all. William Bramwell. p. 22

Tag: meditations

Kneeling We Triumph Vol. 1: Prayer—our method not our message.

How They Prayed, Vol. Two: Rise Early!