George Mueller: Prayer Warrior continued...

One major key to Mr. Muller's success in prayer

On March 12, 1862, the house was opened. This brought Mr. Muller great joy. He wrote about this event, "It was in November 1850, to this day, March 12, 1862, not one single day has been allowed to pass without this contemplated enlargement being brought before God in prayer, and generally more than once a day.

"Observe then...how long in may be before a full answer to our prayers, even to thousands and tens of thousands of prayers, is granted...I did without the least doubt and wavering look for more than eleven years for the full answer. ["Ask, keep on asking, seek, keep on seeking, knock, keep on knocking." Charles Stanley, your sermon was right on target!]...

Once impressed that a course was the divine will, Mr. Muller was never long in putting it into operation.

He knew but one course of procedure...to trust daily for supplies and believe daily for building funds. And this hand to mouth existence--from God's hand to Muller's and the orphans' mouths--had been so gracious for the long years past that Mr. Muller did not hesitate to step forth again on a venture that would within a short span of years provide a home for almost twice as many children as he then housed...

In little matters as well as large he took his petitions to the Lord. When workers were hard to find, or proved unsuitable, Mr. Muller asked God to furnish the right ones. We find him saying, "Instead of praying once a day about this matter, as we had been doing day by day for years, we met daily three times, to bring this before God...

He lived literally according to the passage, "In all things by prayer and supplications, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God."...

In spite of the daily care for the homes, with their various problems, Mr. Muller never let up in his prayers that God would make it possible for the work to be enlarged. Each week new applications for entrance were coming in. He could not easily say, "There is no more room," when he remembered that during the many years since he first rented the House on Wilson Street, God had enabled him to build larger quarters as the need arose.

The longed-for enlargement of the work would cost at least L50,000, and would increase the current expense fund from $100,000 to $175,000 a year. "But my hope," Mr. Muller said, "is in God, and in Him alone. I am not a fanatic or enthusiast, but, as all who know me are well aware, calm, cool, quiet, calculating business man; and therefore I should be utterly overwhelmed, looking at it naturally. But as the whole of this work was commenced, and ever has been gone on with, in faith...so it is also regarding this enlargement. I look to the Lord alone for helpers, land, means and everything else needed. I have pondered the difficulties for months and have looked steadily at every one of them; but faith in God has put them aside."

Children cried for admission and Muller believed that "the Father of the fatherless" would not turn a deaf ear to his prayer to shelter them. He was again moved with the idea of proving more fully to the world that "the living God is still, as found a thousand years ago, the Living God."

Hundreds of thousands of people throughout the world had heard of his work, and many of them had their faith strengthened to undertake greater things in the name of the Living God, because Mr. Muller had shown them that God was able. He desired supremely that God might be honored and souls brought into the kingdom. When his faith became certain that the new step was willed of God, he decided to go forward at once.

That key again

"Many and great may be the difficulties," says Mr. Muller. "Thousands and tens of thousands of prayers may have to ascend to God before the full answer is obtained; much exercise of faith and patience may be required; but in the end it will again be seen that His servant, who trusted in Him, has not been confounded...

Slowly did the gifts come in during the first year or so, but his faith was unwavering in the fact that God, in His own good time, would supply all the necessary funds. "I continue in believing prayer," he states at a time when gifts had been small. "I have not been allowed to have a shadow of doubt as to whether God can and will give me the means; but day by day, in the full assurance of faith, I renew my requests before God; and generally day by day the amount of the building fund is...increased. I then give thanks and ask for more."...

It is gratifying to know that God supplied the money by the above stated time, and the contract was duly let. This was an hour of thanksgiving to God, for "thousands of times," he affirms, "I have asked the Lord for the means for building these two houses, and now I have to the full received the answer."

The contract price for the two buildings was L41,147 or $205,735, which Mr. Muller had prayed in, plus an additional $100,000 to care for the current expenses yearly during the five years since the first gift for the new buildings arrived. This made a total of approximately three-quarters of a million dollars in five years which this man's prayers brought into the coffers of God's kingdom for the sole purpose of caring for orphans. [The British pound of Muller's day equaled $205,735/41,147 or $5.00]...

After waiting on God daily, and often several times a day, for nearly seven years the end of his prayer came at last, and Mr. Muller gave himself to thanksgiving and praise to the Lord for once again "filling his mouth" after he had opened it wider than ever before. The total sum required for the two buildings reached the staggering amount of fifty-eight thousand pounds [or 58,000 x 5 = $290,000]...

Mr. Muller declared, "In the mighty monument of prayer raised there was afforded not merely a Christian home for 2,050 destitute orphan children--great indeed as that was--but a supreme and striking object-lesson in simple, child-like faith, a signal evidence of Christ's power and love, sufficient to make men pause, and wonder, and--God grant it more and more--believe."...

Between the first decision to build, in 1845, and the opening of the third house, in 1862, nearly seventeen years had elapsed, and before No. 5 was opened, in 1870, twenty-five. The work was one in its plan and purpose. At each new stage it supplies only a wider application and illustration of the same laws of life and conduct, as, from the outset of the work in Bristol, had with growing power controlled George Muller.

"His supreme aim was the glory of God; his sole resort, believing prayer; his one trusted oracle, the inspired Word; his one divine Teacher, the Holy Spirit. One step taken in faith and prayer had prepared for another; one act of trust had made him bolder to venture upon another, implying a greater apparent risk and therefore demanding more implicit trust."

Answered prayer was rewarded faith. New risks undertaken only proved there was no risk at all in confidently leaning upon the strong arm of the Almighty.

The buildings impressed one with their spaciousness, seventeen hundred windows in all, and accommodations for more than two thousand people. They were substantial, made of stone and built for permanency. While scrupulously plain, they were still excellent examples of construction whose end is utility rather than beauty. In building them Muller's rule was economy. This went to the smallest items, even the furniture being unpretentious. There is little or no embellishment.

Mr. Muller subordinated everything to the one purpose of demonstrating the fact that God still hears prayer."

"One of the last entries he made in his Journal shows this same checkering of the divine will in his life. On March 1, 1898, shortly before his death, he wrote, "For about 21 months with scarcely the least intermission the trial of our faith and patience has continued. Now, today, the Lord has refreshed my heart." The occasion of this blessing was receiving a legacy for approximately $7,500.

Mr. Muller had learned the simple lesson that however great the affliction, God in His providence would not forsake him--provided he remained steadfast in faith and relied greatly upon secret prayer.

The key to his spiritual victories, whatever the nature of the soul depression, is found in an entry on June 25, 1835. He says, "These last three days I have had very little real communion with God, and have therefore been very weak spiritually, and have several times felt irritability of temper." The following day he wrote, "I was enabled, by the grace of God, to rise early, and I had nearly two hours in prayer before breakfast. I now feel this morning more comfortable."

It was prayer that swept his soul free of doubt, distemper and the after-effects of a trial by the incoming tide of peace. For this reason he could make such remarks as this entry on March 9, 1847, "The greater the difficulties, the easier for faith." And a later one, "The greater the trial, the sweeter the victory."

Mr. Muller decried any evidence of having the gift of faith. He had faith, as any Christian may have it, but not that peculiar gift of which Paul speaks in I Corinthians 12:9.

"Think not, dear reader," he writes, "that I have the gift of faith...which is mentioned along with 'the gifts of healing,' 'the working of miracles'...and that on that account I am able to trust God...If I were only one moment left by myself my faith would utterly fail...It is not true that my faith is that gift of faith...It is the self-same faith which is found in every believer...for little by little it has been increasing for the last six and twenty years."

In charting the results of this marvelous life of trust, the speed with which he obtained multiplied thousands of answers to his prayers, we must be careful not to remove Mr. Muller from the realm of the thoroughly human. He is anxious to have his readers think of him in the same light as they do themselves. He possessed no character traits nor divine possessions, not within the reach of every believer.

The trials that blocked his spiritual advancement were those common to every Christian. The human tempers, the frailties of his body, mind and spirit were those which mark true members of God's kingdom. His victories came through prayer, trust in the Lord's unfailing promises and faith that God's truth could not fail; and if he thus achieved, he would have us also see that similar faith victories are within our reach.

There is only one route to soul repose...and that is the highway that leads to God's throne, prayer.

"It is not enough to begin to pray," he advises us, "nor to pray aright; nor is it enough to continue for a time to pray; but we must patiently, believingly continue in prayer, until we obtain an answer; and further, we have not only to continue in prayer unto the end, but we have also to believe that God does hear us and will answer our prayers. Most frequently we fail in not continuing in prayer until the blessing is obtained, and in not expecting the blessing."

[Now that is the end of these awesome excerpts about a super prayer-warrior. If king David was a super warrior in God's physical army of Israel, George Muller was just such a super warrior of prayer in God's spiritual army. The interesting thing is that we can all emulate George Muller. Whereas king David's actual military tactics may be lost in the dust of unrecorded antiquity, George Muller's spiritual prayer tactics have been made plain before us today. For a more thorough treatment of this subject, be sure to order this book. You can order online at: http://www.amazon.com or http://www.christianbooks.com . These excerpts cover only about a quarter or less of the actual book. You really don't want to miss the rest. This is vital information for both you and your congregation's spiritual health brought about by understanding what this man accomplished and just how he accomplished it--by "Asking, Seeking and Knocking."]

"Unity Meditative Prayer-Groups is looking for a few good prayer-warriors (to quote the famous US Marine Corp ad). These groups are strictly for those who are interested in the type of prayer-group that will both strongly enhance their own personal walk with Christ, as well as assist in bringing powerful spiritual unity within the entire body of Christ. CLICK HERE to read more about these Unity Meditative Prayer-Groups."