"Pray Without Ceasing" Kathryn Kuhlman Abide With God

Did you ever feel that you wanted to just talk to members of your own family? You know, just take your shoes off and sit on the floor. Maybe you don't sit on the floor. I do. I can always remember this little girl. Oh, if Mama told me once, Mama told me thousands of times. Catherine, can't you be a lady? Oh, goodness, a light. I can hear it now. Catherine, sit up straight on that chair. Don't hang on the chair. Don't hang on the table. Sit up straight. Be a lady. To this day, yet I have a hard time being a lady. I like to take my shoes off and sit on the floor. And sometimes I think I still hang on chairs. It's the hardest thing in the world for me to sit up straight. And not... cross my legs when I sit down. I guess I'll never be the real lady like Mama want me to be. Well, anyway, I'm going to take off my shoes. I'm going to sit on the floor. And you and I are going to just talk things over as members of the same family. You would be amazed how many people especially those who know me best and know the tremendous responsibility that is mine, really realize the hours that I work and the amount of work that I get into these hours. Few men work as hard as I work, but then sometimes I think that... women had the ability to work longer hours and harder than men and be able to stand the pressure. I believe that. I mean that, and it's just like that. And the question is asked me so very often, how do you do it? Do you worry, Ms. Kuhlman? If you worried, you couldn't possibly do what you're doing. Now. for the next few minutes, I'm going to tell you exactly how I live. And I hope that somehow you will learn just a little from my own experience. But remember, you can't give to anyone else any more than you have experienced. I know that it works. Because I live like this. Do you want to know something? Life is a very restless, a very disrupted thing. Until we give ourselves to something beyond ourselves. Until we obey something that's ultimate. And obey it supremely. Pay it with every atom of our being. We've got to do it. A doctor once said, three quarters of my patients need to find God. And if they would find God, if they would give themselves completely and entirely to him, they wouldn't be in the condition that they're in. A psychiatrist. who is paid handsomely by his patience, said to a friend, You want to know something? Most of my patients do not need me. They need God. They need a mourner's bench. They need to give themselves over to a supreme being, to a power that is greater than themselves. They're frustrated because they have not learned how to live. And it's just like that. Mm -hmm. Paul says these words, in him we live and move and have our being. We do live. Every human being lives and moves in... God, for God is inescapable. The very beat of your heart is made possible because of God. You live because of His mercy. You live by His mercy. You move because of His tender mercy. But how many Do not have their very being in him. And there's a secret. We live on surface roots. The tap root has not gone down deep into God. We do not have our very being in him. And when you learn that glorious secret of having your very being, in Him, then you've learned the secret of how to live. It's just like this thing of praying without ceasing. And you'd be amazed how many people stumble over that portion of the Word of God. Pray without ceasing. It does not mean that you're to spend your days on your knees. Some people get the idea that they can't pray unless they are in a certain position. They cannot pray unless they're on their knees. That is impossible to pray unless they are in a place of worship or kneeling at an altar. My friend, when you learn that secret, A praying without ceasing. It'll be the greatest secret that you have ever learned. There is literally a place in Christ Jesus where you are in constant prayer. It's no effort. Absolutely no effort whatsoever. When somebody says, I am in prayer two hours every day of my life. Somebody else says, I spend one hour in prayer every day of my life. And then, you know, I look at the person. I analyze their life. And say, help me. I don't see the result of all that praying. Alone, on their knees. Don't misconstrue what I'm saying. It isn't a matter of going through the form of the thing. It isn't a matter of staying on your knees. It is a matter of constantly being in prayer. There is a constant communication. There is a constant fellowship. 24 hours of the day, constantly. It is so constant. It is so definite. that you do not make one single move but what you're conscious of his presence. You find yourself getting advice from him. You may not be uttering an audible word. I can walk down the street and have as great a communion with my Lord as I can behind closed doors. It's like that. We've gotten to the place where the whole thing has become so much form and ceremony that we've lost the real power of communion. There is a definite communication that is constant. It's never shut off. You don't shut it off like you would turn off a faucet. and then go to your kitchen sink and turn the spigot on again when you want water. It isn't like going to the telephone and you want some communication with the Lord. And you go to the telephone and you dial him and say, Dear Heavenly Father, this is me and I'm desperate. It isn't something like that. And then when you get through talking to him again, you hang up just like you would if you were calling a friend or a neighbor or a relative. Some people, not just pause a minute, analyze your own prayer life. And it's been kind of like that with you. There is a secret where we not only move, We not only live, but we have our very being in him. He's consulted about everything. We wait for his lady. We get our instructions from him. And when you have your being in him, those little checks are there. and you know whether it's right, you know whether it's wrong. He tells you what to do. Watch again. When I say he tells you what to do, I'm not talking about some audible voice. No, ma 'am. I'm talking about the fact that the footsteps of a good man are ordered of the Lord. I am talking about guidance. I am talking about divine wisdom. I'm talking about being a very part of Him, and He is a part of you. Do you understand? I pray the Holy Spirit somehow will let you see this wonderful secret. And it's a day -by -day proposition. Are you worried? Fear and worry are the two greatest evils you can take into your life. And I am of the opinion that we're living in the day and the hour when most folk are either scared stiff, they're worried to death, And there never was a generation that was more insecure than this generation. You know, there's a verse in the Bible. It's in 2 Kings, the 25th chapter. And I think it's the last verse. And this is great. And his allowance was a continual allowance given him of the king. A daily rate for every day. All the days of his life. Now what more would you want? His allowance was a continual allowance. It was never to be cut off. Absolute security. Look at this provision. A daily rate for every day. It made no difference whether he lived to be 35, 65, or 105. Every day, all the days of his life. Now, when one has that security, that assurance, and you know that behind that promise are all the riches of heaven, all the riches of glory, behind that promise is the person of God himself, then why in the world would you have cause to worry? Mm -hmm. There it is. Do you believe his word or don't you? Do you really believe his word? There's assurance. If he clothes the grass of the field, which today is and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? If he feeds the birds, if he paints the lilies, will he not care for you? So he bids us, by his own solidly care, not to worse. But God's plan for his own is a day -by -day proposition, one day at a time. Today I am in constant communion with him. Today I have my being in Him. The first thing when I awaken in the morning, I place myself all over again in His care and His keeping. I cry unto Him daily and no successful Christian life is without this daily communication, this daily communion. in him where he's children. There's daily food. As surely as the physical body needs good food to keep it strong and healthy, the minute you cut down on your daily food, the minute that you live on all starches, are the minute you do without food for the body. Three days, four days, you become emaciated. Something happens to the physical. You're no longer the same vibrant person that you were before. What is true of the physical body is also true of the spiritual man. As surely as the physical body needs a good diet and needs daily food, good food to keep it well and strong. So should it as a spiritual man needs spiritual food. Oh, we're so inconsistent about this thing. Somebody said, oh, I'll tell you, I had a wonderful spiritual experience 10 years ago. What's happened since? You're still trying to live on that spiritual experience, that spiritual food that you had back there ten years ago. If you'll stop and analyze yourself, you're as dried up... spiritually today as last year's corn shocks. You're dead spiritually because you cannot have a strong spiritual life without a daily intake of spiritual food. And the greatest spiritual food in the world is the Word of God. Feed on it daily. Then there's daily gratitude. Blessed be the Lord who daily loatheth us with benefits. If his benefits are daily, then our gratitude should be daily. Don't you ever, whatever you do, go to sleep at night without thanking him for his daily blessings. It's so easy for us. to ask of him, to partake from his giving hand, and how few of us are quick to thank him for his blessings. As thy day, the scripture says, so shall thy strength be, not as thy weeks, or months, or years, but as thy day. I don't care what tomorrow holds for you. He'll be your glorious bring the nerve. Somebody asked Dwight Lyman Moody if he had dying grace and he replied, no, no. But when I come to die, I shall have dying grace. God bless you.