Well, sometimes we find it hard to pray because we are under spiritual attack.

And sometimes we find it hard to pray because we lack personal discipline.

And in a 1988 sermon, Pastor John explained the physical side of prayerful alertness as

one reason for sharing today's clip.

The other reason is that two weeks ago we were talking about wrestling and prayer back

in APJ 1795.

And at the end of that episode, Pastor John threw in a little definition of prayer as being

quote, a wartime walkie talkie prayer as a wartime walkie talkie.

You might remember that from a couple weeks ago.

At the end of that episode, I mentioned that we had never really talked here on the podcast

about that phrase, which is one of Pastor John's favorite metaphors for prayer.

And today I want to give you a glimpse into how he uses that metaphor prayer is not a domestic

intercom to ring the butler.

It's a wartime walkie talkie to connect us with the general.

And Pastor John explains this really well in a sermon clip from 1988.

Here he is.

Now, if you've been around Bethlehem a little while, you might have picked up that one

of my favorite analogies of prayer is a wartime walkie talkie.

And I like to contrast the wartime walkie talkie of prayer with the domestic intercom.

And what I like to say is one of the reasons that prayer malfunctions is because people

take a wartime walkie talkie and try to turn it into a domestic intercom in which they

ring up the butler to please bring another pillow to the din.

...