Being Led by the Spirit for Night Prayers, R.A. Torrey

This appeared in Carrie Judd Montgomery's periodical, Triumphs of Faith 27:4, in April 1907 and is very inspiring. It has moved me to try one of these night prayers. Enjoy and may it also stir you as well!   

Extracts from “How to Pray” by R.A. Torrey 

            “If, then, we would pray aright, the first thing that we should do is see to it- that we really get an audience with God, that we really get into His very presence. Before a word of petition is offered, we should have the definite and vivid consciousness that we are talking to God, and should believe that he is listening to our petition and is going to grant the thing that we ask of Him. This is only possible by the Holy Spirit’s power, so we should look to the Holy Spirit to lead us into the presence of God and should not be hasty in words until he has actually brought us there.

            One night a very active Christian man dropped into a little prayer meeting that I was leading. Before we knelt to pray, I said something like the above, telling all the friends to be sure before they prayed, and while they were praying, that they really were in God’s presence, that they had the thought of Him definitely in mind, and to be more taken up with Him than with their petition. A few days after, I met this same gentleman and he said that this simple thought was entirely new to him, that it had made prayer an entirely new experience to him. 

            If then we would pray aright, these two little words must sink deep into our hearts, ‘unto God.’

With Fasting

            If we would pray with power, we should pray with fasting. This of course does not mean that should fast every time we pray; but there are times of emergency or special crisis in work or in individual lives, when men of downright earnestness will withdraw themselves even from the gratification of natural appetites that would be perfectly proper under other circumstances, that they may give themselves up wholly to prayer. There is a peculiar power in such prayer. Every great crisis in life and work should be met in that way. There is nothing pleasing to God in our giving up in a purely Pharisaic and legal way things which are pleasant, but there is power in that downright earnestness and determination to obtain in prayer the things of which we sorely feel our need, that leads us to put away everything, even things in themselves most right and necessary, that we may set our faces to find God, and obtain blessing from Him.

All Night in Prayer

            In the 6th chapter of Luke in the 12th verse, we get further light upon the right time to pray. We read ‘And it came to pass in those days, that He went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God.’

            Here we see Jesus praying in the night, spending the entire night in prayer. Of course we have no reason to suppose that this was the constant practice of our Lord, nor do we even know how common this practice was, but there were certainly times when the whole night was given up to prayer. Here, too, we do well to follow in the footsteps of the Master.

            Of course there is a way of setting apart nights of prayer in which there is no profit; it is pure legalism. But the abuse of this practice is no reason for neglecting it altogether. One ought not to say, ‘I am going to spend a whole night in prayer,’ with the thought that there is any merit that will win God’s favour in such an exercise; that is legalism. But we oftentimes do well to say, I am going to set apart this night for meeting God, ad obtaining His blessing and power; and if necessary, and if He so leads me, I will give the whole night to prayer.’ Oftentimes we will have prayed things through long before the night has passed and we can retire and find more refreshing and invigorating sleep than if we had not spent the time in prayer. At other times God doubtless will keep us in communion with Himself away into the morning and when he foes this in His infinite grace blessed indeed are these hours of night prayer!

            Nights of prayer to God are followed by days of power with men. In the night hours the world is hushed in slumber, and we can easily be alone with God and have undisturbed communion with Him. If we set apart the whole night for prayer, there will be no hurry, there will be time for our own hearts to become quiet before God, there will be time for the whole mind to be brought under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, there will be plenty of time to pray things through. A night of prayer should be put entirely under God’s control. We should lay down no rules as to how long we will pray or as to what we shall pray about, but be ready to wait upon God for a short time or a long time as He may lead, and to be led out in one direction or another as He may see fit.”

See also Carrie's poem on Being Led by the Spirit.