There are two kinds of means requisite to promote a revival; one to influence men, the other to influence God. The truth is employed to influence men, and prayer to move God. When I speak of moving God, I do not mean that God’s mind is changed by prayer, or that His disposition or character is changed. But prayer produces such a change in us and fulfills such conditions as renders it consistent for God to do as it would not be consistent for Him to do otherwise.

Prevailing, or effectual prayer, is that prayer which obtains the blessing that it seeks. It is that prayer which effectually moves God. I cannot detail in full all the things that go to make up prevailing prayer. But I will mention some things that are essential to it; some things which a person must do in order to prevail in prayer.

1. He must pray for a definite object. Wherever you see in the Bible that the blessing sought for in prayer was attained, you will find that the prayer which was offered was prayer for that definite object.
2. Prayer. to be effectual must be in accordance with the revealed will of God. To pray for things contrary to the revealed will of God, is to tempt God.
3. To pray effectually. you must pray with submission to the will of God. Do not confound submission with indifference. No two things are more unlike. I once knew an individual who came where there was a revival. He was cold, and did not enter into the spirit of it, and had no spirit of prayer; and when he heard the brethren pray as if they could not be denied, he was shocked at their boldness, and all the time kept  insisting on the importance of praying with submission, when it was plain as anything could be, that he confounded submission with indifference.

David, when his child was sick, was distressed, and agonized in prayer. But as soon as God’s will appeared, and the child was dead, he bowed like a saint. He seemed not only to acquiesce, but actually to take a satisfaction in it. This was true submission.

4. Prayer. to be effectual must be offered from right motives. Prayer should not be selfish, but, dictated by  a supreme regard for the glory of God.

5.  It must be persevering prayer. Do not deceive yourselves with thinking that you can offer effectual prayer, without this intense desire for the blessing. The apostle Paul speaks of it as a travail of the soul. Jesus Christ, when He was praying in the garden, was in such agony, that He sweat as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground. I have known persons who prayed till they were wet with perspiration, in the coldest weather in winter. I have known persons pray for hours, till their strength was all exhausted with the agony of their minds. Such prayers prevail with God.

6. If you mean to pray effectually, you must pray a great deal.  It was said of the apostle James, that after he was dead it was found his knees were callous like a camel’s knees, by praying so much. Ah! here was the secret of the success of those primitive ministers. They had callous knees.

7.  It must be offered in the name of Christ. You cannot come to God in your own name. You cannot plead your own merits. But you can come in a name that is always acceptable. Jesus Christ gives you the use of His name. And when you pray in the name of Christ, the meaning of it is, that you can prevail just as well as He could Himself, and receive just as much as God’s well-beloved Son. But you must pray in faith.

8. You cannot prevail in prayer, without renouncing all your sins. You must not only recall them to mind, but you must actually renounce them, and leave them off, and in the purpose of your heart renounce them all forever.

9. You must pray in faith. You must expect to obtain the things you ask for. You need not look for an answer to prayer if you pray without any expectation of obtaining it.