Dial In with Jonny Ardavanis - Paul Washer - The Influence of George Müller

Episode Date: December 9, 2022

Jonny Ardavanis is the Dean of Campus Life at The Master’s University and hosts the podcast Dial In with Jonny Ardavanis. He is passionate about the Gospel and God’s Word and desires to see people understand and obey it. Dial In with Jonny Ardavanis: Big Questions, Biblical Answers, is a series that seeks to provide biblical answers to some of the most prominent and fundamental questions regarding God, the Gospel, and the BibleIn this episode, Jonny Ardavanis sits down with Paul Washer, the founder of the HeartCry Missionary Society. Jonny asks Paul to speak on the unique influence that George Muller has had on his life. George Muller was an evangelist and orphan caretaker in Bristol, England. His life of prayer and trust in God has been well documented in his autobiography, which I commend to you.Watch VideosVisit the Website Follow on InstagramFollow on Twitter

Hey guys, my name is Johnny Artavanis and this is Dial In. Thank you guys for continuing to listen to the show. It's been cool to see the show grow both domestically and internationally over the recent months. I hope you guys have a Merry Christmas in the upcoming weeks and have a great time celebrating the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. In this episode, I sit down with my friend Paul Washer and I ask him about a man who's had a particular influence on both of our lives. That man's name is George Mueller. George Mueller was a missionary and also the founder of numerous schools and also was a caretaker for many orphans. His life has been one that is defined by prayer, and the life that he lived he documents in his autobiography, which is one of the more shaping books in my own life.

In this episode, you'll hear even just from Paul on how George Mueller has played a pivotal role in his life. Let's dial in. Paul, thank you for sitting down. I've heard a number of people say that we need to be influenced by dead men, meaning that their life has been shaped like mine has by reading biographies or listening to old sermons or reading old sermons. I wanted to ask if you had to talk about one man that has impacted your life,

your ministry, your walk with the Lord, who would it be and why? Even though there are men that I greatly admire, Charles Spurgeon, John Owen, Martin Lloyd-Jones, all great preachers, the person that has most influenced my life has been George Mueller. And remember I mentioned that brother Pittman, that elderly man. He gave me, it's the shorter condensed version of the autobiography of George Mueller,

where it just simply, it's his diary, where he's putting in how there was the needs of the orphans and how God met those needs in many ways supernatural providences and through that through reading you know when you read a miracle in the old testament sometimes you have a tendency to say well that was then totally but when you look you know this man lived during the era of Spurgeon, the Victorian era, and you see miracles. And I mean, answers to prayer with regard to the sustenance of those children. It's like, whoa, he's the same God. And so it was his life. It was that small diary, which still sits on my desk. The very same book that I had, what, almost 40 years ago. It still sits on my desk and pages are all yellow and broken.

But you see, young people especially have it all wrong that God finds these strong men. If you look at Scripture and you look at church history, it's just the opposite. He finds weak men. Strong men, they don't need to pray. Strong men, they have their own wisdom. Strong men are afraid of nothing. It's weak men who realize, I have nothing. Nothing. I have nothing. I have no wisdom. I have nothing. And in that recognition, you're cast upon him. You're literally cast upon him. And, you know, when I started HeartCry back in Peru, back in like 90 or something, 88, I remember that i needed 150 a month and i'd lay awake at night you know

terrified where's money like that going to come from and now over so many decades you know it's hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars a month. He has never failed one time. And to pray, the most remarkable thing about George Mueller was that there were two ruts in the wooden floor by his bed where his knees were,

that he'd actually, it was in the wood. He prayed there so much. The weakest saint, the weakest man, the weakest woman can pray. And when we pray, God honors it. The more a person, and with their ministry, trusts in the arm of the flesh, the less they will see the arm of God. And the more that they rely upon God in secret prayer,

the more they will see His arm, His mighty arm, His deliverances. So many miracles down through the years where it was just impossible. And yet, all of a sudden, God provided the way. And George Mueller, it was his life of prayer. And, you know, Spurgeon himself said, you know, that if he was given the opportunity to preach or pray, he would pray. And much of what was accomplished by Spurgeon's preaching was a result of his praying and the praying of people while he was preaching.

Even Bethany Jones said about Martin Lloyd-Jones, you'll never understand my husband as an evangelist if you first do not understand him as a man of prayer, if first do not understand him as a man of prayer, if you do not know him as a man of prayer. Now, when I say that, also, I don't want people thinking, oh, you know, Paul Washer is a man of prayer. I'm just weak. I wouldn't tag anything onto that except weakness. But I am amazed at how gracious God is, even with regard to the weakest praying. You see, He takes those pitiful prayers in the night watch and He mixes them with incense. He sanctifies our offering and Christ presents it before the throne of God.

It's all about grace. And that's what I learned from George Mueller, but also that's what I now know from almost 40 years of experience, we have a God who honors prayer. Yeah. And I also believe that it's kind of scary because I think how much of whatever good has been in my life has not been the result of me or my praying even, but of others praying for me.

You see, and that's what I learned from Mueller. And we live in a world full of movers and shakers, marketers, guys who know things and can make things move. Some of that will work for a little while. It'll maybe accomplish a few little things, but the ministry deals in categories of the miraculous. We have an enemy that's like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. You cannot withstand him, not for a millisecond. We have an entire world opposed to God and opposed to us if we act as sons and daughters of God. We can't stand against them. There's nothing we could do. We couldn't save our own soul. And so to cast ourselves upon Christ in prayer seems to me to be the only reasonable recourse and that everything else flows out of that. I've been also deeply impacted by

George Mueller's life. And I think one of the things that strikes me from his biography, I think one of the ways that it's challenged me is that he offers specific prayers. I think sometimes we generally pray, God, would you provide? But I think at the end of his life,

I think it's some like 3000 times or something where he would say there was specific answers to prayer, to specific prayer requests in ways that God would provide. I mean, would you provide this $12, $12 shows up and it changed the way I pray, if that makes sense. This goes back to discipleship. In that same church when I was a young believer, this woman, I don't even remember her name but she was a

retired kind of tough retired military nurse yeah and she walked by my pew one day where i was just sitting there waiting for the service and i really didn't know her and she looked at me and she goes general praying will harvest general answers specific praying brings specific answers in which you can see the power of god there's an old saint you know telling a young boy i was probably 21 22 at the time there you go it's so helpful i'm thankful for those journals because I think even with Jim Elliot, you think about just his own praying that's impacted many people in George Mueller's life and even Hudson Taylor's prayer journals have been used to challenge and influence so many people. So I'm thankful for George Mueller and I'm thankful for his impact on you and as well as me so thank you Paul thank you