"As a prince halt thou power with God." (Gen. 32:28).
When Jacob had prevailed with God he had no reason to fear
Esau. It was the power of a single individual, exhibited in a time
of deep distress: how much more power will be found where two
or three agree in prayer;

I. WHAT THIS POWER CANNOT BE.
Cannot be magical. Some seem to fancy that prayers are
charms, but this is idle. (Matt. 6:7)•
Cannot be meritorious.
Cannot be independent It must be given by the Lord.

II. WHENCE THIS POWER PROCEEDS.
1. It arises from the Lord's nature: His goodness and tenderness
are excited by the sight of our sorrow and weakness. A soldier
about to kill a child put aside his weapon when the little one
cried out, "Don't kill me, I am so little."
2. It comes out of God's promise. In His covenant, in the gospel,
and in the Word, the Lord puts Himself under bonds to those
who know how to plead His truth and faithfulness.
9. It springs out of the relationships of grace. A father will
surely hear his own children.
4. It grows out of the Lord's previous acts. His election of His
people is a power With Him since He is unchanging in His
purposes.

III. HOW CAN IT BE EXERCISED.
1. There must be a deep sense of weakness. (II Cor. 12:10).
2. There must be simple faith in the goodness of the Lord.
(John 14:12).
"Faith treads on the world, and on hell;
It vanquishes death and despair:
And, what is still stranger to tell,
It overcomes heaven by prayer."
8. There must be earnest obedience to His will. (John 9:81).
4. The whole heart must be poured out. (Floe. 12:4).

IV. TO WHAT UFO THIS POWER MAY BE TURNED.
1. For ourselves.
For our own deliverance from special trial.
Our future comfort, strength, and growth, when, like Jacob,
we are called to successive trials.
2. For others.
Jacob's wives and children were preserved, and Esau's heart
was softened.
In other instances, Abraham, Job, Moses, Samuel, Paul, etc.,
exercised power with God for the good of others.
How terrible to have no power with God, but to be fighting
against Him with our puny arm)
Jacob, though a man, a single man, a travelling man, a tired man,
yea, though a worm, that is easily crushed and trodden under foot,
and no man (Is. 91:14), yet in private prayer he is so potent, that
he overcomes the Omnipotent God; he is so mighty, that he overcomes the Almighty.—THOMAS BROOKS.
How often have I seen a little child throw its arms around its
father's neck, and win, by kisses and importunities and tears, what
had else been refused. Who has not yielded to importunity, even
when a dumb animal looked up in our face with suppliant eyes for
food? Is God less pitiful than we?—Da. GUTHRIE.
This is the key that has opened and again shut heaven. It hath
vanquished mighty armies, and unlocked such secrets as passed the
skill of the very Devil himself to find out. It hath strangled desperate
plots in the very womb wherein they were conceived; and made
those engines of cruelty prepared against the saints recoil upon the
inventors of them; so that they have inherited the gallows which
they did set up for others. At the knock of prayer prison-doors have
opened, the grave hath delivered up its dead; and the sea's leviathan, not able to digest his prey, hath been made to vomit it up again. W. GORHAM.

Sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon