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PRAYER Prayer is the means in which God gets his will done on earth not the means in
which man gets his will done in heaven. True faith is to trust in Gods power to move
man, false faith is to trust in mans power to move God for our own wants. This is
spiritual manipulation to think the more power I have in what I believe God will then
give it to me. This is narcissistic and self gratifying. There is no inherent power
in faith or prayer but there is in the God who answers them. In other words its not
our emotions or our good speaking that moves God to answer. It is whether or not it
is according to what he wants accomplished, his will! Many times God will impress us
to pray a certain way or for a certain thing to be accomplished. The purpose is have
our hearts lined up with what God wants to bring to pass so that we are praying in
the will of God. In this way we will have our prayers answered. Luke 11:2-4, Mt.6:9-13 the
Lords example of prayer
Just before Jesus example he corrected the way the had seen the Pharisees and
others pray. “But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut
your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who
sees in secret will reward you openly. And when you pray, do not use vain
repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their
many words. Therefore do not be like them. For your Father knows the things you have
need of before you ask Him.” In Isa.65:24 God says “before they call I will answer, while they are still
speaking I will hear.” God is not hard of hearing not indifferent, he is attentive
to our needs. Today much of what is called prayer is in fact not. Matthew 21:22, people
have frequently taken this verse out of context and isolate it from all other
passages-on prayer, using it as a kind of blank check by assuming they can ask and
receive anything they want with sufficient faith. As Kenneth Hagin says “to write
your own ticket with God.” They believe that a failure to get what they ask for is
a failure in faith. We should always make certain that we incorporate everything the Bible teaches on
any subject before we draw our conclusions. to not do this is what we are warned of
by Paul in rightly dividing the word of truth. We receive what we pray for as we have faith (trust) in God and his will. We must
know His will in a situation. have you seen anyone move a mountain yet. How about a
boulder. this is not a free ticket to whatever we want. Our prayer must line up with
what he wants and is doing. For example if I pray for everyone in the world to become
a Christian this year, Will it happen? Matthew 21:22 must be taken with I John 5:13-15, which also points out that God
hears us only If we ask “according To his will.” In other words, if we make a
request that is not His will to grant, no amount of faith or confession can affect
that petition. God does not want it to happen. since he is in control and we are not,
we should not expect it to occur. God's will and way John 14:13-15 “And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father
may be glorified in the Son. “If you ask anything in My name, I will do it. “If
you love Me, keep My commandments.” if we are walking right with the Lord we will
be focused on what he is doing and not pray selfishly. I Jn.3:22-24 “And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His
commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight. And this is His
commandment: that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one
another, as He gave us commandment. Now he who keeps His commandments abides in Him,
and He in him. And by this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has
given us.” Notice he does not say keep my commandments to get your prayers
answered. Its not up to you do this and I will guarantee that. If so this would not
be grace. We walk with him and learn of his ways, this helps us know his will for
something. So when we ask he can grant it. I Jn. 5:14-15 “Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask
anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us,
whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.
Jn.9:31 They said “we know god does not hear sinners but if anyone is a worshipper
of God who does his will, he hears him. Obviously one must be in his will to have
their prayers answered not just heard. Christ prayed in Gethsamane to the Father “If there is any other way, but not my
will be done but thine.” Certainly if anyone had the ability to speak things into
existence or accomplish their own will by prayer it was Jesus. Notice that he relies
on the greater in position and not himself to accomplish Gods purpose. Three times,
Jesus prayed, “Take this cup from Me,” but He also ended the prayer by, “yet
not My will, but Your will be done.” Jesus did not lack faith in the Father for his
request to be granted. It was not the will of the Father, so the answer for Him
was a “no” answer. Col. 1:9-10 “ do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with
the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that you may
have a walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work
and increasing in the knowledge of God.” Romans 8.26-27: “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not
know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans
that words cannot express. And he
who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes
for the saints in accordance with God’s will.” It is the Spirit that knows
exactly what God wants to accomplish in our lives and situations. Our prayer
cannot be answered beyond God's parameters of His will. We are to be devoted in prayer which keeps our dependence on God and not
ourselves. Matt 6:9-10: “In this manner, therefore, pray: our Father in heaven, hallowed be
Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in
heaven.”Prayer is to ask for him to extend his kingdom, this is what he delights
in. It is focused on God. your name, your kingdom, your will. Prayer is not Matt 23:14: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For
you devour widows' houses, and for a pretense make long prayers. Therefore you will
receive greater condemnation.” Jesus rebuked those who took from the poor for Gods
work and prayed publicly in such a way that people were impressed. God does not
receive their work nor their prayers. Phil.4:6 “do not be anxious about anything but in everything by prayer and
supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” Patience is
very different from commanding, God wants to see those who ask him in prayer to
endure in joy until he answers. This takes real faith to persevere in trust for the
answer. Elizabeth in Lk.1 was righteous, yet her prayers were not immediately
answered. E. M. Bounds said, “Obedience helps faith, and faith, in turn, helps obedience.
To do God’s will is essential to true faith, and faith is necessary to implicit
obedience. Yet faith is called upon, and that right often to wait in patience before
God, and is prepared for God’s seeming delays in answering prayer. Faith does not
grow disheartened because prayer is not immediately honored; it takes God at His
Word, and lets Him take what time He chooses in fulfilling His purposes, and in
carrying on His work. There is bound to be much delay and long days of waiting for
true faith, but faith accepts the conditions — knows there will be delays in
answering prayer, and regards such delays as times of testing, in the which, it is
privileged to show its mettle, and the stern stuff of which it is made.” James 4:2-4 “You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain.
You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not
receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures. Adulterers
and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God?
Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”
Those who have a repentant attitude God is close to, he is close to a broken and
contrite spirit. Yet many today demand and command using New age type decreeing to
exercise what they call faith. Prayer is to work on our heart, as well as bring our
petition before the Lord. Without humility you might as well be asking a tree. The power is not in our prayer no matter how earnest it is. The power rests in the
one who answers the prayer according to his own will. Would one sit in their car and
put their car keys in the ignition and then pray for God to turn them? That sounds
silly but this is exactly the attitude of millions in prayer toward God. Yes God can
do the supernatural but its not an everyday occurrence. Sometimes our prayer can be
symbolism over substance it just isn't realistic. Matt 26:41 “Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is
willing, but the flesh is weak.” Temptation can be like many today who ask for anything they want thinking God is
their butler having for them an all paid expense account. Today their are many in the
word faith movement who believe in a concept like the Vikings. The good god was Odin
and whenever something went wrong it was the evil one Loki. Today people think God
always does good and gives them abundance and its the devil who takes away and makes
them suffer or hinders prayers for their abundance. When your bills are paid and you
have got x-tra money, you have real joy. Joy is found in the abundance of things, the
very opposite of what Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount. Our carnal will is to cater to the flesh. We hate trials, suffering so we like
going to the path of least resistance. We pray for Gods trials and discipline to be
turned away or it is blamed all on Satan. We then do our spiritual warfare gymnastics
on him. The mature Christian prays through his sufferings, adversity strengthens our
faith and trust , all of Gods great saints went through trials to perfect their faith
even Jesus learned obedience by his experience of suffering and was brought to his
goal becoming mature and complete. Heb.5:8-9 Acts 21:14 After Paul refused the warning of his being bound in chains and given
over into gentile hands, they all said let the will of the Lord be done.” They did
not say I speak freedom and bind Satan, and decree or confess anything they wanted to
happen. Can we say like Job “though he slay me yet will I trust him.” Or as Abraham as
he brought his son to be sacrificed “my son and I will return from the mount,”
That is the faith the bible teaches. Anything else is adulterated. (for more on prayer go to> I can have what I think I have and say and what prayer will or will not do
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