Bible Studies

---

Granted, praying for the spiritual, health, and logistical well-being of OTHERS (including that of our enemies-Matt. 5: 44) is a Biblically based, commanded activity (James 5: 16).

Having benefitted from the intercessory prayers that others have made in my behalf over the course of my lifetime, I would be the last one to dispute the power of prayer.

At the same time, I have learned that although prayer is the means through which born-again believers can approach the throne of grace and communicate our requests to God, the outcome is not always what we wanted or expected to receive.

When things turn out the way we prayed for, we say our prayers have been answered, but we are not so quick to say so, when things go the other way.

The fact is, ALL prayers receive an immediate answer of yes, no, or not right now, according to His will and timing.

Making a request and “placing an order” from the warehouse of Heaven are two very different things. Placing an order expresses our expectations, whereas requests leave the matter in the hands of God.

Most Christians frequently pray for THY will to be done, but what we really want is for MY will to be done with divine help. This is evidenced by the content of our prayer requests.

There are many issues or things we pray for, that according to Scripture (e.g. John 5: 24 /Rom. 8: 1) we have already received, or that we already should have the assurance (Phil. 4: 19) that we will receive them when they are needed. The problem is that we lack the faith to acknowledge and or to make use of them.

If we really believed we already had them, or that we already have the assurance that we will receive them when the time comes, we wouldn’t still be praying to receive them.

Instead, we would pray for the courage and the wisdom to apply what we already have, or have coming. We would be praying, thanking God for what we already have received and for the assurance that we already have that we will receive what need and when we it in the future.

There are other things that many of us pray for that the answer(s) are already available to us in Scripture. This is one of the reasons we will experience the “silence” of God. It is God’s way of saying to us, I have already answered that question in the words of Scripture.

There is no “resting in peace” or release for the departed souls suffering in the Torments of Hades. The answer to such prayer requests is No. They will suffer and remain there until the Rev. 20: 13, 15 event takes place. No departed soul can be prayed into Heaven or out of the Torments of Hades.

The location and environment that ANY departed soul is NOW experiencing was self-determined by the John 3: 16 or the John 3: 18 choice he or she made when he or she was presented with the unadulterated Gospel Message, encapsulated in John 3: 16, 18.

Here, it is!

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life (John 3: 16 NASB2020).”

To “perish” (in this case) does not mean extermination, but to suffer never-ending torment and never-ending separation from God.

“The one who believes in Him is not judged (John 5: 24/ Rom. 8:1); the one who does not believe, has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name (Person and atoning Work-1John 2: 2) of the only Son of God (John 3: 18 NASB2020 parentheses mine).”

In the event you may have never been presented with the adulterated Gospel Message before, you just were!

Presenting or being presented with the unadulterated Gospel Message is serious business. As much as it assures believers of eternal life, it equally assures unbelievers of eternal condemnation. It doesn’t get any more serious than that!

As of the Church Age, how you choose to respond (believe or disbelieve) is what determines WHERE you will find yourself upon departing this world, be it in the presence of the Lord (2Cor. 5: 8) or in the Torments of Hades.

The time to pray or to do something that can better the location or the experience of one-self or another soul is when we, he, or she are still alive and able to do something about it.

With the issue of WHERE we will find ourselves upon departing this world behind us, the battle of the post salvation spiritual life for the Heaven-bound, born-again believer, has just begun. His or her salvation is never in jeopardy, but HOW he or she will experience eternity (with or without the 1Cor. 3: 14, 15 reward and the Rev. 2 and the Rev. 3 privileges, is yet to be determined.

These are all good studies for another day.

The more we understand what the post (after) salvation spiritual life is all about, the more eternally meaningful our prayer requests for ourselves and others will become.

To a degree, God allows us to get into situations and circumstances in which we are clearly in over our heads.

Sometimes He does so in order to point out the fact that we failed to prepare ourselves (Matt. 7: 24-27). If we had been obedient (2Pet. 3: 18), we would already have had the divine solutions on hand. It would only have been a matter of applying the solutions that we already have (James 1: 22).

Having the answers and solutions does NOT prevent negative things from happening, but are what prepares us to either escape or to endure the inevitable adversity that IS coming our way.

One would be amazed how shortened his or her list of prayer requests would become if he or she eliminated the things that we already have (or will have). In fact, our prayer requests could be reduced to just four words, “Thy will be done” in our own lives and in the lives of those for whom we pray.

There is nothing wrong with praying and thanking God for specific ongoing needs, and for the ongoing and specific needs of others. But keep in mind that He heard us the first time, and that He is already aware of even the smallest details of our lives (Luke 12: 7), including everything we need, and when we need it (Matt. 6: 8).

There is the need to distinguish what we need from what we want. The less self-centered and the more Christ-centered we become, the easier it will be to accept the adversity, as well as the blessings, that God sends or allows to come our way.

There is the need to close some doors and to create space for what God wants us to receive.

“Shall we actually accept good from God but not accept adversity (Job 2: 10b)?”

Being human, we want the earthly blessings to remain and a quick fix to the problem(s) that we (or the people we are praying for) encounter, but if we haven’t learned it already, we will learn through experience, that this is not always what God has in mind.

End of Part One

---

PLEASE ENCOURAGE AUTHOR BELOW LEAVE COMMENT ON ARTICLE