Prayers

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No power is more underrated than prayer. Prayer to me in the past has often felt more like wish-fulfillment than the exertion of spiritual power upon the world. It's as if I'm reciting to God certain conditions which would make for a more ideal life for myself or someone I know and expecting Him to pick up on that hint and do something about it. Instead I should be as specific as I can concerning my requests and bold enough to ask Him for them.

The sooner we see prayer for what it is, a weapon to be unleashed, we will never pray right. If we can't have the faith to pray prayers that accomplish what we desire, we will not live a life which sees much prayer answered. And if we fail to see answered prayer in our life, how much motivation will there be to keep doing it? As praise encourages a person to keep doing that for which they've been praised for (and even to a greater extent) so will answered prayer give birth to more prayer in the Christian. Many Christians don't see the power that God has given them. As a result, their life is the equivalent of a soldier charging a battlefield trying to fight with his fists instead of the heavy weaponry that has been given to him to fight with.

The key to a successful prayer life is faith; faith that He hears us and will answer our requests. Mark 11:24 says "Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours" (ESV). John 14:13-14 says "Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it" (ESV). These are promises, CLAIM THEM!

We know from His very words that God's plan is set and ordained from the beginning. He declares the end from the beginning, bringing to pass ALL that He has purposed to happen (Isaiah 46:8-11). We know that this plan can NOT be thwarted at all (Daniel 4:35). None can escape or reverse God's plan (Isaiah 43:13). Even the very days of our own lives are ordained by God (Psalm 139:16). So it's pretty clear that God is working everything out according to His specifications. All things are from Him, through Him, and to Him (Romans 11:36).

Why then are we still commanded to pray? What effect can our prayers possibly have if God's just going to do what He's planned to do anyway? Herein is the secret to unlocking the mystery and the power of prayer. Prayers are the MEANS by which God so often works. When God created our solar system, He did it in such a way and with such profound wisdom so that at roughly 4 B.C., two of our planets would align themselves in such a way that their brightnesses would combine in our night sky forming an object brighter than anything anyone had ever seen before in the sky. These planets' orbits in the sky were such that they took a path in the sky in which men from Babylon followed it until due to retrograde motion the "star" stopped over Bethlehem, leading them to the newborn Jesus Christ. From old, events were set in motion to bring about God's desired plan but He USED His own creation to bring it about. He didn't just superimpose a light in the sky. As Jupiter and Venus were ordained to declare such a sacred event, so our prayers are God's ordained and chosen means by which to act.

What an antidote to the belief that our prayers are not being heard by God! They are being heard and are being used to bring about God's will. Hear this, because many have believed otherwise and suffer for it: prayer is not a supplement to God's will. It's not about convincing God to do something He doesn't want to do. It's not about convincing Him about anything! It's bringing about His purpose! The Sovereign God gives us the will to obey Him (Philippians 2:13). He gives us our faith (Philippians 1:29, 2 Timothy 2:25, Acts 11:8, Ephesians 2:8, Hebrews 12:2). He gives us the very ability to pray the prayers He's promised to answer: those that are prayed in His name, in His authority, consistent with His character. According to this and to Psalm 37:4, for those who are in Christ, we know who is running our desires, and it's not us, it's Him.

Therefore Believer, if you are burdened to pray for something, if you are earnestly desiring anything in prayer, you can believe that it's God Himself who is causing you to pray it, and furthermore you can be assured that what God desires to be prayed by His children, He desires to act in response to.

"...God was moved by prayer for the land." -2 Samuel 21:14 (NASB)

"And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him." -1 John 5:14-15 (ESV)

"Our prayers are God's decrees in another shape. The prayers of God's people are but God's promises breathed out of living hearts, and those promises are the decrees, only put into another form and fashion. Do not say, 'How can my prayers affect the decrees of God?' They cannot, except to the degree that your prayers are decrees, and that as they come out, every prayer that is inspired of the Holy Ghost in your soul is as omnipotent and as eternal as that decree which said, 'Let there be light: and there was light' (Gen. 1:3)."
-Charles Spurgeon

(If you want to read more about the Star of Bethlehem and have your mind blown away, go to starofbethlehem.net)

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