WHO IS THIS MELCHISEDEC #18
September 10, 2000
Brian Kocourek
Wednesday night we spoke
again from paragraph 50 where brother Branham said,
Who is This
Melchisedec pp. 50 God's sovereign in His choosing, did you know
that? God's sovereign. Who was back yonder to tell Him a better way
to make the world? Who would dare to tell Him He was running His business
wrong? Even the very--the very Word Itself, very sovereign... Even the
revelation is sovereign. He reveals to whom He will reveal. The
very revelation itself is sovereign in God. That's how people pound at
things, and jump at things, and hit at things, and not knowing what they're
doing. God is sovereign in His works.
We recapped the thoughts thus far in our series on the sovereignty of God pertaining to “The Nature of the Human Will”, and we found that according to Scripture In Romans 9:16 "It is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy". We also recapped last Sunday's Message where we examined “The Bondage Of The Human Will”..
JOHN 8:34 Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.
And where Paul said in, ROMANS 6: 7 For he that is dead is freed from sin. Which means the only way you can possibly be free is that you never were under sin to begin with. You never did do it as brother Branham said, and that is what justification is all about. In fact the word Paul used here in Romans 6:7 For he that is dead is freed from sin., is the Greek word dikaioo {dik-ah-yo'-o} and it means to justify -- in other words you are, freed to be righteous, declared, pronounced to be just ,or righteous, as he ought to be, or was meant to be..
Wednesday night we began to Look at the sovereignty of God and Prayer. We took for our text…
1 John 5:14. "If we ask anything according to his
will he heareth us"
Men today believe and teach
that prayer changes things. Now that
statement is ok if it is looked upon in the proper light. But what men do with
that statement that in effect perverts that statement is that they believe that
prayer will actually alter the state of affairs as God ordained them to be.
Thus in effect your praying will change God's Mind.. And thus not only changing
God's Mind, but in effect changing God's Purpose and plans. Thoughts like this
are either blasphemy or a complete lack of knowledge concerning God and the
Godhood of God.
The need for prayer is not
for God to change His Will, but for us to change our will. The Scriptures teach
us: "The Lord killeth, and maketh alive: he
bringeth down to the grave, and bringeth up. The Lord maketh poor, and maketh
rich: he bringeth low, and lifteth up. He raiseth up the poor out of the dust,
and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill, to set them among princes, and to
make them inherit the throne of glory" (1 Sam. 2:6-8).
To many People believe that
when we say, "prayer changes things", we actually mean that God
changes things when men pray." Almost everywhere we go today we see
sign or bumper stickers that say: "Prayer
Changes Things". As to what these words mean it can be
heard from the radio religion today, — "we are to persuade God to change
his purpose.".
They challenge the people to
pray for America, pray that she might repent and change. They look for a
revival that will never come, because we have "Thus Saith the Lord"
that she will not repent.
They quote from the II CHRONICLES 7:14 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble
themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then
will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
But those words were spoken
by God for another people and not this people, and not for this land, at least
not for this land after the prophet of God has come and his message has been
rejected. Those words can not produce fruit today, because first of all, the people will not humble
themselves, and secondly they will not
pray correctly, because He promised, 1 John 5:14. "If we ask
anything according to his will he heareth us" And His Word is His Will.
Thirdly, they will not seek
his Face because they do not know Him, nor do they understand the Godhood of God. And finally, they will not turn from their wicked
ways.
And what are the ways which
God calls wicked? In the first place,
they have turned down God's answer for them in this hour. God sent to them a
Prophet and they have turned down His message, which came with a "Thus
Saith the Lord", attached to it, which means they have turned down God
Himself. And God has come down and they have turned from His Shout. And will
they come back to Him? I think not. For Paul quoted God when He said,
ACTS 13:41 Behold, ye
despisers, and wonder, and perish: for I work a work in your days, a work which
ye shall in no wise believe, though a man declare it unto you.
The ways which God calls
wicked and which they will not turn from is their course of life. That's what the Word "ways"
means. It is the Hebrew Word, Derek and it speaks of the course of life and
their moral character. And as we know this is an hour where the people are
bombarded with homosexual propaganda continually through the illicit and immoral
media which bombards the minds of the people so often on a daily and hourly
basis that after a while the people have grown indifferent towards it, and
instead of immoral acts flaming the fires of righteous indignation in you, it
only seems to fan the flames of indifference. You just don't seem to care. You
don't want to be bothered. And that is what happened in the first church age.
They became indifferent. And Alpha must be repeated in Omega.
77-1 EPHESIAN
CHURCH AGE - CHURCH AGE BOOK Chptr 3. The very name,
Ephesus, has a strange compound meaning, "Aimed at", and
"Relaxed". The high aspirations of this age that had begun with the
fullness of the Spirit, "the depth of God", whereby they were aiming
at the high calling of God, began to give way to a less watchful attitude. A
less ardent following of Jesus Christ began to manifest itself as an omen that
in the future ages the physical vehicle called the church would sink to the
awfulness of the "depth of Satan". It had become relaxed and was
drifting. Already the age was backsliding. It had left its first love.
88-2
EPHESIAN.CHURCH.AGE - The fervent desire to please God, the
passion to know His Word, the cry for reaching out in the Spirit, all begins to
fade and instead of that church being on fire with the fire of God it has
cooled off and become a bit formal. That is what was happening back there to
the Ephesians. They were getting a bit formal. The abandonment to God was dying
out and the people weren't too careful about what God thought of them as they
began to be careful about what the world thought of them. That second
generation coming on was just like Israel. They demanded a king to be like the
other nations. When they did that, they rejected God. But they did it anyway.
That is the history of the church. When it thinks more of conforming to the
world instead of conforming to God, it isn't long until you see them stop doing
things they used to do, and start doing things they wouldn't do initially. They
change their manner of dress, their attitudes and their behaviour. They get
lax. That is what "Ephesus" means: relaxed--drifting.
Where is the righteousness
among God's people today to take a stand against wrong, whether it be among
your family, your child, your mother, your father, or a church member, or
business associate. Will the people take a stand for God? I hardly see it any
more. Yet a President will commit perjury, adultery, sodomy, and more right in
the White House during working hours and the American people are not only not
outraged, but simply don't care. We have a Vice President who commits several
felonies concerning graft and kickbacks, and should be serving time in prison,
and when he is challenged, he replies, "there is no governing
authority." No governing authority? No constitution? No laws of the land?
And what about the American people? They will vote for him because he can kiss
his wife on national television in a lustful way for several minutes, biting
her lip so she can't pull away, and
they like the lust, so they turn their eyes away from his law breaking. I ask
you, "Are we at the end-time?" Are these a people whom God will hear
their prayer?
No, God will not hear the
prayer of the unrepentant sinner. But what of you and I? How do we balance our
understanding of a sovereign God Whose mind and will and purpose and plans that
can not be changed, with our need for prayer. If we can not change God's
purpose and plan is there a need to pray?
And the answer is YES!
When the Apostles asked
Jesus how to pray, he never gave them a prayer to recite. He simply told them
there are certain elements which are needed for your prayer to have any
success. He began by saying,
LUKE 11:1 ¶
And it came to pass, that, as he was praying in a certain place, when he
ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John
also taught his disciples. 2 And he said unto them, When ye pray, say, Our
Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be
done, as in heaven, so in earth.
Now, if we take this
scripture together with the witness by Matthew, we do not have Jesus telling
them what words to say, as this verse
would seem to suggest, but let's look at Matthew and see what Jesus is
suggesting to them as he teaches them about prayer and how to pray.
MATTHEW 6:9 ¶ After
this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be
thy name. 10 Thy kingdom come. Thy will
be done in earth, as [it is] in heaven.
Therefore,
Jesus is not putting the Words intot heir mouth and suggesting a prayer, but He
is teaching them how to pray. He says, after this manner, or in this manner, or
in this way…. Then we notice the way He approaches prayer to God.
#1) you've got to recognize the
One to whom you are addressing your prayer. He is the Sovereign God, the
Creator of the universe, and yet He is your Father. Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed
be thy name. Notice, Hallowed be thy
name. The word hallowed means to venerate, lift up, worthy of
worship.
First and foremost, Jesus
tells us that prayer has been appointed that we should honor God first. God
requires we should recognize that he alone is God,
He alone is our object of Worship, and
that there is no other beside Him. In presenting our prayer to God we would do well to remember the
10 commandments and especially the first commandment, EXODUS 20:2 I [am] the
LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the
house of bondage. 3 Thou shalt have
no other gods before me.
EXODUS 34:14 For thou shalt
worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name [is] Jealous, [is] a jealous
God: God requires that we shall proclaim his
universal dominion: in petitioning God for rain, Elijah confessed God's control
over the elements.
In praying to God to deliver
a sinner from the wrath to come, we acknowledge John
2:9 "salvation is of the Lord"; In coming to the
Lord, we should declare his ruler-ship and sovereignty over the entire world.
REVELATION 4:11 Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory
and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure
they are and were created.
Again; God requires that we
shall worship him, and prayer, real prayer, is an act of worship. Prayer is an
act of worship in as much as it is the prostrating of the soul before him;
in as much as it is a
calling upon his great and holy name;
in as much as it is the
owning of his goodness, his power, his immutability, his grace,
and in as much as it is the
recognition of his sovereignty, proclaimed by our submission to his will. Even
when Jesus spoke of the temple, he never called it the House of Sacrifice, but,
the House of Prayer.
Again; prayer rebounds to
God's glory, for in prayer we acknowledge. our dependency upon him. When we
humbly entreat His Divine Presence, we cast ourselves upon his mercy, and bow
down in acknowledgement of His Great
Power. In seeking blessings from God we believe that he is the Author and
Fountain of every good and perfect gift.
JAMES 1:17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is
from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no
variableness, neither shadow of turning. 18
Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a
kind of firstfruits of his creatures.
That prayer brings glory to
God is further seen from the fact that prayer calls faith into exercise, and
nothing from us is so honoring and pleasing to him as the confidence of our
hearts. For we must first believe that He is, HEBREWS
11:6 But without faith [it is] impossible to please [him]: for he
that cometh to God must believe that he is, and [that] he is a rewarder of them
that diligently seek him.
And through Faith we must
confess that He is more than able to meet our needs. II TIMOTHY 1:12 nevertheless I am
not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able
to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.
The next thing Jesus laid
out in the pattern for prayer, after acknowledging the supremacy of God in
Holiness I what we hear next in verse 10 Thy kingdom
come. Thy will be done in earth, as [it is] in heaven. In other
words, Thy Will and Thy Will alone will reign supreme. Therefore, Lord Help my will
to align with your will. He never said, my will be done, but Jesus said
"Thy will" speaking to the Father.
In EPHESIANS 3:11 we find that God's Purpose is
eternal…
According to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our
Lord: And in EPHESIANS 1:11 In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being
predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the
counsel of his own will: Therefore
if we are predestinated according to the eternal purpose of Him who works all
things together for his Glory, and for our good, then it would only make sense
to us that we would want things to work out in our lives what he has planned
for us to begin with, knowing and trusting that all these things will somehow
work together for our good.
ROMANS 8:28 And we know that all things work together
for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to [his]
purpose. 29 ¶ For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate
[to be] conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among
many brethren. 30 Moreover whom he
did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also
justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified. 31 ¶
What shall we then say to these things? If God [be] for us, who [can be]
against us?
Now, that we have come to
the place where we recognize His interest in our needs, we can continue with
the pattern which Jesus set before us, as He said LUKE
11:3 Give us day by day our daily bread..Now,
comes forth our needs. Now, remember, Jesus told us whe teaching us how to pray
that the Father knew our needs even before we would ask.
MATTHEW 6:7 But when ye pray,
use not vain repetitions, as the heathen [do]: for they think that they shall
be heard for their much speaking. 8
Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what
things ye have need of, before ye ask him. 9 ¶ After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in
heaven, Hallowed be thy name. 11 Give us this day our daily bread. 12 And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our
debtors.
LUKE 11:4 And forgive us our
sins; for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us. And lead us not
into temptation; but deliver us from evil. Notice how the Lord Jesus set the pattern for
prayer to not only ask for the physical
need but also for the spiritual blessing of forgiveness as well. Forgive us first of our sins and then help
us to forgive those who are indebted to us. Forgive them as you forgive
us. I think here is where we miss the
boat so often. We ask forgiveness for our own sins but we are so lacking when
it comes to asking the Lord to Forgive those who have injured us in any way.
Sometimes I think we have become so hardened
to the plight of others, and don't realize that Jesus has set forth a pattern
here for us to come to God with the opportunity to be intercessors for others.
He has given us the opportunity to be mediators and intercessors, and I think
we have blown the opportunity so far.
Prayer is appointed by God
for our spiritual blessing, as a means for our growth in grace. When seeking to
learn the design of prayer, this should ever occupy us before we regard prayer as
a means for obtaining the supply of our need. Prayer is designed by God for our
humbling. Prayer, real prayer, is a coming into the presence of God, and a
sense of his awful majesty produces a realization of our nothingness and
unworthiness.
Again; prayer is designed by
God for the exercise of our faith. Faith is begotten in the Word (Rom. 10:17), but it is exercised in prayer as we
see in JAMES 5:15 And the prayer of
faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have
committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. 16 Confess [your] faults one to another, and pray one for another,
that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth
much. ".
Again; prayer calls our love
into action. Concerning the hypocrite the question is asked, "Will he delight himself in the Almighty? Will he always call
upon God?" (Job 27:10).
But they that love the Lord cannot be long away from him, for they delight in
unburdening themselves to him. Not only does prayer call love into action, but
through the direct answers to our prayers, our love to God is increased —David
said, "I
love the Lord, because he hath heard my voice and my supplications"
(Psa. 116:1). Again; prayer is assigned
by God to teach us the value of the blessings we have sought from him, and it
causes us to rejoice the more when he has bestowed upon us that for which we
entreat him.
Thirdly, prayer is appointed
by God for our seeking from him the things which we are in need of. But the
unbeliever will say, "If God has
foreordained, before the foundation of the world, everything which happens in
time, what is the use of prayer?
If it is true
that "of him and through him and to him are all things" (Rom. 11:36), then why
pray?
The unbeliever will ask, What is the use of me coming to God and telling him what
he already knows? wherein is the use of me spreading before him my need, seeing
he is already acquainted with it?
What is the use of praying for anything
when everything has been ordained beforehand by God?
Prayer is not for the
purpose of informing God, as if he were ignorant, (for Jesus made very clear
while teaching the Apostle to pray in Matt. 6:8,
He said, "for your Father knoweth what things
ye have need of, before ye ask Him", Therefore our praying is
to acknowledge. That we know that He does know what we are in need of.
Because Jesus goes on to
tell us how the worth of prayer in a little parable.
LUKE 11:5And he said unto
them, Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go unto him at midnight, and
say unto him, Friend, lend me three loaves; 6 For a friend of mine in his
journey is come to me, and I have nothing to set before him? 7 And he from
within shall answer and say, Trouble me not: the door is now shut, and my
children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give thee. 8 I say unto you,
Though he will not rise and give him, because he is his friend, yet because of
his importunity he will rise and give him as many as he needeth. 9 And I say
unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and
it shall be opened unto you. 10 For every one that asketh receiveth; and he
that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. 11 If a son
shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if
[he ask] a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? 12 Or if he shall ask
an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? 13 If ye then, being evil, know how to
give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall [your] heavenly Father
give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?
Prayer is not appointed for the furnishing of God
with the knowledge. of what we need, but it is designed as a confession to
him of our sense of the need. In this, as in everything, God's thoughts are
not as ours. God requires that his gifts should be sought for. He designs to be
honored by our asking, just as he is to be thanked by us after he has bestowed
his blessing.
However, the question still
returns on us, If God be the predestinator of everything that comes to pass, and
the regulator of all events, then is not prayer a vain exercise? But our answer
comes from the fact that God commands us to pray — He said, "Pray without ceasing" (1 Thess. 5:17). And again, "men ought always to pray" (Luke 18:1). And again, "the prayer of faith shall save the sick", and, "the
effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much" (James 5:15,16); The Lord Jesus Christ — our older
brother and the perfect example in all things — was mainly a Man of Prayer.
Then, it is evident, that prayer is neither meaningless nor valueless. But
still this does not remove the difficulty nor answer the question with which we
started out. What then is the relationship between God's sovereignty and
Christian prayer?
First of all, we would say
with emphasis, that our prayer should never be intended to change God's
purpose, or create new ones just for us. God has decreed that certain events
shall come to pass, but he has also decreed that these events shall come to
pass through the means he has appointed for their accomplishment. God has
elected certain ones to be saved, but he has also decreed that these ones shall
be saved through the preaching of the Gospel. The Gospel, then, is one of the
appointed means for the working out of the eternal purpose of the Lord; and
prayer is another. God has decreed the means as well as the end, and among the
means is prayer. Even the prayers of his people are included in his eternal
decrees. Therefore, instead of prayer being in vain, it is among the means
through which God exercises his purposes. "If all things happened by mere
chance, then prayer could be of no moral use; but since our prayers are
directed and regulated by the direction of Divine wisdom, prayer has a place in
the order of events" It was not
God responding to my prayer for the laptops but my prayer was directed by the
purpose of God, and therefore, by tapping into His Divine Will, our prayers
become part of the Divine working of His will. A Sort of tapping into the
Eternal Wellspring of God's Purpose and plan.
Prayer then becomes part of
the execution of the very things that God declared and therefore are not
meaningless. This is clearly taught in the Scriptures.
Ø
Elijah knew that God was
about to give rain, but that did not prevent him from at once praying to God
for it. (James
5:17,18).
Ø
Daniel
"understood" by the writings of the prophets that the captivity was
to last but seventy years, yet when these seventy years were almost ended, we
are told that he "set his face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and
supplications, with fasting and sackcloth and ashes" (Dan. 9:2,3).
Ø
God told the prophet
Jeremiah "For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord,
thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end"; but
instead of adding, there is, therefore, no need for you to supplicate me for
these things, he said, "Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and
pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you" (Jer.
29:12).
Ø
In Ezek. 36:1-38 we read of the explicit, positive,
and unconditional promises which God has made concerning the future restoration
of Israel, yet in Ezek. 36:37 of this
same chapter we are told, "Thus saith the Lord
God; I will yet for this be enquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for
them"! So God knows before hand what we will pray for.
Here then is the design of
prayer: not that God's will may be altered, but that it may be accomplished in
his own good time and way. It is because God has promised certain things, that
we can ask for them with the full assurance of faith. It is God's purpose that
his will shall be brought about by his own appointed means and that he may do
his people good upon his own terms, and that is, by the "means" and
"terms" of entreaty and supplication. Did not the Son of God know for
certain that after his death and resurrection he would be exalted by the
Father? Sure He did. Yet we find him asking for this very thing: "O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory
which I had with thee before the world was" (John 17:5)! Did not he know that none of his
people could perish? Yet he petitioned the Father to "keep" them (John 17:11)!
Finally; it should be said
that God's will is immutable, and cannot be altered by our crying. When the
mind of God is not toward a people to do them good, it cannot be turned to them
by the most fervent and persistent prayers of those who have the greatest
interest in him — "Then said the Lord unto me,
`Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my mind could not be toward this
people: cast them out of my sight, and let them go forth'" (Jer. 15:1). The prayers of Moses to enter the
promised land is also another example of this same thing.
Our views respecting prayer
need to be revised and brought into harmony with the teaching of Scripture on
the subject. The prevailing idea seems to be, that I come to God and ask him
for something that I want, and that I expect him to give me that which I have
asked. But this is a most dishonoring and degrading conception. The popular
belief reduces God to a servant, our servant: doing our bidding, performing our
pleasure, granting our desires.
No; prayer rather, is a
coming to God, telling him my need, committing my way unto the Lord, and
leaving him to deal with it as seems best to him. This makes my will subject to
his will, instead of, seeking to bring his will into subjection to mine. No prayer is pleasing to God unless the
spirit motivating it is, "not my will, but thine be done". "When
God bestows blessings on a praying people, it is not for the sake of their
prayers, as if he was inclined and turned by them; but it is for his own sake.
God answers our prayers for
His own sovereign will and pleasure. Should someone ask you, What purpose is
prayer? We should answer, `Prayer is the way and means God has appointed, for
the communication of the blessing of his goodness to his people.' For though he
has purposed, provided, and promised them, yet he will be sought first, in
order to give them, and therefore it is a duty and privilege To ask. When we
are blessed with a spirit of prayer, it is good because it is then that God
intends to bestow the good things asked, which should be asked always with
submission to the will of God, saying, `Not my will but thine be done'"
Perhaps. the one thing that
bothers Christians more than anything else is unanswered prayer. we ask God for
something: so far as we are able to judge, we have asked in faith believing we
will receive that for which we have asked the Lord: and we know we have asked
earnestly and repeatedly, but the answer does not seem to come. The result is,
in many cases, our faith in the efficacy of prayer seems to weaken, until hope
gives way to despair and the closet is altogether neglected.
But every real prayer of
faith that has ever been offered to God has been answered? He promised. Real
prayer is a coming to God, telling him our need, committing our way unto the
Lord, and then leaving him to deal with the case as seems best to him. This
allows God to answer the prayer in whatever way he sees fit, and often, his
answer may be the very opposite of what would be most acceptable to our own
mind; yet, if we have really left our need in his hands, it will be his answer,
nevertheless. Let us look at two examples.
In John 11:1-44 Lazarus was sick unto death. The Lord
"loved" him, but he was absent from Bethany. The sisters sent a
messenger unto the Lord acquainting him of their brother's condition. And note
particularly how their appeal was worded — "Lord,
behold, he whom thou lovest is sick." That was all. They did
not ask him to heal Lazarus. They did not request him to hasten at once to
Bethany. They simply spread their need before him, committed the case into his
hands, and left him to act as he deemed best! And what was His reply? Did he
respond to their appeal and answer their request? Certainly he did, though not,
perhaps, in the way they had hoped. He answered by abiding "two days still in the same place where he was" (John 11:6), and allowing Lazarus to die! But in
this instance, that was not all. Later, he journeyed to Bethany and raised
Lazarus from the dead. I use this to
illustrate the proper attitude for the believer to take before God in the hour
of need. The next example will emphasize, rather, God's method of responding to
his needy child.
In 2 Cor. 12:1-21. The apostle Paul had been given an
unheard of privilege. He had been transported into Paradise. His ears have
listened to and his eyes have gazed upon that which no other mortal had heard
or seen this side of death. The wondrous revelation was more than the apostle
could endure. He was in danger of becoming "puffed up" by his
extraordinary experience. Therefore, a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of
Satan, was sent to buffet him lest he be exalted above measure. And the apostle
spreads his need before the Lord; on three occasions he asks God to remove his
thorn in the flesh. Was his prayer answered? Assuredly, though not in the
manner he had desired. The "thorn" was not removed, but grace was
given to bear it. The burden was not lifted, but strength was vouchsafed to
carry it.
Does someone object that it
is our privilege to do more than spread our need before God? Are we reminded
that God has, as it were, given us a blank check and invited us to fill it in?
Is it said that the promises of God are all inclusive, and that we may ask God
for what we will? If so, we must call attention to the fact that it is
necessary to compare scripture with scripture if we are to learn the full mind
of God on any subject, and as this is done we discover God has qualified the
promises given to praying souls by saying, "If
we ask anything according to his will he heareth us" (1 John 5:14).
Real prayer is communion
with God, so that there will be common thoughts between his mind and ours. What
is needed is for him to fill our hearts with his thoughts, and then his desires
will become our desires flowing back to him. Here then is the meeting place
between God's sovereignty and Christian prayer: If
we ask anything according to his will he heareth us, and if we do
not so ask, he does not hear us; as saith the apostle James, "Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye might
consume it upon your lusts" or desires (James 4:3).
But did not the Lord Jesus
tell his disciples, "Verily, verily, I say unto
you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you" (John 16:23)? He did; but this promise does not
give praying souls carte blanche. These words of our Lord are in perfect accord
with those of the apostle John — "If we ask
anything according to his will he heareth us." What is it
to ask "in the name of Christ"? Surely it is very much more than a
prayer formula, the mere concluding of our supplications with the words
"in the name of Christ." To apply to God for anything in the name of
Christ, it must needs be in keeping with what Christ is! To ask God in the name
of Christ is as though Christ himself were the suppliant. We can only ask God
for what Christ would ask. To ask in the name of Christ, is therefore, to set
aside our own wills, accepting God's! And to ask outside of God's Word is to
ask what God can not give. He is the
Word.
Let us now amplify our
definition of prayer. What is prayer? Prayer is not so much an act as it is
an attitude — an attitude of dependency, dependency upon God. Prayer is a
confession of our weakness, our helplessness. Prayer is the acknowledgment of
our need and the spreading of it before God. We do not say that this is all
there is in prayer, it is not: but it is the primary element in prayer. Prayer
is both an attitude and an act, a human act, and yet there is the divine
element in it too. Prayer is fundamentally an attitude of dependency upon God.
Therefore, prayer is the very opposite of dictating to God. Because prayer is
an attitude of dependency, the one who really prays is submissive, submissive
to the divine will; and submission to the divine will means, that we are
content for the Lord to supply our need according to the dictates of his own
sovereign pleasure. And hence it is that we say, every prayer that is offered
to God in this spirit is sure of meeting with an answer or response from him.
Prayer is not the requesting
of God to alter his purpose or for him to form a new one. Prayer is the taking
of an attitude of dependency upon God, the spreading of our need before him,
then asking for those things which are in accordance with his will, and
therefore there is nothing whatever inconsistent between divine sovereignty and
Christian prayer.
In Jer 10:23 we are told "It is not in man that walketh to direct his steps. (also Prov. 16:9);
and yet in many of his prayers, man presumes to direct the Lord as to his way,
and as to what he ought to do: even implying that if only he had the direction
of the affairs of the world and of the church, he would soon have things very
different from what they are. We can't deny this. Anyone with any spiritual
discernment at all could not fail to detect this spirit in many of our modern
prayer meetings where the flesh holds sway. How slow we all are to learn the
lesson that the haughty creature needs to be brought down to his knees and
humbled into the dust. And this is where the very act of prayer is intended to
put us. But man (in his usual perversity) turns the footstool into a throne,
from whence he would fain direct the Almighty as to what he ought to do giving
the onlooker the impression that if God had half the compassion that those who
pray have, all would quickly be put right! Such is the arrogance of the old
nature even in a child of God. Our main
purpose in prayer then is for submitting our wills to God's. But it must also
be added, that prayer is much more than a pious exercise, and far otherwise
than a mechanical performance. Prayer is, indeed, a divinely appointed means
whereby we may obtain from God the things we ask, providing we ask for those
things which are in accord with his will.