In discussing “prayer” it enables you to pursue fulfillment of Scripture’s promises and prophesies in your life. “Prayer is revelation of our knowing God’s will along with His desire to see all accomplished in our lives”--Said Bishop J.M. Mandi (my dad). Philippians 2:13 says, “For it is God who works in you both to will and to do for his good pleasure.” God first helps us want to do his will, we’re motivated; and prayer is that place where we’ve often first learned his will. Forthright is this lovely example given to us of Daniel, God’s man, who just 600 years before Christ wrote “In the first year of his reign I, Daniel, understood by the books the number of the years specified by the word of the Lord through Jeremiah the prophet, that He would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem. Then I set my face toward the Lord God to make request by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes.” Now Daniel as an accomplished overseer had both the captor king’s interests and his ear, and his life of prayer resulted in both knowing and doing the wishes of God. Similarly, we can experience the same accomplishment through Christ in our lives spent in prayer.
After asking Jacob the question, “What is your name?” the wrestling angel said, “Your name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince you have power with God and with men, and have prevailed”—Genesis 32:27-28. God-given names are meaningful because they are descriptive of character. Name stands for character. We are told that “a good name is rather to be chosen than great riches.” A change of character demands a change of name; therefore, when Jacob, the false and deceiver, had his character changed, he was given a new name to describe his new character. For this reason, when the redeemed reach the heavenly kingdom, they will be given new names to describe their new characters. Israel was the new name given to the newborn prince, and it belongs to every person who experiences the new birth and becomes a son or prince of the King of Glory. This name indicates that its possessor, as a prince, has influence with God and also prevails with his fellow men. A prince has power and influence with both king and people. Because Jacob prevailed, he became a prince and was given a princely name. “Prevail” means “to gain the mastery or upper hand, be victorious, prove superior, triumph, to have effectual influence, to be strong.” It was prayer that changed the character of Jacob and won for him a place in the royal family of heaven. Only praying people can become sons or princes of God. Indeed, your salvation comes to you first through the Sinner’s Prayer. Only those who prevail with God and man in prayer are given the name Israel. Prayer is the power that moves the arm that moves the world.
When by faith we take hold of the strength of the Almighty in prevailing prayer, He will marvelously change the most hopeless and discouraging outlook, and make the future as bright as the promises of God. How wonderfully this was demonstrated in the experience of Jacob. How true it is that “man’s extremity is God’s opportunity.’’ How unfortunate it is that so many wait till they reach their end of hope before they give God an opportunity in their lives. Prayer took Joseph out of the dungeon and placed him virtually on the throne of Egypt. What could have been more disheartening than the experiences that came to him? The cruelty of his brothers, who threw him into a pit and then sold him as a slave; his prison life in Egypt and the injustice suffered in the home of Potiphar; the negligence of the king’s butler, who he had helped restore to his former position and royal favor—all was changed by prevailing prayer. Daniel’s deliverance from enemies and the den of lions is another example of how prayer wonderfully changes things. This is again illustrated in the deliverance of Paul and Silas from the Philippian prison. The outlook seemed hopeless and discouraging, but it was completely changed by prevailing prayer that had in it earthshaking power. The prophets of Baal prayed long and loud, but their prayers did not prevail to bring fire from heaven to consume their sacrifice. There was no answer to their wailing cries and weird incantations. All day long they begged their false pagan god to hear and answer their petition. Elijah was calm and quiet, and his prayer was short. It is recorded in two verses of sixty-three words, about the length of a night letter. But it was a prevailing prayer. It completely changed the situation and saved the nation of Israel from idolatry and doubtless from complete destruction.
Many of the prevailing prayers recorded in the Scriptures were very short. “God be merciful to me, a sinner,” was the prevailing prayer of the publican that brought him the blessings of justification. The Syrophoenician woman prayed, “Lord, help me,” and she got her request. Peter cried out, “Lord, save me,” and the hand of Christ was immediately reached out to save him from a watery grave. The penitent thief on the cross turned his face toward the Son of God and prayed, “Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom. And without a moment’s hesitation came this answer, “You ask to be remembered then; truly you are assured now.”
Prayer is effective in knowing God’s will, and prayer is propelled by God’s Word. Why some people worry about issues or why some pray but stop their praying long before answers come is because they are not propelled by the Word; it isn’t really part of them, or “internalized”. They do not experience or live in the Word of His power—Hebrews 1:3. It is Philippians 4:6-7 that tells us “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”
Think of reading or hearing God’s Word as the initial part of breathing, as the inhale. During this time we understand Scripture by the Holy Spirit’s help. When inhaling ends, there are brief instants where with movement ceased, our body has desire to “do something with” this air (the Scripture we’ve understood). Then the exhale: spiritually, our putting into practice the Word of the Lord as a faith expression (prayer) and then standing in the firm belief in God’s promise as the proverbial “house built on a rock” coming from Jesus’ teaching—Luke 6:48. Notice that it is here that God’s promise goes hand-in-hand with prayer—they are on the same level.
The Bible is filled with God’s promises that are stupendous, and our meditation of them dispels stress of worry, doubt and fears. A few examples are:
2 Peter 1:2-4 “Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as his divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.”
Matthew 11:25, 28-30 “I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes.” “Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
In our learning from Christ of his gentleness and lowliness of heart, we discover this source of the rest for our souls. And though we don’t understand how this comes from him, we experience it as the result of exercising our prayer power—Philippians 4:7.
In short, prayer is a dynamic force by a true believer who by use of the Word of God and the name of Jesus moves God to do the impossible. The most important step for getting answers to our prayer is finding Scripture that gives certain promise of those things we pray for.
When people say that they’re praying for something, I like to ask, “What Scripture are you standing on in order to get that what you’re asking for?” Often people answer, “Well, nothing in particular.” Well, that’s what they shall likely get: nothing in particular.
Jesus has said, “If you abide in Me, and my words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you”—John 15:7. The word here “if” is little but it has consequence. “If” means that this promise for answered prayer is conditional upon something. And, what is it? Jesus says that you can ask whatever you wish so long as his words have taken their place in you.
We must have God’s word abiding in us if we expect answer to prayer. Often Christians pray for something such as healing and yet they don’t have any promise from God that abides in them, which is guarantee of God’s sure answer.
God has made promises aplenty that he’ll heal us. What we need to do is to find these promises and meditate on them until they are totally real in us. Doing so, we can fight doubts when the healing doesn’t manifest in us immediately.
Faith, here, moves things from the spiritual world into our physical world:
There is also need to understand that God is spirit and those who worship him must worship him in spirit and truth—John 4:23. God operates in the spiritual realm to answer our prayer, but it takes faith on our part to manifest. Faith is what takes things from the spiritual world and moves them into the physical world. This basically is what Hebrews 11:1 says, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” It does not say faith is the evidence of things that don’t exist. They do exist; but in this unseen spiritual realm, faith reaches over and draws things into the physical world. Christ created by His word; we appropriate—get—by our faith.
Take a radio signal. Radio and television stations are broadcasting constantly; we can be in a room where we see or hear nothing of that signal, yet that does not mean they aren’t there. You have to turn a radio on and tune it to the frequency you desire to hear. Then the radio pulls those signals out of a realm you can’t perceive and rebroadcasts them in a realm where you can hear them with the human ear. God answers our prayers similarly. He gives things in the spiritual realm, and by faith we have to reach out and bring them into the physical world.
The struggle with unanswered prayers:
One of the greatest struggles in prayer that many Christians are likely to have is the secret disappointments with the Lord. There are times when we have “prayed our hearts out,” times when we have really sought to trust God for somebody’s healing or for a financial situation or whatever it can be—large or small. We have earnestly sought the Lord. Yet it seems he didn’t “come through.”
The question needed to be asked is: What is our greatest struggle in prayer? Above all, it is a struggle virtually every day to hold fast to the hope of God, to abound in hope in the situations that have no answers, that are confusing, that make no sense, when it feels like the Lord is far away, that he’s silent, when we are discouraged because we feel like in certain things we have failed to give God our best, when we are angry or bitter or upset with the way people have treated us—all those things that can impact our joy in the promises of God, and deeply hinder our prayer life. In the midst of all these it is a great struggle, too, to get back to the magnitude of hope we have in the supremacy of God’s Son.
Primarily the failure to “pray through” is lack of persistence in prayer and often this has result in “unanswered” prayer. What is perceived as negative response from God results in our own loss of fervency in faith and lowered expectation. But it should also be asked, How do we accept “‘No” as the answer to prayer? God has wisdom, and besides his general purposes shown in directing our lives, he decides what answered prayers will serve in guiding us to the places or levels in life where we are in commitment to him and being made useful for producing souls for his kingdom’s harvest. Glory is the result of all this effort. Take for example a child who wants a bicycle. He or she would do well to ask God first for it and then the parents second. Is it only the condition of the parents’ family finances that determines the “Yes” or “No” answer from God through the parents? In effect, in a Christian household, approval comes first from God and is manifested through believing parents in their “Yes.” Their good parenting does evaluate the past show of responsibility by the child with possessions. Would that bike bought with family money have the similar care—good or bad—and if neglectful, would it be stolen in but a short while? They must consider also this new, wider range of child mobility. If a boy, are they to allow him wider travel to visit girlfriends living at a distance away, for surely he will get the idea to do that. Doesn’t he already get enough of interaction with them by just attending school? And other associations can develop with those who do not live nor try to live in any accord with God’s Word. If he presently walks a younger sibling to school, will the having of a bicycle disrupt this help he’s provided in the past? Will the child be off the safer sidewalks and out into the moving stream of traffic with dangers stronger than he? Does all this become more worry for caring, attentive parents who already have enough of this in their lives? God’s view considers: Will it give the child independence that much outruns the maturity level the child thus far has gained? Don’t forget, we pray: “Father, lead us not into temptation.”
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