Teach Me to Pray - Week #15: The Faith that Appropriates

Mark 11:22-24 "Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours."

"What a promise - so large, so divine, that our limited understanding cannot take it in. In every possible way we seek to limit it to what we think safe or probable instead of allowing it just as He gave it in all its quickening power and energy. Faith...is the ear that has heard God say what He will do, the eye that has seen Him doing it. Therefore, where there is true faith, the answer MUST come."

At the heart of true prayer (faith-filled prayer) is worship of the one true God Who is able and Who will bring to pass what His mouth has spoken. Murray makes two striking statements related to faith in prayer:

1. "Faith is so wholly the work of God's Spirit through His Word in the prepared heart of the believing disciple that it is impossible that the fulfillment should not come. Faith is the pledge and forerunner of the coming answer." When I read this, I was struck with the phrase, "Faith is so wholly the work of God's Spirit..."; in a sense this truth is liberating because if taken hold of, it releases us from trying to find faith in ourselves or in others. Romans 10 says that faith comes by hearing the word of Christ, not by trying to make it up artificially. It comes as we hear Him in His Word.

2. Speaking of Jesus' use of the word "whatever" in Mark 11, Murray says, "Faith is to have its food and strength in this 'whatever'; if we weaken this, we weaken faith...The only condition is what is implied in the believing. Before we can believe, we must determine God's will with certainty...When once we believe, nothing will be impossible..." Again Murray points us away from ourselves to God, helping us to fix the eyes of our heart on Him rather than on our limitations. When our gaze is primarily on human limitations and weaknesses, then it's a given that we will need to "dumb down" the promise of "whatever" that Jesus makes.

Murray goes on to distinguish between prayer related to the daily needs of life and the prayer of faith: "As children we make known our desires in the countless areas of daily life and leave them to the Father to give or not to give as He sees best. But the prayer of faith that Jesus speaks of is something different, something higher."

The prayer of faith takes its stand on a promise that the Holy Spirit has quickened to us; once we have the assurance of the Lord's will concerning something, then we are to believe that we have received it. "The receiving or accepting of an answer to prayer is just like the receiving or accepting of Jesus or of forgiveness; it is a spiritual thing, an act of faith apart from feeling...I believe that I have it; I hold it in faith. I thank God that it is mine."

What I ask for is mine now even though I don't yet see it manifested in the visible. Then the question is whether I should continue to ask or to quit asking; Murray says there are times when we sense that we no longer need to ask for the fulfillment of the request but we simply continue in praise and thanksgiving for the answered prayer. However, there are other times when our faith is still being tested and strengthened through persevering prayer, and in such a case we continue to ask in faith.

"God alone knows when everything in and around us is fully ripe for the manifestation of the blessing that has been given to faith...Through faith and patience we inherit the promises. Faith says most confidently, 'I have received it.' Patience perseveres in prayer until the gift bestowed in heaven is seen on earth. 'Believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.' Between the 'have received' in heaven and the 'will have' on earth is the link (of) believing praise and prayer."

Oh Lord, thank You for Your unbelievable desire to give Your children whatever we ask! We believe; help our unbelief...Open the eyes of our heart to see You in Your power and love and to hear Your words and promises that You quicken to us. Give us faith to take hold of Your words and perseverance to stay true to what You have said. Thank You, wonderful Lord!

Teach Me to Pray - Week #14: Prayer Must be Specific

Speaking of the blind man in the story of Mark 10, Murray points out that he had been crying a general prayer for mercy from the Son of David, but Jesus pressed him to be specific by asking him, "What do you want me to do for you?" And until the man specifies what he is wanting from Jesus, he doesn't receive his sight.

Murray says, "It is not that Jesus' loving heart does not understand our cry or is not ready to hear, but He desires that we be specific for our own good. Prayer that is specific teaches us to know our own needs better. To find out what our greatest need is demands time, thought and self-scrutiny. To find out whether our desires are honest and real and whether we are ready to persevere in them, we are put to the test. It leads us also to discern whether our desires conform to God's Word and whether we really believe that we will receive the things we ask. It helps us to wait for a definite answer and to be aware of it when it comes...To all of us, the Lord asks, 'What is it you really want and expect me to do?'"

He goes on to say the Lord gives each of us our "own special field of labor in which he works, so his prayers encompass a particular group too. Each believer has his own circle, his family, his friends, and his neighbors. If he were to take one or more of these by name, he would find that this really brings him into the training school of faith and leads to personal and pointed dealing with God."

(He says that as we practice praying and receiving in specifics, then our general prayers will be believing and effective as well.)

A few years ago I was struck with the truth that Murray refers to here - that there are certain domains of life in which I carry God-given authority in prayer, such as my family and church and friends and co-workers, etc. This realization has grown steadily in my consciousness until I'm praying with much more faith now for these persons and situations. This faith comes from understanding the authority given to me and from gaining increasing spiritual insight into the jealous love and power of God related to those I'm praying for. I will be growing in this all my life, but it's a joy to walk at least in part in this grand partnership with God of believing prayer for particular areas. I'm regularly praying with prayer partners for particular people and needs, and we're growing in our faith as we pray according to what we know is the Lord's will for those we are interceeding for.

In this chapter Murray suggests a few questions we could ask ourselves as we wait before the Lord in prayer:
1. What do I really want?
2. Am I asking for it in faith, expecting to receive an answer?
3. Am I ready to place the thing in the Father's keeping and leave it there?
4. Is it settled between God and me that I will receive an answer?
5. Do I want this so much that there is no price too great to have it?

"It is sad that many prayers are merely wishes, sent up for a short time and then forgotten, or sent up year after year as a matter of duty, while we remain content without the answer. You may ask, 'But is it not best to make our wishes known to God and then let Him decide what is best, without seeking to assert our will?' By no means! This is the very essence of the prayer of faith to which Jesus sought to train His disciples: one does not only make known one's desire and then leave the decision to God. That would be a prayer of submission for those cases in which we cannot know God's will. But the prayer of faith, finding God's will in some promise of the Word, pleads for that until it is given...Faith is nothing but the purpose of the will resting on God's Word and saying, 'I must have this.'"

The chapter ends with this wonderful summary statement: "It is...when the child has yielded his own will in entire surrender to the Father that he receives from the Father liberty and power to will what he would have (wants)..." One caution about this is to not interpret "entire surrender" through the lens of perfectionism and religion but through the eyes of the Father Who is delighted with the wholehearted and childlike surrender of His child which is weak and filled at times with failing and stumbling steps, but is nevertheless genuinely sincere in looking to Jesus.

"Lord, I yield my will unreservedly to you as the power through which your Spirit is to rule my whole being. Let Him take possession of it, lead it into the truth of Your promises, and make it so strong in prayer that I may hear you say, 'Great is your faith. Be it unto you even as you will.'"

Teach me to pray just as You taught Your disciples. Thank You, Lord.

Teach Me to Pray - Week #13: Prayer Supplies Laborers

I have the rare privilege to be in a transitional season of my life in which I can dedicate my days primarily to prayer and to learning to pray. The longer I'm in this time of waiting on the Lord in prayer (over 6 months into it now), the more my heart is being smitten with the reality that I haven't truly believed in the power of prayer. By saying this, I'm not despising the genuine experience of God in prayer that I've had in my life nor denying that God has been real to me in prayer.

But I think there are a couple of things going on in me: one is that my active involvement in the end-times prayer movement for the past several years has made me aware of the fact that I am much more a product of my generation's church culture than I would like to admit (i.e., a prayerless religious culture); the other thing going on is that God has an agenda for His people at the end of the age with prayer at the core of it, and the reality of this is hitting me more each day. He is jealous about His Church being a house of prayer; i.e., about being identified and known as praying people. (Or as Murray says earlier in this book, like Jesus we need to "live to pray", rather than "pray to live.")

The western missionary movement, of which I have been part all of my life, didn't lead me into understanding the power of prayer, because our strategies have been more about our own ideas and efforts than about waiting on the Lord in believing prayer long enough to hear Him and respond in alignment with His strategies. I've been as guilty as the next guy in this so am grateful that He is infinitely patient and longsuffering with us, "winking" for a season at our ignorance. But with the prayer movement that is beginning to sweep the earth, we won't be able to plead ignorance; I want to be aligned with Him as we approach the end of the age.

This chapter of Murray's book ("Prayer Supplies Laborers") places the blame for shortage of "laborers" directly on prayerlessness in the Church. Matthew 9:37,38 "Then he said to his disciples, 'The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.'" Because of our proneness toward activism (taking matters into our own hands) as fallen and sinful humans, we have thought that a weekly corporate prayer meeting was sufficient, but the Lord is beginning to teach us what He means by making prayer the #1 priority for getting the job done, and we're seeing this in the raising up of 24/7 houses of prayer across the earth, a sign and a wonder to testify of what God is setting up in order to prepare His Bride and the earth for the coming of the Messiah.

During much of my history in the missions movement I blamed the shortage of laborers on the Church's lack of vision for the lost, and like most of my peers, I tried to convince people to be missionaries by showing them numbers and percentages, etc.; I've come to realize that it's more about lack of vision for the King; and vision for Him comes through intense seeking of His heart in believing prayer. This implies investing time and money and energy into prayer, real prayer. I'm just beginning to touch this in this season of my journey with Him.

Few have the luxury of a year to do what I'm doing now; because we are each unique, His ways to teach us to pray are unique. My encouragement to all who are His is simply to ask Him to increase the desire to learn to pray. No matter where your desire level is now, it's always appropriate to ask for more, and then take a simple step towards increasing your prayer life, either in your personal prayer life or with someone else, always dependent on the Holy Spirit to lead and help you in this. Look for what God is doing in your area in the realm of prayer and if possible, plug into that.

Lord, thank You for the season we are in now on Your divine calendar; thank You for Your infinite patience with us and for not giving up on us; thank You that You won't relent until You have a wholehearted Bride in agreement with You in prayer and worship and obedience. Forgive us for working so hard to get the job done without waiting on You, O Lord of the nations; would you increase in us the desire to learn to pray and therein partner with You for the sending forth of Spirit-endued messengers of the King at the end of the age. Thank You for teaching us and for hearing our prayers! We love Your ways, O Lord.

Teach Me to Pray - Week #12: The Boldness of God's Friends

In this chapter, Andrew Murray moves on to Jesus' teaching in Luke 11:5-8. Up till now he has been emphasizing the fatherhood of God primarily; now he presents a different relationship with God that we have, that of a friend.

In a good father-child relationship, there's an expectation of answers to requests because the nature of a good parent is to provide for the child even when the child isn't necessarily behaving in accordance with the standards of the home. However, a friendship is different; "...with a friend it seems as if his kindness is more dependent, not on nature, but on sympathy and character...the relationship of a child to his father is more that of perfect dependence, whereas two friends are nearly on the same level. So our Lord, in unfolding to us the spiritual mystery of prayer, shows His desire to have us approach God in this relationship too - as those whom He has acknowledged as His friends, whose mind and life are in sympathy with His...for this we must be living as His friends. I am still a child even when a wanderer, but friendship depends upon conduct. (John 15:14)"

In the school of prayer Murray gives two lessons to be learned related to praying as a friend of God's: first, if we approach Him as His friend, we must be a friend of the needy. In other words, we must be both a friend of God's and a friend of people. The second lesson is that we may take great liberty in claiming an answer for our needy friend(s)

"...Life as the friend of God gives the wonderful liberty to say, 'I have a Friend to whom I can go even at midnight.'...When I come to God in prayer (as a friend) He always looks for the motive behind my petition. If it is merely for my own comfort or joy that I seek His grace, I will not receive. But if I can say that it is so that He may be glorified in my passing on His blessing to others, I am not asking in vain."

Taking Jesus' story from Luke 11:5-8, Murray emphasizes that the answer to this kind of praying may not come at once, because faith is critical in knowing and enjoying God. And faith grows and is tested in having to persevere in intercession.

"What a deep heavenly mystery there is in persevering prayer. The God who has promised, who longs and whose fixed purpose it is to give the blessing, holds it back. It is to Him a matter of deep importance that His friends on earth should know and fully trust their rich Friend in heaven. For this reason He trains them in the school of 'answer delayed' to find out how their perseverance really does prevail and what the mighty power is they can wield in heaven if they but set themselves to it."

Murray eloquently goes on to press this point of how precious our faith is to God and therefore how He must test it in the fire of delayed answers so that it is pure gold; in that testing we draw nearer to Him in intimate and holy fellowship, understanding His heart and His ways better and consequently able to agree wholeheartedly with His ways and methods of governing His kingdom.

The chapter ends with this wonderful word of encouragement which I pass on to you:

"Children of God working in love in your Father's service, take courage. Parents, teachers, preachers - all who have accepted and are bearing the burden of hungry, perishing souls - take courage. That God should truly require persevering prayer, that there should be a spiritual necessity for importunity seems puzzling to us. To teach us, the Master uses this strange parable. If the unfriendliness of a selfish earthly friend can be conquered by importunity, how much more will it avail with our heavenly Father who loves to give but is held back by our spiritual unfitness and our incapacity to receive what He has to give? Thank Him that by delaying His answer He is educating us in our true position and the exercise of all our power with Him..."

Lord, THANK YOU for wanting a friendship with us as well as a Father-child relationship. What an honor that you would invite us into a relationship where we can press You and insist on Your giving us what we need for our needy friends! Thank you that You delight in our persevering in the midst of delayed answers; thank you that You care enough about our maturing in faith so that we can steward wisely the answers to prayer when they come. How wise You are, O Father and heavenly Friend! Great are You and Your ways are great! We worship and adore You and say, "Keep on teaching us to pray" for the glory of Your name, Lord Jesus...Amen.