Teach Me to Pray - Week #23: Power for Prayer and Work

John 14:12,13 “I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name…”

The Lord is addressing His disciples here as friends to whom He has made known what He has heard from the Father. He will entrust into their hands the care of His work and His kingdom and they will do even greater works than He has done based on His approaching death and resurrection and ascension to God. “Prayer is to be the channel through which that power is received for their work.”

The success and victories of His disciples were to be greater than His for two reasons:
1. He was going to the Father to receive all power.
2. They could now ask and expect anything in His name.

Whoever would do the works of the Father must pray!

“In prayer, power for work is obtained…His (Jesus’) approaching death was to break down and bring to an end the power of sin. With the Resurrection, the power of eternal life was to take possession of the human body and to obtain supremacy over human life. With His ascension, He was to receive the power to communicate the Holy Spirit to His own. The union between himself on the throne and those on earth was to be so intense and so divinely perfect that He meant it literally when He said, ‘He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father’ (John 14:12).”

“As He asks the Father, He receives and bestows on us the power of the new dispensation for the greater works. As we believe, and ask in His name, the power takes possession of us to do the greater works.”

Murray goes on to say that the lack of power to do the works that Jesus did is because of lack of believing prayer. “Prayer in Jesus’ name is the way to share in the power Jesus has received from the Father for His people…the most important thing for anyone who desires to do the work of Jesus is to believe, becoming linked to Him, and then to pray the prayer of faith in His name. Without this act of faith our work is merely human, carnal…Powerful, effective work first needs powerful, effective prayer.”

Six times in Jesus’ parting words, He repeats the limitless promises about prayer: “I will do whatever you ask…If you ask me for anything, I will do it...Ask whatever you wish…The Father will give you whatever you ask…If you ask anything of the Father in my name, he will give it to you…Ask and you will receive and your joy will be complete.” (John 14:13,14; 15:7,16; 16:23,24)

Murray finishes the chapter by calling our attention to the fact that the reason we don’t see these promises fulfilled is that we separate them from their context. “The Lord gave the wonderful promise of the free use of His name before the Father in connection with doing His works. It is the disciple who gives himself wholly to live for Jesus’ work and kingdom, for His will and honor, to whom the power will come to appropriate the promise. He who tries to grasp the promise when he wants something solely for himself will be disappointed, because he is trying to make Jesus the servant of his own comfort. But the one who seeks to pray the effective prayer of faith because he needs it for the work of the Master, will learn its power because he has made himself the servant of the Lord’s interests…”

I’ll close with a gentle warning connected with this truth – because many of God’s children have been raised with a view of a perfectionist God, these words of the author could be understood through the lens of perfectionism. If so, it can leave us feeling like there’s no hope of ever being able to measure up to the requirements. Earlier in the book Murray emphasized how important it is that we not see God as a stern schoolmaster who demands perfection but rather a Father who loves the attempts of the child to obey even though the child falters and stumbles in his attempts; it’s the reaching for Him and for the highest in Him that moves God’s heart. So take heart – if you have a sincere reaching for God and His kingdom, desiring to love and serve Him with all of your heart, He will hear you and answer you; and in the process, He will teach you more about believing prayer and strengthen your heart in prayer.

“Lord…You have said that because of Your going to the Father You will do whatsoever we ask in Your name. From Your throne You would share the power given You with Your people and work through them as the members of Your body in response to their believing prayers. Power in prayer with You and power in work with others is what You have promised Your people…Teach me to pray so that I may prove that Your name is all-powerful with God, with men, and with demons. Teach me to so pray that You can glorify Yourself and do Your great works through me. Amen.”

Teach Me to Pray - Week #22: Prayer in Harmony with the Destiny of Man

Genesis 1:26 “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, in our likeness.’”

Andrew Murray begins this chapter by saying that the image that man bears “decides his destiny. Bearing God’s image, he belongs to God. Prayer to God is what he was created for. Prayer is part of the wonderful likeness he bears to His divine original; of the deep mystery of the fellowship of love in which the triune God has His blessedness, prayer is the earthly image and likeness.”

We know from Genesis 1 that God’s purpose for man was to fill and subdue the earth from a relationship of union and communion with God. Through prayer (the means of intimacy with the Creator), man and woman were to rule over the earth as His representatives. “Subject to God, he was to keep all else in subjection to Him. It was the will of God that all that was to be done on earth should be done through man…His prayer was to have been the wonderful, though simple and most natural channel, in which the close relationship between the King in heaven and man, His faithful servant as lord of this world, was to have been maintained.”

Of course, with the fall of man came catastrophic changes; but in the redemptive plan of God in Christ, the beginnings of restoration for humanity began. And although fallen humans can never bring justice to the earth without the second coming of the Messiah, we can taste of the age to come as we partner with God in the ministry of intercession.

“In Abraham we see how prayer is not only, or even chiefly, the means of obtaining blessing for ourselves. Rather, it is the exercise of his royal prerogative to influence the destinies of men and the will of God that rules them…His prayer for Sodom and Lot, for Abimelech, and for Ishmael, prove what power a man who is God’s friend has to create the history of those around him.”

This destiny for rulership of the earth was rooted in the fact that man was created in God’s image and likeness. “In bearing God’s image, he could bear God’s rule. Indeed, he was so like God, so capable of entering into God’s purposes and carrying out His plans, that God could trust him with the wonderful privilege of asking and obtaining what the world might need.”

Those who are in Christ and take seriously His word to abide in Him are those who have the promise that we can “ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you.” (John 15:7) Prayer is still the means by which we partner with God’s purposes on the earth. In prayer we commune with Him and hear His heartbeat and get His mind for the situations and people where He has placed us; in prayer we agree with Him and ask Him for what He wants to do in our “little world” where He has given us influence.

“These (who have forsaken self to abide in Him with His life of obedience and self-sacrifice…and are entirely given up to the interests of the Father and His kingdom)…have indeed the power, each in their own circle, to obtain and dispense the powers of heaven here on earth. With holy boldness they may make known what they will…Church of the living God, your calling is higher and holier than you know.”

I believe that the Holy Spirit is raising up a generation now at the end of the age that will take hold of this holy destiny as never before and will enter into greater fullness in prayer than the Church has known. All around me and wherever I go I’m encountering people who are hungering to be established in a life of prayer in God.

God loves to hear and answer His children. Keep persevering in prayer according to His will, and in His time and His way, you will see the answer to your prayers. I continually hear testimonies of people who have persevered in prayer for many years before seeing the fulfillment of their prayers, but it surely comes in God’s time!

In my own experience of the grace to persevere in intercession, I’m sometimes tempted to believe that because I feel weak or without faith, then I’m not being faithful. The Lord keeps reminding me that weakness is good; it’s His strength and faithfulness that matters most and is the grounds by which I can be faithful in prayer and trust. My weakness is the very place in which God receives glory because that is where I am most aware that the outcome isn’t because of me.

Romans 12:26,27 “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.”

II Cor. 12:9-10 “…he said to me, ’My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.’ So I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities for the sake of Christ; for whenever I am weak, then I am strong.”

Lord, thank You for such a magnificent and noble destiny for humans! Have mercy on us, Your people, and open the eyes of our heart to see with greater clarity what you have designed for us in prayer as the primary means to seeing Your will and desires done here on earth as in heaven. We love Your ways – teach us more of Your ways; forgive us for the great sin of prayerlessness and anoint our hearts and minds for intimacy with You and for blessing others through intercession. Thank You for hearing our heart cry! Amen.

Teach Me to Pray - Week #21: Prayer in Harmony with the Person of God

John 11:41, 42 "Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me..."

In this chapter Andrew Murray speaks of the value of asking theological questions that naturally arise about prayer as one grows in a life of prayer...questions such as "How can God grant to prayer such mighty power? How can the action of prayer be harmonized with the will and the decrees of God? How can God's sovereignty and our will, God's liberty and ours, be reconciled?" The honest pondering into such mysteries leads us to adoring worship of God.

In essence Murray says that the key to understanding the place and power and privilege of prayer is in the mystery of the Trinity. "If God were only one person, shut up within himself, there could be no thought of nearness to Him or influence on Him. But in God there are three persons...When eternal Love begat the Son, and the Father gave the Son as the second person a place next to himself as His equal and His counselor, there was a way opened for prayer and its influence in the very inmost life of God itself."

In Psalm 2 we see that the Father gives the Son power and place to influence Him. "The Father determined that He should not be alone in His counsels: there was a Son on whose asking and accepting their fulfillment should depend." Jesus lives forever to pray/intercede, and throughout eternity He will accomplish the will of the Father through asking, through prayer.

This is very important for us to understand, because our prayer on earth is meant to be a reflection of this same reality. The Father has opened Himself to be influenced by weak humans who will dare to ask Him in the name of His Son to do things that otherwise would not happen!

I'm beginning to touch this a bit, but I long to take a stronger grip by faith on the wonderful truth expressed in the following words by the author:
"God's decrees are not an iron framework against which man's liberty vainly seeks to struggle. God Himself is the living Love, who in His Son, as man, has entered into a tender relationship with all that is human. God through the Holy Spirit takes our humanness into the divine life of love and frees himself to give every human prayer its place in His government of the world. (Eph. 2:18)"

Wow! Unlike all other gods, our God hears us and allows Himself to be moved by human prayer. "...the Father-heart holds itself open and free to listen to every prayer that rises through the Son..." We have a real role in the governing of the world through prayer! When this begins to sink in even just a little, we are empowered to invest in prayer as the primary means to accomplish His will and live in simple obedience to whatever He may ask of us in prayer.

"This simple view of prayer is seen throughout Scripture: God hears us."

"Everlasting God, the Three-in-One, in deep reverence I would worship before the holy mystery of your diving Being. If it should please you, most glorious God, to unveil anything of that mystery, I would bow with fear and trembling and meditate on your glory...Blessed Jesus, in whom as the Son the path of prayer has been opened up, and who gives us assurance of the answer, we beseech you to teach your people to pray. Each day let this be the sign of our own sonship; that like you we know that the Father always hears us. Amen."

Teach Me to Pray - Week #20: The Power of Persevering Prayer

Luke 18:1, 6-8 "Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up...And the Lord said, 'Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off?' I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly."

Because of my own engagement in persevering prayer, I was very encouraged by this chapter and want to urge you to let the truth of what Jesus teaches on perseverance in prayer strengthen you as you read this. This week I'll quote large portions of this chapter because it is of utmost importance in these days when there is so much to discourage God's people in prayer.

Murray opens with these wonderful words:

"Of all the mysteries of the prayer world, the need of persevering prayer is one of the greatest. We cannot easily understand that the Lord, who is so loving and longing to bless, should have to be asked time after time, sometimes year after year, before the answer comes. This is also one of the greatest practical difficulties in the exercise of believing prayer. After persevering supplication, when your prayer remains unanswered, it is often easiest for our slothful self...to think that we must now cease praying because God may have His secret reason for withholding His answer to our request."

"By faith alone the difficulty is overcome...It (faith) knows from Scripture that the power of believing prayer is simply irresistible...To exercise the irresistible power it can have, faith, just like water, must be gathered up and accumulated until the stream can come down in full force. Often there must be a heaping up of prayer until God sees that the measure is full - and then the answer comes..."

The following is a core truth that we must fight to keep in front of us: "Faith knows that it deals not with human thoughts or possibilities but with the Word of the living God." (Romans 4:18; Hebrews 6:12) At times I find that the impossible circumstances in a situation loom so large that my heart loses strength if I don't fight to fix my hope on the Word of the living God which is more true than the impossibilities that are in my face. Once I stop and ponder God and what He says about Himself and about His power and desire to do the impossible, my heart finds peace again. (Sometimes the circumstances may be so overwhelming that you must lean on the faith of others for awhile.)

This portion of Scripture from Luke 18 makes reference to "putting off" or delaying the administration of justice, but then it speaks of avenging "quickly." So while God delays in answering, once the moment arrives, He avenges quickly! "He will avenge them quickly, the Master says. The blessing is all prepared. He is not only willing but anxious to give them what they ask. Everlasting love burns with the longing desire to reveal itself fully and satisfy the needs of its beloved. God will not delay one moment longer than is absolutely necessary...it is the Father, in whose hands are the times and seasons, who alone knows the moment when the soul or the church is ripened to that fullness of faith in which it can receive and maintain the blessing."

Revelation 8:3 shows that there is a filling up of the heavenly bowl of incense needed in order for the administration of the judgments that followed. It's the same principle that Murray is referring to, which is that there is a "heaping up of prayer" needed in order to reach the full measure that God is looking for before the answer to prayer is manifested. "The great danger in this school of delayed answers is the temptation to think that it may not be God's will after all to give us what we ask...Let us learn to give God time. God needs time with us...Child of God, give the Father time. He is long-suffering over you. He wants the blessing to be rich and full and sure. Give Him time, while you cry day and night."

I'll close with one more portion from this chapter and part of Murray's prayer at the end: "The blessing of such persevering prayer is unspeakable. Nothing is so heart-searching as the prayer of faith. It teaches you to discover and confess and give up everything that hinders the coming of the blessing and everything that may not be in accordance with the Father's will. It creates a closer fellowship with Him who alone can teach us to pray. It leads to a more entire surrender, to draw near under no covering but that of the blood and the Spirit. It calls to a closer and simpler abiding in Christ alone..."

"O Lord my God, teach me to know your way and in faith to grasp what your beloved Son has taught us: 'He will see that they get justice, and quickly.'...Lord, help us to understand the seasons in nature and know to wait with patience for the fruit we long for. Blessed Master...you know how quickly we grow faint and weary...Teach me how real the labor of prayer is. Show me how by giving myself completely to prayer and to live in the spirit of prayer, I will obtain what I ask....Lord Jesus, in this faith I will always pray and not faint. Amen."

Teach Me to Pray - Week #19: The Power of United Prayer

"Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them." Matthew 18:19,20

The Lord teaches us that both private and public prayer are necessary for His followers. In the Sermon on the Mount He speaks of the importance of praying in secret, and here He gives a wonderful promise to those who agree together in prayer.

"For its full development, a tree has its root hidden in the ground and its stem growing up into the sunlight. In the same way prayer equally needs both the hidden secrecy in which the soul meets God alone and the public fellowship with those who find in the name of Jesus their common meeting place...The bond that unites a Christian to his fellowman is no less real and close than that which unites him to God...Grace renews our relationship not only to God but also to man. We learn to say not only 'My Father' but 'Our Father.'"

A child needs to have one-on-one time with his dad in order to know him and enjoy him, but that isn't enough. The dad wants the children all to be together with him as well; and in that fellowship together, the children learn things about their father that they would never learn in purely one-on-one times with him.

Murray presents three marks of true united prayer that are found in the portion of Scripture quoted above:

1. Agreement in spirit and in truth; this requires knowing exactly what we're asking and whether or not we have the confidence that it is according to God's will. I'm discovering more and more that the Scriptures are our greatest material for prayer, and so praying the Word is important. Not only does it help keep us on track related to the will of the Father, but it makes it easier to agree with one another when our prayers are founded on Scripture rather than on human opinions and whims.

2. Praying together in the name of Jesus; His name must be at the center of our union in prayer. "...to meet in it (Jesus' name) is to have the Lord himself present. The love and unity of his disciples attracts Jesus." (Matt. 18:20) Without Him present among us when we pray, our prayer is in vain. Worship blended with intercession is a wonderful way to continually acknowledge that our gathering is first and foremost about Him and secondarily about the needs we present to Him.

3. The certain answer; "A prayer meeting for maintaining Christian fellowship or seeking our own edification may have its use; but this was not the Savior's view in its appointment. He meant it as a means of securing special answers to prayer. A prayer meeting without recognized answers to prayer ought to be an anomaly. When any of us has distinct desires for which we lack sufficient faith to believe for answers, we ought to seek strength in the help of others."

The Apostle Paul understood the power of united prayer so was always asking God's people to join him in prayer for the sake of the kingdom of God: Rom. 15:30; II Cor. 1:11; Eph. 6:18,19; Phil. 1:19; Col. 4:3; II Thess. 3:1.

"Most churches think their members are gathered into one simply to take care of and build each other up. They do not know that God rules the world by the prayers of his saints..."

The Holy Spirit is awakening a prayer movement that is spreading across the earth; I believe this will continue to increase until the Church at large finally moves into her primary identity as a praying and worshiping Bride. Jesus' prophetic words that His house would be called a house of prayer for the nations will be fulfilled.

Holy Spirit, thank You for what You are awakening among Your own in these days. Come and increase our hunger to know Jesus and to meet in His name for the sake of Your purposes at the end of the age. Lead us into our true identity as a praying, adoring Bride, for Jesus' sake. Thank You for hearing our cry!