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.