The Prerequisites for Prevailing Prayer
To be heard and answered prayer must be according to God's will. Does this statement need to be argued or expounded? Is it not a self-evident fact that God could not grant any petition that is not in accordance with His will? We have learned in the earlier chapters of this book that it is God's purpose that man should think, love, and will within the circle of God's will. This, assuredly, means that he must pray within that sphere if his prayer reaches the ear of God. There is a limit then to what we may ask of God and the God-man stated the condition very clearly in the thrice-repeated prayer in Gethsemane, "Not my will but thine be done." Only he who has willed to do the will of God will be able to pray aright.
But there is another side to this. Augustine has stated it in these words, "O Lord, grant that I may do Thy will as if it were my will, so that Thou mayest do my will as if it were Thy will." It is possible for Christ and the Christian to live in such abiding oneness that God does the will of His child which is expressed in his prayer.
John 15:7, "If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you."
And we may be so assured of the answer that we can praise Him before we may have received in actual experience the thing prayed for.
1 John 5:14-15, "And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask anything according to his will, he heareth us: And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him."
"When we do what He bids, He does what we ask! Listen to God and God will listen to you. Thus our Lord gives us "power of attorney" over His Kingdom, the Kingdom of Heaven, if only we fulfill the condition of abiding in Him." (The Kneeling Christian" by Unknown)
To be heard and answered prayer must be in the name of Christ. No sinner, not even a saved one, has ever made any deposit in the bank of Heaven consequently he has no right to open an account in his own name. The spiritual riches which are there for him were placed there through the death, resurrection, ascension and exaltation of the Lord Jesus Christ. The account was opened for him when he put his faith in this Saviour and at that moment Christ placed in his hands blank checks signed with His own name and not one of them has ever been refused at the bank of Heaven. Six times in that last conversation with His disciples on earth the Lord Jesus told them that when He went back to the Father He would open an account for each one of them and urged them to make liberal use of His credit in their Father's bank. He taught them that the Father hears but one Voice, that only the man in Christ can reach the Father's ear with his petitions.
John 14: 13-14, "And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son ... And if ye shall ask anything in my name, I will do it."
But do not let any one be deceived into thinking that these are magic words which can be added, as an appendage, to any kind of prayer. It is only the prayer that will bring honor and glory to His name that can be truly asked in His name. A wrong prayer cannot be made right by the addition of some mystic phrase. It is possible for one to pray in the name of Christ for the salvation of some member of the family in order only that there may be greater harmony in the home. Or a preacher may pray for large additions to his church not for the glory of Christ's name but for his own. There must be identification with Christ in His interests and purposes if there is to be rightful use of His name in prayer. Only the prayer that is wholly according to God's will can be legitimately asked in the name of Christ.
To be heard and answered prayer must be in the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit alone knows what is the mind and will of God; He only understands what prayer will be to the honor and glory of Christ. So only the man who is in the Spirit's sphere and under the Spirit's control will pray aright.
Jude 20, "But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit."
In this passage of Scripture we see that the divine condition of prevailing prayer becomes at the same time the divine provision for it. We do not know how to pray as we ought but the Holy Spirit does know. Indwelling and infilling us He reveals to u our need, suggests the objects of prayer, sifts and tests our motives, purifies our desires, stiffens our faith and stimulates our hope and expectation of an answer.
Do you honestly wish to live your life habitually on the highest plane? Then you must become a man or woman of prayer, an intercessor after God's hart. Are you willing to let the Holy Spirit deal with you in regard to the actual condition of your prayer life as it now is? Will you through the power of His divine enabling determine what it shall be?
Has my prayer life been powerless because of some besetting sin? Has my prayer life been hindered by haste, irregularity, indefiniteness, insufficient preparation, unbelief, neglect
of Bible study? Has my prayer life been fruitless? Have I had such power with God that I have had power with people? Have I had definite answers to prayer week by week? Has my prayer life been limited to prayer for myself? My family? My work? My church? My mission? Or have I taken the world into my heart and into my prayers? Has my prayer life been starved? Or have I devoted time to the study of God's Word about prayer? Do I know His precepts and promises? Has my prayer life been growing? Do I daily know more of the meaning and power of prayer? Has my prayer life been sacrificial? Has it cost me anything in time, strength, vitality, love? "Lord teach us to pray."
~Ruth Paxson~
(continued with # 1 -"The Works of the Spiritual Man")
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