Holy Hormones Bible Study: Teaching — not Entertainment
WHEN I THOUGHT ABOUT PRAYER, IT WASN’T WHAT I THOUGHT IT WAS
It is a gift from God, not a shopping list.
This is one part of a series covering
Prayer, Bible, Name of God, Imputation, praise ’n’ worship, Love; not necessarily in that order. It may grow.
There are many good commentaries about prayer on the internet — even some here on Medium — why should I, who have no Theological Qualifications, add another? Precisely because I have no Theological Qualifications. I’m a man of unclean lips who has spent too much time on the street.
A bit of personal background.
The Lord rescued me late in life. There was something in me that kept my mouth shut when it came time to pray out loud.
One day I was at a new Church and there was a call for a “Prayer Champion.” A position that had been vacant for some time. For various reasons I volunteered even though I had no idea what a prayer champion was. As it happened, no one else did, either.
This is not a treatise on prayer — there are too many good ones. This is the story of the journey the Holy Spirit led (is still leading) me through. Perhaps you will agree with me but then, perhaps not.
The two Characters in the Bible who had most influence.
Things didn’t go swimmingly at the start. After a lot of mechanical-type study, God kept His Promise, “And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you, says the Lord.”
Daniel kept coming to mind, not an easy book to follow. As you no doubt know, Daniel is the only person in the Bible about which nothing negative is said. He read in the writings of Jeremiah that there was only a few years to go before Israel would be freed to return to the Land. [Interesting Point: The Prophets took prophecy seriously in those days. Just saying.] He didn’t say, “Byewdy! Not I can put my feet up and relax.” No. He went into a fervent prayer of repentance for both himself and his Nation. Remember, this is the guy no one bad-mouthed. The guy who had seen the faithfulness of God to keep His Word.
How you interpret that is up to you. I see it that Prayer is a gift that God provides to allow His Saints to share in the victories He will certainty have. YHVH had promised it would happen. He is the One Who sees the end from the beginning. It would have happened if Daniel had prayed or not.
How can I be sure of that wild claim?!!
It is written in Esther 4:13–16, And Mordecai told them to answer Esther: “Do not think in your heart that you will escape in the king’s palace any more than all the other Jews. For if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”
Then Esther told them to reply to Mordecai: “Go, gather all the Jews who are present in Shushan, and fast for me; neither eat nor drink for three days, night or day. My maids and I will fast likewise. And so I will go to the king, which is against the law; and if I perish, I perish!”
The rest is confirmed history reaffirmed at the execution of the first batch of Nazi Elite War Criminals on 6th October, 1946. [I WOULD WELCOME A CHALLENGE ON THIS OUTRAGEOUS CLAIM…. PLEASE! PLEASE! PLEASE!]
Again the interpretation is up to you but I see this as the Lord will not be stymied in His Redemption Plan. If Esther didn’t respond, God’s Eye would be cast over the rest of the Sons of Jacob.
Does the number Saints praying on an issue affect God’s Action?
I’m open to correction but I read in James 5:16, “Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent (G1754 — energeō = energetic) prayer of a righteous (approved by God) man (singular noun) avails (strong enough to achieve) much.”
That is, it takes only one. This person will share in God’s victory. God prompts many people to pray so that more can participate in the victory. One of the Titles of YHVH is Yehovah Nissi, The Covenant keeping God who delights in being our Banner, around which we can gather.
Does the Pope have more influence than me?
James caries on in 5:17–18, “Elijah was a normal man, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain; and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit.”
As I read this, the Pope may be a good bloke but he carries no more weight with God than you/I do. “For God does not show favour to one man more than to another.” (Romans 2:11)
What is the correct posture?
There are descriptions of many physical postures but there is only one correct frame of mind. It is described in this Post
But is this the only type of Prayer?
Obviously, no. We are invited to make supplication for all things. It is written in James 4:2, “You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask.” But this is not an invitation to name-it-and-claim-it-because-you-want-it. The Grace of God gives you what you need to live a life pleasing to Him, as described in this Post
Elegance of the Logic of the 10 Commandments.
It is written in Colossians 3:5, “Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.” How can covetousness, be idolatry?
When one covets what another has, the unspoken words in one’s heart are, “God has not given me what I deserve.” That is, one elevates one’s self to the level of God. The 10 Commandments come with book-ends.
Commandment 1: “Have no other god.”
Commandment 10: “Don’t make yourself god.”
Addendum
“Do this if you want your prayers answered,” is the advice offered on a multitude of articles, even on this sight, as though God is one of Pavlov’s Dogs. That is actually Witchcraft and would never be offered by me. However there are patterns offered, especially in the OT, that show that those Oldies knew how to pray. A classic is the King Hezekiah’s encounter with Sennacherib, king of Assyria, in 2 Kings 18. One of the props was a letter. Hezekiah took the offending letter to the Temple and prayed an astounding prayer for help. It opened and carried on with Hezekiah boldly declaring the Glory, Majesty, and Ability of Yehovah. Then, at the end he said something along the line of, “Oh, by the way, I’ve got a bit of a problem here.” That guy knew how to pray!!! It’s not the size of the problem in your life that counts. It’s the size of your God in the problem.
Another thing it is important to know is God’s practice of declaring Himself in His Name. This is discussed briefly in this post
A final note — A simile — Missions.
I’ve often heard the Chancellor of Missions thank the Pews for the generosity shown to the Missions Budget. But that entirely misses the point. Contributing to missions is a Gift of God to the contributor to share in the victory of another Righteous Soul being harvested. If you have contributed, there will be people in Heaven because of you. Your reward will be to have a wreath of victory (G4735 — stephanos) to throw before the Throne in Heaven. It is the contributors who should be thanking God!!!
The forgoing has not been presented to convince any reader but to allow a personal decision to be made. There is much more to know about this subject. Perhaps you’ll pay another visit, sometime.
All Glory to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
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