Nothing to man, even to religious man, is so torturous as having to pray with tongue-in-cheek that God-awful prayer of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, when He prayed to His Heavenly Father in Luke 22:42,

“…not My will, but Thine be done.”

Not mine, but Thine! What a raucous prayer rhyme that is for mankind, and yes, even for many religious-kind. They would much rather pray, and would if they had the guts, for it is what they are really thinking and feeling,

“…not Thy Will, but mine be done.”

Ah, there it is. That has a much better rhythm, for it is so melodic and mellow.

For you see, by nature man’s will is set against the will of God. That is the conflict of the ages. It captures the human condition in one sentence. The fact is, sinful, unregenerate man loves sin, and his will is enthralled with it. When it comes to choosing sin, man’s will always casts the pro-sin deciding vote.

Jesus knew about the primacy of the human will in sinful man. He realized that if He was to fulfill the Father’s plan of salvation for a lost humanity, he must ultimately submit His will to the Father’s will. That was where redemption would be won or lost. So He cried out in the agonizing of the Garden of Gethsemane, and in the battle of the human and Divine wills,

“NOT MY WILL, BUT I SUBMIT FATHER MY WILL FULLY TO YOURS.”

Thank God forevermore that the SECOND ADAM was victorious where the FIRST ADAM was defeated and the entire human race with him. The FIRST ADAM saw the forbidden fruit and liked what he saw. But the final choice was made by his will, and only then did Adam put forth his hand, take it, and eat it. The SECOND ADAM saw the cross and shrunk from the coming horror. But He submitted His will in total contrast to the FIRST ADAM, and gave Himself to the Divine will in perfect acquiescence and submission.

Both decisions were made in gardens – THE GARDEN OF EDEN AND THE GARDEN OF GETHSEMANE. The first decision destroyed Paradise, and the second regained Paradise. Hallelujah to the Son of God now and forevermore when He said in John 6:38,

“For I have come down from Heaven, not to do My own will,

but the will of Him Who sent Me.”

Victory won! Battleground secured! Triumph certain! Jesus Christ won where every man has lost:

“THE WAR OF THE WILLS.”

RELIGIOUS HUMANIST’S SOLUTION TO THE WILL PROBLEM

So to accommodate the longing for the primacy of the human will, and yet having to acknowledge the Divine will, modern religionists have ingeniously come up with the idea that allows them to submit to God’s will and to their own wills too. Boy, you say, that sounds like a neat trick. How do they pull that off? Read on!

It has evolved, or should I say devolved so far, that many religionists today believe that they know what the will of God is in every situation. Of course, they see God’s will as totally inclined and favorable to man’s will. It also makes them equal to God, so much so, that this is what they now believe:

“WHEN WE PRAY, WE ARE NOT TO TELL GOD THE PROBLEM, BUT RATHER,

WE ARE TO INFORM HIM OF THE SOLUTION, FOR WE KNOW WHAT

THE WILL OF GOD ISIN EACH AND EVERY SITUATION.”

In other words:

“THEIR WILL AND GOD’S WILL ARE PERFECTLY ONE IN EVERY SITUATION.

TO WILL ONE IS TO WILL THE OTHER. PROBLEM SOLVED, FOR

WHEN THEY SUBMIT TO THEIR OWN WILL, THEY

ARE IN FACT SUBMITTING TO GOD’S

WILL TOO.”

Clever don’t you think? Ingenious! Now they can have it both ways, their way and God’s way, for they are one and the same. They can have their cake and eat it too with every prayer bite. That is why you will never hear them pray,

“Not My Will, But Thine Be Done.”

Never, ever! Nor will you hear them pray,

“Thy Will Be Done.”

Never, ever! Rather:

“THEY DON’T ASK FOR GOD’S WILL TO BE DONE, THEY DECREE IT AND DECLARE

IT FOR THEY ALREADY KNOW WHAT IT IS. THEY DO NOT SO MUCH PRAY AS

 THEY DO MAKE WHAT ARE IN FACT DECLARATIONS AND PRONOUNCEMENTS

AS LITTLE gODS WHICH ARE TOTALLY SLANTED IN THEIR FAVOR.”

A Fairy Tale Religionized 

You see, because they know the will of God in every situation, and they then declare the Will of God, which they call prayer, they fully expect what they declare to come to pass. Walla! It is supposed to work like some sort of PRAYER MAGIC.

For some reason, it kind reminds me of the story of Jack And The Beanstalk. When the cow got dry utters, Jack’s mother said that the cow should be sold in town to get some money to make up for the lost dairy revenue. On the way to the city, Jack instead sold the cow to a man for some magic beans.

When Jack returned home with no cow and no money, Jack had to spill the magic beans which his mother promptly in disgust threw out the window. The magical beans grew a stratospheric bean stalk which Jack climbed more than once, and each time he did he came down with a miracle – a bag of gold, the goose that laid golden eggs, and a self-playing harp. All of that from the magical beans!

Oh yes, there is much more, like the grizzly giant and his merciful wife. But it was all in the magic beans. Much like the MAGIC PRAYERS of Religious Humanism, and each time they climb the prayer stalk,  they are sure to harvest many treasures like health and wealth!

And because they know the will of God, when they pray (decree) it, God cannot resist it when they declare it. He cannot deny Himself, and therefore as comedian/evangelist Jesse Duplantis states,

“I CAN HONESTLY SAY THAT THE LORD HAS DONE EVERYTHING THAT I

HAVE PRAYED FOR.” 

(Jesse Duplantis, “Close Encounters Of The God Kind,” Page 440)

Shazaam! Wow! Batting a 1000% in the prayer box! I better go back to prayer school, because my average is still in the minor leagues compared to that. My, my, I have several levels of prayer strata to climb before I even approach that kind of prayer potency. Jack had MAGIC BEANS. Religious Humanists have MAGIC PRAYERS.

Question:

And how is that they know God’s will so perfectly, that they hit the ball out of the prayer park on every prayer pitch? There is a text in Deuteronomy 29:29 that we do well to quote here, and it says,

“The SECRET THINGS belong to the Lord our God, but the REVEALED

THINGS belong to us and to our sons forever….”

The historic Christian church has always believed in two realities when it comes to God’s will:

-The SECRET WILL OF GOD which God alone knows and no one else.

-The REVEALED WILL OF GOD which God and His family both know.

The first deals with the SECRET COUNCIL of the Godhead, and the second with the BIBLE – THE WORD OF GOD.

In essence it means this:

“THE SECRET WILL OF GOD IS THE RULE OF HIS ACTIONS, AND THE

REVEALED WILL OF GOD IS THE RULE OF OUR ACTIONS.”

However, Religious Humanists believe that they are privy to and savvy on both fronts, and that the SECRET WILL of God is as plain to them as the REVEALED WILL. So then, they don’t have to pray, “NOT MY WILL, BUT THY WILL BE DONE,” for they have the inside scoop on the whole will of God, secret, revealed, or otherwise. As far as they are concerned, there is no mystery to the will of God. They have it cased! As they say in sports, “This is a real game changer!” But we are not playing games, for the fact is, “This is an entire religion changer.”

A SIGH OF FATAL RESIGNATION

In all honesty, when the WORLD hears those phrases being prayed to God, namely,

“Thy Will Be Done,”

and,

“Not My Will, But Thy Will Be Done,”

they have seizures. When many people pray those prayers, why, the very tone of their voices while praying it suggests that they expect it to be something that they really don’t want at all. It is almost a fatalistic sigh. It comes near to negative resignation. It is closer to a begrudging submission. That is why worldlings make prayer to God a last ditch thing, and mostly when the ditch is a foxhole.  

You perhaps have sounded that way once or twice in your life as you prayed with negative thinking that said,

“WELL, OKAY THEN GOD, IF YOU ABSOLUTELY MUST, YOUR WILL BE DONE.

DO YOUR AWFUL THING. WE NEVER WANTED TO EVEN THINK THAT

IT WOULD EVER COME TO THIS.”

That is exactly why in many instances people prefer Religious Humanism to true Christianity which they view as totally encumbered by the “Sadistic Sovereign Will of God.”

GOD’S WILL – THE BEST THERE IS

Oh how the will of God gets bad raps in church and out of church. Much of the above of course is paganism, pure paganism. If we think dark, negative thoughts when we pray for God’s will to be done and not our will, it is then that we are slandering the Heavenly Father, mistrusting Christ, and grieving the Holy Spirit. It is rank blasphemy to say,

“OKAY GOD, YOUR WILL BE DONE, JUST GO AHEAD AND WRECK MY LIFE.”

We are taught in Romans 12:2 that the plans that God has for our lives are good, acceptable, and perfect. It reads,

“And do not be conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by

the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the

will of God is, that which is GOOD, ACCEPTABLE

AND PERFECT.”

I would have to say that the will of God comes highly recommended. In other words, it doesn’t get any better than God’s perfect will. His will is the highest positive, the ultimate possibility, and the best there can ever be. It is the most God-honoring prayer possible when we pray as Jesus taught us to pray in Matthew 6:10,

“Thy will be done.”

Why? Because God’s will alone is state of the art, top of the line, and head of the class when it comes to wills. Nothing can best it, and everything else is grossly inferior to it, though unregenerate man sees it just the opposite.

In short:

“IT IS THE PERFECT PRAYER FOR GOD’S PERFECT WILL TO BE DONE IN

OUR LIVES AND ON EARTH. IT IS THE ONLY PRAYER THAT WE

CAN PRAY WITH ABSOLUTE CONFIDENCE.”

Because God’s will alone is perfect, it is the only safe will to pray for, and the only safe will to be in. To pray to God, “Thy will be done,” is the best and only secure prayer to base our lives upon. The truth is this:

“GOD INTENDS INFINITELY BETTER FOR US THAN WE COULD EVER

INTEND FOR OURSELVES.”

Why? Simply because He alone is THE ALL-KNOWING AND ALL-WISE GOD! He is the all-knowing and all-wise God without the least mixture of misunderstanding or shortsightedness. He is so wise, that we read in Job 4:18,

“He puts no trust even in His servants; and against His angels

he charges error.” 

In other words. When it comes to wise choices, we are not to be trusted, and compared to God, His own angels come up short in the wisdom pool. If you will:

“GOD KNOWS HOW UNWISE WE ARE AND THEREFORE DOES NOT CONSULT US.

AND HE CHARGES HIS OWN ANGELS WITH FOLLY, AND HE DOESN’T

ASK  FOR THEIR ADVICE EITHER.”

Dear Lord, if You don’t trust us a lick, who in the world are we to trust ourselves. Our foolishness showed itself early on in our lives as kids. In and of ourselves it has never been our strong suit. My antics ranged from digging and crawling through unsupported dirt tunnels underground, to riding up the chain of bale elevators in the barn to the loft. Not exactly small-caliber foolishness. I mean, when we do stupid things, we really hit the big time. And we take curtain calls from our as-dumb buddies which embolden us for more idiocy. We encouraged each other as co-fools. Frankly, we all began life in this world with a track record of foolish, dangerous, and fatal stuff.

No wonder God tells us in Proverbs 5:1-2,

“My son, give attention to My wisdom, incline your heart to My

understanding.” “That you have observe discretion, and

your lips may reserve knowledge.”

There was an old TV show entitled, “Father Knows Best.” That was a good program, and elevated the role of earthly fathers in our lives. But when it comes to God our Father, we seem to doubt at times if He really does know best. I must confess that I have even on occasion questioned His wisdom, and have even given Him some advice of my own because I think that I know best. We have all done it at one time or another.

Nonetheless, God will never lead us astray. Only God knows perfectly what is best for our lives, even though there may be those moments that it seems like the worst. Then suddenly and miraculously, right in the difficult position where he has placed us, against all that is natural, we find ourselves gathering grapes from thorns, and figs from thistles, and comfort from difficulty.

STORY

Our dear daughter Mary Jane is a devoted Christian. She has not had an easy walk by any means. After fifteen years of marriage, her husband abandoned her for another woman. The son that she had with her husband, our beloved grandson who is anything but easy to love, turned into a demon seed. He has a vile mouth and a viler spirit. He is a weed addict with marijuana smoke constantly coming out of nothing more than an empty pile of fragile pick-up-sticks.

She has been tempted more than once to disown her son, and leave this 20 year old son of misery to fend for himself. But she can’t, and continues to embrace him and provide for him a home and a loving mother’s heart. She knows that somehow this is God’s will for her life, and she cannot run from it.

Then just the other day, her son’s girlfriend came out of the blue weeping to Mary about her life. The love that Mary had sowed in her life began to bear fruit. Mary began to gather grapes from thorns as she led this precious girl to Jesus Christ as her Lord and Savior. It was a miracle, and God is up to something huge.

God’s wisdom always warrants that all of His leadings and actions be trusted as the best, even in the midst of the worst. Only God can take what feels to be death and turn it into the seedbed for life. God at times visits us with some heavy afflictions, and because of His all-governing love, wisdom, and power, we can patiently endure it. He turns everything into good, including the bad, for those who love Him. (Romans 8:28) His will is perfect, but by no means easy.             

NEVER PRAY – IF IT BE YOUR WILL.

At least, not if you don’t want to ripped off of the good life. Religious Humanists become very contentious and even irate when they hear someone say or pray the words to God,

“Thy will be done, not mine!”

But even far worse,

“If it be Your will.”

I am not exaggerating, for those words are looked upon a curse words. Religious Humanists today develop a major religious rash when they encounter the words, “If the Lord wills.” Prominent charismatic figures such as Benny Him, Frederick Price, and many others are of this school of thought. They believe categorically the following:

“IT IS UNBIBLICAL TO PRAY, ‘IF THE LORD WILLS.’”

Entire ecclesiastical fellowships and churches are taught never to pray these words. Their entire theology is built on the rejection of that prayer. That prayer language is literally banned by thousands of modern-day Religious Humanists. It is denounced as anathema. It is considered a big no-no, because it allegedly creates doubt and weakness in faith. Religious Humanism!

Evangelist Benny Hinn is world renown for his healing crusades. Benny Hinn says,

“NEVER, EVER, EVER GO TO THE LORD AND SAY, ‘IF IT BE THY WILL’…

DON’T ALLOW SUCH FAITH DESTROYING WORDS TO BE

SPOKEN FROM YOUR MOUTH.” (Benny Hinn, “Rise

And Be Healed,” 1991)      

Frederick Price is pastor and founder of Crenshaw Christian Center in Los Angeles, CA. Price claims he was brought up in a Jehovah’s Witness family. After he converted to Christianity he experienced many different denominations. This was all left behind him after he read Kenneth Hagin’s booklet The Authority Of The Believer. This all developed him into being one of the chief exponents of the “name it and claim it”, “say it and frame it,” “speak it and keep it” movement.

Quoting Fred Price:

“IF YOU HAVE TO SAY, ‘IF IT BE THY WILL,’ OR, ‘THY WILL BE DONE,’

IF YOU HAVE TO SAY THAT, THEN YOU ARE CALLING GOD A

FOOL BECAUSE HE IS THE ONE WHO TOLD US

TO ASK.” (Fred Price, “Ever Increasing Faith

Program,” TBN, 1990)

*******

Let’s go now to the Religious Humanist’s denunciation and denial of the phrase,

“If the Lord wills.”

Their teachings in this regard are flat-out rejections of and contradictions to the clear and abundant Word of God. Two truths cannot contradict each other and still be truth. If they could, then two contradictions could be equally true at the same time. But Religious Humanists flat out contradict the Bible and call it truth.

THE APOSTLE JAMES      

The Lord commands all of us in James 4:15, and commands us to speak (including prayer) in the following unmistakable words,

“…you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we shall live and also

do this or that.’”

That is a very, very broad statement in that it encompasses all of life and everything we do.

FIRST, we should say,

“IF THE LORD WILLS, WE SHALL LIVE….”

What is the opposite of LIVE? DIE!If the Lord will’s we shall live! If the Lord wills, we shall die! That is the long and the short of it, because:

“IT IS THE LORD WHO EXTENDS CERTAIN PEOPLE’S LIVES ON EARTH,

AND IT IS THE LORD WHO  SHORTENS OTHER PEOPLE’S

LIVES ON EARTH.”

Listen:

“ALL OF OUR LIVES HANG BY A SLENDER THREAD, AND GOD CAN AND

DOES SNIP IT ANY SECOND THAT HE WILLS.”

Frankly:

“GOD GIVES US ALL JUST ENOUGH TIME TO CONFORM OUR LIVES TO HIS

WILL, BUT NOT MORE THAN ENOUGH. WE HAVE NO TIME TO WASTE.”

If the Lord wills, we shall live. This is a life or death prayer! God wants to hear it from us as a way of humble and dependent life! We are not to presume one more day, one more minute, or one more second of life. James tells us that whether we LIVE or DIE is totally up to the Lord, not us.

People, even religious people, walk around like they have the world by the tail. They are in control of their lives, and have life in their hip pocket. Those who refuse to pray the prayer of James are too cocky and proud to humble themselves into admitting that they are not in control, God is. They have a god complex. Hey, I am in the fittest shape ever, and I am not going to die. Trouble is, in my 73 years of life, I have seen folks die in great shape. They never had a sick day in their life, and God took them.

Nothing is automatic or certain or guaranteed in life when it comes to life’s longevity in this world. We had our 55^th high school class reunion September 7, 2013, and besides the shock of not being able to recognize most of them, in addition, many of our classmates had died many years ago. We do not know what a day will bring, or, whether it will be our last day on earth. We are guaranteed nothing, can assume nothing, and cannot take the next moment for granted.

We cannot and must not count on life, breath, or health. We can only rely completely upon God’s gracious will to give us life, breath, and health. That is the way is must shake down every Divinely blessed minute. That is what James is saying. What we are sure of is that it is all completely in the Lord’s hands, or as the Psalmist says in Psalm 31:15,

“My times are in Thy hand….”

Thank Him for every new day, for every breath, for every heartbeat, for every step, for it is a gift from God. We are living each day anew upon the “THE GRACE OF THE DIVINE IF.”

We should pray as little children all our life long:

“NOW I LAY ME DOWN TO SLEEP,

I PRAY THEE LORD MY SOUL TO KEEP;

IF I SHOULD DIE BEFORE I WAKE,

I PRAY THEE LORD MY SOUL TO TAKE.

SECOND, James goes on to say that it is up to the Lord whether we shall do this or do that, or do neither. We should say,

“IF THE LORD WILLS, WE SHALL DO THIS OR THAT,OR NOT DO

THIS OR THAT.”

Of course, the opposite of DOING is NOT DOING. Whether we LIVE or DIE, DO or DON’T DO, is the Lord’s choice ultimately, not ours. Hear it:

“WE MAKE NO DECREES ABOUT ANYTHING, BUT TOTALLY DEPEND ON

GOD FOR EVERYTHING.”

Did you see it? Do you get it? Really? We may not walk around on our skinny little hind legs like Mexican Chihuahuas barking orders and acting much bigger than we are. That is what has happened in much of modern religion, and it is a tragedy. It is false, fake, and full of SELF-EXAGGERATION and SELF-EXULTATION. We ought to say, “If the Lord wills,” says the Apostle James. What part of that don’t we understand?

EXAMPLE

No doubt the Midianites, with their powerful and innumerable warriors, could safely presume that they would easily rout Gideon with his three hundred men with their lamps and pitchers and trumpets and torches. Hey, they had this thing in the bag! It would be a piece of cake. No problem! They had this battle whipped before it started.

I got news for you, and that is that the tiny minority routed the vast majority, and not the other way around as one might presume. In fact, it was an incredible sight and sound to behold I tell you. You can and should read it for yourself in Judges 7:19-23. America, presume upon God for nothing, but confess and totally rely upon His mercy and might for everything.

It was President John Adams who said:

“WE RECOGNIZE NO SOVEREIGN BUT GOD, AND NO KING BUT CHRIST.”

I mean, take a survey of the many battles in Bible history, and you will find Divine sovereignty and providence takes great pleasure in decimating the confident and the presumptuous. In fact, in many of the great battles ever fought, we shall find as many victories by the less number over the greater, as by a greater number over the less.

Hear it! It was President Andrew Jackson who said:

“THE BIBLE IS THE ROCK UPON WHICH THIS REPUBLIC RESTS.”

America has banned the Bible, and her sure foundation has been removed. She had better know:

“IF GOD WILLS, AMERICA SHALL LIVE, BUT IF NOT, AMERICA SHALL DIE.” 

And:

“IF GOD IS FOR US, WHO CAN BE AGAINST US, BUT IF GOD IS AGAINST US,

IT DOESN’T MAKE A HILL OF BEANS OF DIFFERENCE WHO IS FOR US?!”

THE APOSTLE PAUL

The Apostle Paul lived and spoke that very same way, as evidenced by the fact that when he had gone to the synagogue in Ephesus and reasoned with the Jews, he made such a good impression that he was asked to stay longer. He said in Acts 18:21,

“…I will return to you again if God wills….”

And again we read in Hebrews 6:3,

“And this we shall do, if God permits.”

The Bible is full of the “Sovereign If.” If God wills! If God permits! Hello! Heaven to earth! Bible to Religious Humanists! Are you reading God’s Word? No, you are not reading the full counsel of God! You are floating around in your Disneyworld Religion which refuses to submit to God’s sovereign and perfect will. But the Bible is clearer than clear on this critical matter. Run Dick run, go get the ball. It is as plain as a first-grade reader.      

Yet, Religious Humanists wouldn’t be caught dead with those words on their lips, even though God alone wills our first and last breaths as well as every breath in between. Religious Humanists often walk around like they have life, the universe, the future and every circumstance in the palm of their hands. They will never say or pray,

“If it be God’s will,”

or,

“If it be Thy will,”

or,

“If the Lord wills.”

or,

“The Lord willing.”

DEUS VULT– THE LORD WILLING

There are no “Ifs” in Religious Humanism. Why? Because Religious Humanists have the last word, not God! In fact, they are God’s Word! When they speak, declare and order, it is done! American radio stations used to sign off for the day with the National Anthem,

“Oh Say Can You See!”

Religious Humanist radio stations have their own Humanist Anthem with which they sign off on every issue,

“I Say, And It Is So!”

Christians sign off for the day in this spirit,

“Until Tomorrow, Deus Vult.”

Throughout the centuries, it has been common for Christians to sign their letters to each other with the Latin word abbreviation D.V. Those two letters stand for the Latin “DEUS VULT” which means, “The Lord Willing,” which really means “If The Lord Wills.” Religious Humanists today refuse such an invocation, salutation, or even implication.

We must think, say, and pray, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that!” It is a Divine command. God orders it. Contrariwise, there are those in modern day Religious Humanism who actually practice and teach that when we pray, we should demand of God to give us our rights. Demanding and commanding God! I was watching one of these Religious Humanist evangelists do exactly that on television as he raised his hand toward Heaven, pointed his finger at God and said,

“God, I command you!”

El nutso! It’s off the charts! I remember saying to that fella, “You better back off dude, God is the Commander, and you are the commandee! And if you continue to try and push God around, He may well become the Consumer, and you will be the consumee, as He sends fire from Heaven to burn some truth in your haughty head.”

THE GREAT DAMAGES BEING DONE  

This commanding and controlling spirit corrupts so much of what Religious Humanists today call prayer. It is not prayer at all, for it turns prayer into an affront to God. It is not seeking God, but rather ordering God around like He is some sort of Kool-Aid and Cookies God who distributes His goodies upon demand.

The denial of this one Bible truth, namely the refusal to pray, “If it be Your will,” has opened up Religious Humanism’s followers to more heresies, extremes, confusions, hurts, and fatal damages than anything else I know of.

I have more than once dealt with people who commanded the cancer in a loved one’s life to leave in Jesus’ name. The person died and so did the commander’s faith, all because they were taught never to pray, “If the Lord wills.” Then in many instances they even blamed the dead one for not having enough faith, or having sin in his life, or both.

I have seen entire churches lose their faith and disband because they refused to submit to God and thereby played God. And when their commands were soundly disobeyed by God, their faith was destroyed. Hansel’s and Gretel’s faith was blasted, and they couldn’t find their way home to God because the faith-fragments were eaten by the enemies of their souls.

PLAYING DADDY AND MOMMY

Christians petition God. Religious Humanists order God. In Christianity, man submits to God’s will. In Religious Humanism, God submits to man’s will. In Christianity, man asks God and God responds with either “Yes” or “No” or “Later.” In Religious Humanism, man orders God and God must say “Yes” and do it now.

Of course, that is never how it was in our home. There were many times as a father that I said “No” when my children declared “Yes.” As a matter of fact, a significant percentage of the time my “No” trumped their “Yes,” even though like all kids they would try to whine the “No” back to, “Oh, alright then.” I don’t know how many times I declined their request for this activity or for that goofing-off because they had to do their homework. I had the feeling at times that they imagined that the homework would somehow get itself done before they would have to do it.

In summary, in Christianity, Father knows best. In Religious Humanism, His children know best. Otherwise why would they refuse to submit to Him in prayer by saying, “If it be Your will.” Religious Humanists remind me of children dressing up in their parents’ clothes and playing house, as they assume the roles of Dad and Mom. It is cute and even hilarious as they stumble around in shoes big enough to put over their heads. However, it is not cute when Religious Humanists assume the role of the Heavenly Father which is infinitely too big for any human head. It is tragic!

Let me clue you in on something here. When you can’t see Biblical truth and it is right there before your very eyes, or when you see Biblical truth and it bugs you because it won’t fit into your belief system, it is the indicator that your belief system is out of order and out of balance. And truth out of balance will always be error. Of course, you can always make the Bible truth say something that it is not saying, so that you won’t have to change your belief system. This is deception at work.

BOYCOTTING GOD’S WILL – WHY?

Why do Religious Humanists and their leadership refuse to say or pray, “If the Lord wills?” I think once you read why, you will see how obvious it all is.

FIRST of all because it popularizes their ministries, enlarges their followings, and enriches their coffers. People love to support with their dollars those who tell them that they can unconditionally have from God whatever they want, without having to add that humiliating, degrading and very tentative phrase, “If  the Lord wills.” People devour this false teaching!

Religious Humanists preach Christmas every day of people’s lives! God is Santa Claus 365 days of every year. In Religious Humanism God is jolly old Saint Nick asking Christians, “What do you want for Christmas? Come, sit on Santa God’s knee and tell Santa God what your will is for Me. Just give me your list. I’ll take care of it!” Christianity is man bowing down before the throne of God and saying, “What do You want me to do Lord Jesus, I am at Your command, and by Your power I will do it.”

SECOND, and even more importantly, why do Religious Humanists detest praying to God, “If the Lord wills?” I’ll tell you why. Because ultimately:

“IT PUTS GOD IN CONTROL AND NOT MAN IN CONTROL.”

Precisely! Religious Humanists want the throne. After all, who is the boss around here? They want to run their lives and the whole universe for that matter according to their own agenda. Total control! It is all inextricably bound up with man’s age-old human desire to be the master of his fate, and the captain of his soul. Kings of the cosmos! Lords of the universe! Judge and jury! Frank Sinatra’s “I did it my way,” only this time with a thin veneer of religion brushed over the top. Religious Humanism!

EXAMPLE

There is an inscription that appears on the west wall of Winchester, Cathedral in England. It reads like this:

“THAT WAY THOU THAT PRAYEST – THIS WAY THOU THAT PASSEST BY.”

The background of the Winchester inscription is most significant and fascinating. Many years ago, way back in 1632, a passageway was cut in the southwest corner of this great cathedral. The passageway was necessary because over the centuries, people had gotten into the habit of taking a shortcut through the nave of the cathedral and then out of a side door in the south wing. Merely using the cathedral as a walk-through might not have been so bad, except for the insensitivity of thoughtless people who were carting their produce from the market with them.

The traffic and the litter became so bad that the Bishop of Winchester was forced to take action. Thus this passageway was carved out so people could pass through the southwest corner of the church without disturbing the worshipers in the sanctuary. Therefore over the passageway you will find those words, “That way thou that prayest – this way thou that passest by.”

These are exactly the kind of signs that we need posted in the religious world today. Over the door of Christianity the sign should read:

“THAT WAY, THOSE WHO DESIRE TO PRAY.”

Over the door of Religious Humanism the sign should read:

“THIS WAY, THOSE WHO WANT TO RUN THE SHOW.”

THIRD, then there are times that we refuse to pray for God’s will to be done, because we know deep down the thing that we want, God will not give it to us because it is completely contrary to His Word. I recall vividly the married man who was having an affair. He said to me that he was praying to God that if He did want him to have this other woman, then God would have to remove her. He was in fact praying from his own will and not for God’s will. He would not pray, “Thy Will Be Done,” for he knew that what he was doing was not God’s will in the first place. His prayer was a farce.

Like the little boy who was overheard saying in his nightly prayers, “Please God, make Boulder the capital of Colorado.” When he had said “Amen,” his mother who overheard her son’s prayer asked him, “Son, why did you ask God for that?” “Because,” he said, “that’s what I put down on my exam paper.” The young son was asking God to create an examination fantasyland for him by changing the capital of Colorado before the teacher got around to correcting his exam. Amen! *

*Vast segments of this teaching are taken from Bob Klingenberg’s book, “Modern Christianity Corrupted.” However, there are no copyright restrictions to this teaching. God bless!