THE PURPOSE OF PRAYER

One of the most common and yet most glorious expressions about prayer given by God Himself is found throughout the Bible, such as in Psalm 27:8,

“When Thou didst say, ‘Seek My face,’ my heart said to Thee, ‘Thy face Lord, I shall seek.’”

And again in Psalm 105:4,

“Seek the Lord and His strength; seek His face continually.”

The glory of prayer here is called SEEKING THE FACE OF GOD. This becomes so precious and powerful when we begin to understand what the Holy Spirit is calling us to here.

Let this sink in deep:

“PRAYER IS NOT FIRST OF ALL SEEKING THE HANDS OF GOD, THAT IS,

ASKING THINGS FROM GOD.”

Or again:

“PRAYER IS NOT FIRST OF SEEKING THE FEET OF GOD,THAT IS ASKING

HIM TO GO AND DO SOMETHING FOR YOU.”

Rather and most pointedly so:

“PRAYER IS FIRST OF ALL SEEKING THE FACE OF GOD, THAT IS, FACE-TO-FACE

FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD.”

A. Prayer – Not Primarily Seeking Things

I know that lots and lots of folks young and old have this concept of prayer, namely, that it is the means of getting things from God, or getting help from God when times are tough. This is the general pedestrian concept of prayer. If you will, they only pray to God at red lights. However, how many red lights are there on a highway. They may go hundreds of miles before the next prayer. And moreover, prayer for them either works or doesn’t work depending on whether they do or they don’t get from God what they ask.

But really now, what kind of relationship would you have with someone if the only time you sought him out was to get something from him or to get you out of trouble? There are people like that, for I have met them. That is not being a friend but it is being a freeloader and a user of people. Maybe you even go into a poor-me act that if you don’t receive what you are asking, your life will be over and you will die. That is not friendship but EXTORTION.

Is that how we treat God? The only time He hears from us is if we are in need or in a crisis? That is not prayer, but only CRISIS MANAGEMENT. God does not want first of all want to be our PROBLEM SOLVER or our CRISIS MANAGER. I am not saying that He does not care about our cares, for that is the farthest statement from the truth. God tells us in I Peter 5:7,

“…casting all your anxiety upon Him, for He cares for you.”

That is all part of prayer, but if that is all we do, we are really making God a baseball catcher as we throw our fastballs, curve balls, and sinkers at Him. God does not want first of all to be our backstop but our friend.

So the main point of prayer is this:

“GOD WANTS MUCH MORE THAN TO CARE FOR US, HE WANTS US.”

B. Prayer – The Fellowship of Joy

This is what God longs for – intimate fellowship with His sons and daughters. I am reminded of the words in Song of Solomon 2:14 KJV,

“…let me see thy countenance, and let me hear thy voice….”

In other words:

“TALK TO ME, AND LOOK AT ME WHEN YOU DO.”

It really bugs me when I am talking to someone, and they avoid looking at me or they are looking elsewhere at something or someone more important. God feels the same way! That is just one of the reasons we pray with our eyes closed, so we don’t get distracted and we can focus on Him.

And according to Psalm 105:4, the Lord wants to fellowship with us all the time, as He says,

“Seek My face continually.”

This is really the most glorious purpose of our salvation, namely, what the Apostle John writes in I John 1:3-4,

“What we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, that you may

have FELLOWSHIP with us; and indeed our FELLOWSHIP is

with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.”

“And these things we write, so that our joy may be made complete.”

That is to say:

“PRAYER IS THE MOST GLORIOUS  FELLOWSHIP THAT MAN CAN HAVE ON EARTH,

AND THE MOST GLORIOUS JOY THAT THE HUMAN HEART CAN EXPERIENCE.”

The old hymn captures it:

“WHAT A FELLOWSHIP, WHAT A JOY DIVINE,

LEANING ON THE EVERLASTING ARMS;

WHAT A BLESSEDNESS, WHAT A PEACE IS MINE,

LEANING ON THE EVERLASTING ARMS.”

Can we even imagine a state of the FULLNESS OF JOY? A JUBILEE OF JOY! That only exists in movies and Lion King’s “Hakuna Matata?” I’ve got great and awesome news, and that is we don’t have to imagine a state of the fullness of joy, for we can experience it in fellowship with God through Jesus Christ here and now. We read in Psalm 16:11,

“In Thy presence is FULNESS OF JOY; IN THY RIGHT HAND THERE

ARE PLEASURES FOREVERMORE.”

The Apostle John says:

“SO THAT OUR JOY MAY BE MADE COMPLETE.”

God assures us:

“IN PRAYER FELLOWSHIP WITH HIM THERE IS FULLNESS OF JOY, JOY THAT

FILLS THE SOUL EVEN AS GOD FILLS THE UNIVERSE.”

You say, “That sounds too good to be true!” But that doesn’t mean that it isn’t true. Everything about God from our limited understanding seems too good to true, but that is what makes Him the glorious God that He is!

The Word of God is not talking here about a surface, lighthearted, superficial laughter that plays upon the surface of the soul, and then vanishes. We read about the fool’s joy in Ecclesiastes 7:5-6,

“It is better to listen to the rebuke of a wise man, than for

one to listen to the song of fools.”

“For as the crackling of thorn bushes under a pot, so is the

laughter of fool, and this too is vanity.”

That kind of joked-up and juiced-up laughter is a counterfeit joy, it is empty and fleeting, and all you end up with is a bunch of thorn-bush ashes underneath a moonshine still. It happens every night in bars and on TV sitcoms.

No, seeking God’s face in prayer continually immerses us in the eternal festival of God’s perfect, mature, and full joy. This is not a HAPPINESS that has starts and stops depending on HAPPENINGS. This is GOD’S ETERNAL JOY, even though many do not think of God as a JOYFUL GOD, when in fact He is the source of all true joy. And if we haven’t found that to be true, it is because we are spending too much time with REALITY SHOWS ON TV, and not enough lingering time in the presence of God. If you want a dime’s worth of joy, put in a dime’s worth of prayer. What you sow you reap, even in prayer.

C. Prayer – A Way of Life

Let me repeat Psalm 105:4,

“Seek the Lord and His strength; SEEK HIS FACE CONTINUALLY.”

If that isn’t a way of life, then I don’t know what is! God does not just want to be a SCHEDULED GOD, though certainly schedules are needed lest every aspect of our lives become chaotic. But rather, God desires in His relationship with his children to be ALL INCLUSIVE – THE ALWAYS GOD! Does that even begin to compute with us? Prayer is a LIFESTYLE and not just a PRAYER BREAK like a COFFEE BREAK.

We serve the God Who loves us so much that there is no possibility of us annoying Him with FELLOWSHIP OVERKILL! That may be the way we feel about some people, but that is not the way God feels about us. In essence:

“GOD WANTS IN ON IT ALL, OR HE WILL CONSIDER HIMSELF NOT TO

BE PART OF US AT ALL.”

With God it is all or nothing, as in:

“IF HE IS NOT LORD OF A LL, HE IS NOT OUR LORD AT ALL.”

The key word in this lifestyle of prayer is this – FELLOWSHIP! (I John 1:3-4) Yes, PRAYER IS FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD! And you see, FELLOWSHIP, to be true FELLOWSHIP, cannot be a MONOLOGUE, but must be a DIALOGUE. There can be no fellowship in a monologue relationship. Prayer is not a one-way street but a two-way street between heaven and earth. A one way street is not prayer which in fact would sink the FELLOW-SHIP.

Prayer is not just briefly dropping some words off at the Throne of Grace and then leaving as quickly as we came. There is an old chorus that goes like this:

“A little talk with Jesus makes it right, all right,

a little talk with Jesus makes it right, all right;

in trials of every kind, praise God, I always find,

a little talk with Jesus makes it right, all right.”

When I was a young boy, that chorus gave me the impression that a little quickie prayer when times are tough, is all that God requires. I guess we could say that a little talk with Jesus is better than no talk at all, but it conveys the wrong concept of prayer. God wants to share His heart with us, and He wants us to share our hearts with Him.

In my marriage counseling over the years, there was and is a common complaint that wives have about their husbands, and that is – that they don’t COMMUNICATE – EMOTE – REVEAL – SHARE THEIR HEARTS. Wives need to SHARE AND BE SHARED WITH ON THE HEART LEVEL, and not just ON THE HEAD LEVEL. They need to touch and be touched at the deepest level of thinking and feeling and desiring. They need more, much more than quick intellectual and opinionated grunts and burps. That is not fellowship and will ALSO sink the ship of marriage more often than not.

Do you get it? It is no less true with God! We sink our FELLOW-SHIP with God by being surface and shallow and short. Too many of our prayers are brief recordings that play over and over again. God wants to be our best friend and confidant, not a casual acquaintance Who never gets from us more than prayer cliches. Hear me:

“WE CAN SO EASILY TELL GOD TOO LITTLE, BUT WE CAN NEVER

TELL HIM TOO MUCH.”

D. Prayer – The Strength of Life

On and on the days go by and the issues do not become more simple but more complex. They can take our strength and breath away! That is why the Psalmist commands us in Psalm 105:4,

“Seek the Lord and HIS STRENGTH; seek His face continually.”

I am reminded of the words in Luke 18:1 KJV,

“And He (Jesus) spake a parable unto them to this end, that Men ought

ALWAYS TO PRAY AND FAINT NOT.”

And the well-known Isaiah 40:31,

“Yet those who WAIT FOR the Lord will GAIN NEW STRENGTH, they will mount

up with wings as eagles, they will run and not get TIRED, they will

walk and not become WEARY.”

Note the words CONTINUALLY – ALWAYS – WAIT, as well as the words STRENGTH – FAINT – TIRED – WEARY. Old strength will not do for the next moment, the next breath, or the next step. We need God’s new strength every second of our life. The point is that apart from God we have no strength, none at all, not for one second.

That is why our Lord says to us in John 15:5,

“For apart from Me you can do NO-THING.”

Yes, that’s right, NO-THING! I am sure that you have heard the phrase, “Weak as a puppy.” That may be, but a puppy can still squeak and squirm around and find mother’s breasts. But we by ourselves are weaker than puppies and more helpless than babies.

Perhaps that is why the Psalmist says in Psalm 121:1-2,

“I will lift up my eyes to the mountains; from whence cometh my help?”

“My help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth.”

Frankly apart from the Lord, the Psalmist can only lift up his eyes and not much else. I have been there, when I could lift up nothing but only my eyes, and that barely. We are helpless apart from the Lord our Helper. We literally not only live from breath to breath, but from prayer to prayer.

SUMMARY EXAMPLE OF PRAYER THE WAY OF LIFE

This letter was smuggled out of communist China:

“I am a teenager and I did not believe in any God, in any heaven, in any Hell, in any Savior, in anything at all. One day I accidentally tuned in to your transmission on the radio. At first I was tempted to turn it off. Good Communists do not believe in God. But I found the program interesting, so I tuned in again and again. Now I believe in Christ. But I have two questions.

The first one: Does God accept anybody from Communist China? In your broadcast you speak about the church, but I am in China where we have almost no churches.” (The young man did not know how many unofficial churches exist in China, or that all those who love Christ are the church.)

Then he asked his second question: “Would you please teach me to pray? You start every program with prayer, and you end with prayer. I would like to pray, but I don’t know how.”

The young man had never been in church, but he said that he imagined that prayer to God meant, “To speak (to God) the whole day, so that after everything you say, you might be able to say, “Amen.’”

What a beautiful definition of prayer! (From Voice of the Martyrs – Extreme Devotion)

The point exactly! Our whole life each day should be prayer-fellowship with God, so that at the end of each day, it would be more than fitting to simply say, “AMEN.”

THE PROTECTION OF PRAYER

The children of Israel provoked Jehovah God over and over again by worshiping strange gods and sacrificing unto them. They built high places of worship to them, and bowed before them in unholy adoration. And God says to them in Deuteronomy 32:37-38 KJV,

“And He shall say, ‘Where are their gods, their rock in whom they have

trusted?” “Which did eat the fat of their sacrifices, and drank the

wine of their drink offerings? Let them rise and help you,

AND BE YOUR PROTECTION.”

The point being this:

“WHEN A PERSON OR A PEOPLE OR A NATION FORSAKE GOD, ONE OF THE

FIRST THINGS THAT GOD DOES IS TO WITHDRAW HIS

PROTECTION FROM THEM.”

God says to Israel:

“YOU HAVE GONE AFTER OTHER GODS, SO WHERE IS YOUR PROTECTION NOW?”

It is of course a rhetorical question. The answer is, “There is no real protection apart from God.” Israel and Judah learned that the hard way. Assyria and Babylon, their conquering enemies, became the icons for God’s protection withdrawn. America is in the process of being taught what happens to those who turn their backs on God and on His Christ. America’s true SHIELD has always been God. Now America is about to find out what it is really like to be SHIELDLESS in a world of anti-American and fiendish terrorism and Islamic extremism.

Little do we understand how much we need the protection of the Lord in this violent and dangerous world, until something unspeakable happens to us or to someone close to us. The psalmist had an acute sense of his vulnerability and the desperate need of God’s protection in his life. Why else would he constantly cry out for it? He uses different words, but they mean the same thing. Here are just a few of them. Psalm 5:11,

“But let all those who take refuge in Thee be glad, let them ever sing for joy;

and mayest Thou SHELTER – PROTECT them, that those who love

Thy name may exult in Thee.”

And Psalm 25:20,

“GUARD – PROTECT my soul and deliver me; do not let me be ashamed,

for I take refuge in Thee.”

Again, Psalm 59:1,

“Deliver me from my enemies, O my God; SET ME SECURELY ON HIGH AWAY –

PROTECT ME – from those who rise up against me.”

A. God – Our Glorious Spiritual Protector

Jesus not only practiced what He preached, he prayed what He taught us to pray. He tells us to pray this in Matthew 6:13,

“And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”

In John 17:15 He became more specific in this regard,

“I do not ask Thee (Father) to take them out of the world, but to KEEP –

PROTECT them from the evil one.”

In that great chapter of the Apostle Paul about the weapons of our spiritual warfare against Satan and his armies, Paul tells us in Ephesians 6:18,

“With all prayer and petition at all times in the Spirit….”

The strategy therefore being AT ALL TIMES in our warfare against the devil:

“NEVER STOP PRAYING FOR PROTECTION FROM SATAN, FOR HE

NEVER STOPS ATTACKING.”

Hear it:

“GAPS OF PRAYERLESSNESS OFFER UP OUR SOULS TO THE DEVIL LIKE BLANK

CHECKS FOR HIM TO WRITE ON AND CASH IN.”

For:

“WHILE IDLENESS MAY BE THE DEVIL’S WORKSHOP, PRAYERLESS IS

HIS CROWNING JEWEL.”

If we do not constantly pray to God for protection from our arch-enemy and his armies:

“WE WILL FALL LIKE GRASS BEFORE THE MOWER, AND WE WILL BE CUT

DOWN AND SLAUGHTERED WITHOUT RESISTANCE.”

Protected are those:

“WHO HAVE ENLIGHTENED BRAINS TO UNDERSTAND THEIR CONSTANT WARFARE

AGAINST THE ENEMY OF THEIR SOULS, AND HAVE CONSTANTLY BOWED

KNEES OF PRAYER POWER TO DRIVE HIM AWAY.”

And oh what glorious prayer protection we have in the Lord indeed! Listen now to how God’s protection is described in the Bible. It is really something! We read in Psalm 59:17,

“O my strength, I will sing praises to Thee, for God is our STRONGHOLD.”

Or again in Psalm 18:2,

“The Lord is my rock and my FORTRESS and my deliverer, my God, my rock,

in Whom I take refuge.”

And Psalm 46:1,

“God is our REFUGE and strength, a very present help in time of trouble.”

Hear me:

“WE CANNOT HAVE A SAFER AND STRONGER STRONGHOLD THAN

OUR ALMIGHTY GOD.’

Again:

“WE CANNOT FIND A MORE FORTIFIED FORTRESS THAN OUR ALMIGHTY GOD.”

And:

“WE CANNOT BE IN A MORE SECURE REFUGE THAN IN OUR ALMIGHTY GOD.”

Why?

“BECAUSE GOD OUR STRONGHOLD – FORTRESS – REFUGE IS IMPREGNABLE,

IMPENETRABLE, UNBREACHABLE, AND INDESTRUCTIBLE.”

Martin Luther wrote the song lyrics:

“A MIGHTY FORTRESS IS OUR GOD, A BULWARK NEVER FAILING.”

A BULWARK is a strong defense, a rampart, and you cannot get a more solid defense than God. Hear it:

“NO BULLY BEELZEBUB IS GOING TO BUST INTO OUR BULWARK.”

Which is why Fanny Crosby wrote:

“SAFE IN THE ARMS OF JESUS, SAFE ON HIS GENTLE BREAST,

THERE BY HIS LOVE O’ERSHADOWED , SWEETLY MY SOUL SHALL REST.”

“SAFE IN THE ARMS OF JESUS, SAFE FROM CORRODING CARE,

SAFE FROM THE WORLD’S TEMPTATIONS, SIN CANNOT HARM ME THERE.”

And yet I continue to hear preachers, evangelists, and believers preach, evangelize, and talk like God’s kids are NON-STRONGHOLDED, NON-FORTRESSED, NON-REFUGED SITTING DUCKS for Satan’s hunting fun. I guess all of this talk in the Bible about being STRONGHOLDED and FORTESSED and REFUGED by God is just a lot of war games and hot air.

Some Christians are always talking about, because that is what they have been taught, how the devil is forever beating them up, and everything that goes bad in their life they blame Satan for. They sound totally defenseless. What are we to believe, them or the Bible? I have had colon  problems for many years, and there have been more precious and well-meaning charismatics who bind Satan and cast him out of my colon than I can count. Apparently he keeps crawling back into my bowel.

Listen to me now. If you have a preacher or an evangelist who tells you or conveys to you that God’s children are like defenseless tin cans on fence posts that the devil can pick off any ole time he wants to, you had better get another preacher or evangelist, for the guy is full of phony baloney.

It reminds me of the story about a doctor who was making the rounds in a ward of terminally ill patients, and he asked each of them that day whether they had any final requests. To one older lady he said, “Is there anything you especially want before you pass on?” She replied, “Yes, I would like to see my family one more time.” “Of course,” the doctor replied, “I’ll arrange it.”

The doctor asked a second patient for his last wishes, and the patient said, “I am a Catholic, and I would like to see my priest for confession and last rites.” “Certainly,” said the doctor, “I’ll arrange it.”

Then the doctor approached a third patient and asked, “Have you any last wish sir?” The elderly man said, “Yes, I would like to see a different doctor.” My sentiments exactly!”

Listen:

“GOD THE STRONGHOLD – FORTRESS – REFUGE IN THE CHRISTIAN LIFE IS NEVER

TAKEN – BREACHED – OR BROKEN BY FORCE, BUT BY OUR WILLFULLY

CHOOSING TO STOP PRAYING CONSTANTLY, AND BY OUR

WILLFULLY EXPOSING OURSELVES TO TEMPTATION.

BY DISOBEDIENCE WE THEN STEP OUTSIDE

OF THE FORTRESS.”

B. God – Our Glorious Physical Protector

Psalm 62:8 says,

“Trust in Him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before Him;

God is a refuge for us.”

Psalm 34:6-7,

“This poor man cried and the Lord heard him, and saved him out

of all his troubles.”

“The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear

Him, and rescues them.”

EXAMPLE:

Lisa, pray for Lisa! It was the strangest thing, this urge that came over me all of a sudden. It was as if an actual voice had spoken, firm and commanding. Pray for Lisa! I prayed for my six-year old daughter every night, just like I did for her brother and sister. But why now?

We were on the road headed to my parents’ house for Christmas. Lisa was riding with my brother Bobby up ahead. I was following in my other car with my two other children. Bobby was holding the speed limit, just like I had asked him to do. Lisa turned to wave at me through the back window. Everything seemed fine.

Pray for Lisa. Now! The voice again, even more emphatic! A chill ran through me. I prayed, “Lord, please watch over Lisa. Keep her out of harm’s way. Wrap Your protecting arms tight around her.

Up ahead, Bobby slowed down. I could see a semi-truck directly in front of him. Its trailer was weaving back and forth. Something was clearly wrong with it. The trailer then suddenly fishtailed, and Bobby’s brake lights flared. Then to my horror, the trailer detached from the driver’s cab. “Lord, keep Lisa safe!” I cried. Bobby swerved just enough to escape a collision with the runaway trailer. Thank God Lisa was safe. Thank God for the voice, I thought.

But I could only watch helplessly as the trailer slid into the other lane, smashing into an oncoming car. Bobby and I both pulled over and rushed to the demolished vehicle. The backseat behind the driver was completely crushed. “Is everyone okay?” I gasped. “I think so,” said the driver. He and his wife and their teenage daughter climbed out shakily, but unharmed.

The driver stared at the backseat and let out a depth breath. “We just stopped a couple of minutes ago and my daughter switched places with the Christmas gifts,” he told us. “If she had been sitting there…” He didn’t have to say more.

The man then introduced himself and his wife. “And what is your name?’ I asked the daughter. The girl replied, “Lisa.” (Kimberly Wood, Guideposts)

EXAMPLE:

Years ago, after walking the streets of New York City – worn out, tired in soul and body – I developed mononucleosis. I ended up in the hospital for six weeks and developed a growth in my throat. I could not swallow and sometimes I could not breathe. My weight soon fell to less than 115 pounds. Since I could not travel, all the income of my ministry quickly dried up and it looked like the end of Teen Challenge.

I remember the night I cried out in desperation, “Lord, I give up! Teen Challenge is Yours. I am just going to trust You. If You want the ministry’s doors to close, that’s Your business. But please, God, get this thing out of my throat.” Within an hour, I coughed up a fleshy growth the size of a large walnut.

I left the hospital in a day or two and soon got my strength back. And I discovered that while I was away Teen Challenge had survived! I do not know how the Lord did it, but while I was ill, the staff began to trust the Lord instead of looking to me. And that is what God was trying to accomplish.

Beloved, your troubles are not unforeseen accidents. No matter what you are going through, no matter how deep your hurt, God is right on target and right on time. (David Wilkerson)

THE DEPENDENCY OF PRAYER

We live in an unprecedented day in which the apostate church is not only rewriting its morals, but is rewriting the Word of God. It all can be summarized in a few words, and they are:

“THE HOLY BIBLE TEACHES THAT MAN EXISTS FOR GOD, AND THE CORRUPTED

BIBLE TEACHES THAT GOD EXISTS FOR MAN.”

If you will:

“THE HOLY BIBLE TEACHES THAT MAN IS THE SERVANT OF GOD, AND THE

CORRUPTED BIBLE TEACHES THAT GOD IS THE SERVANT OF MAN.”

When this inversion and controversion takes place, it absolutely falsely redefines every major issue and doctrine of Christianity, and when it comes to prayer, it is likewise devastating.

I listened to an evangelist preach very recently to a large congregation about what prayer is. Here is how it literally broke down, and I mean broke down:

FIRST – God is like an AUTOMATIC SOAP DISPENSER, or like an AUTOMATIC HAND DRYER, or like an AUTOMATIC WATER FAUCET all with magic eyes that must be triggered to automatically dispense the desired contents.

SECOND – Man’s faith and prayer-hands must pass over the magic eye of God to trigger God the AUTOMATIC SOAP DISPENSER-AUTOMATIC HAND DRYER-AUTOMATIC WATER FAUCET to dispense the desired contents.

THIRD – Man’s faith-filled prayers are the ACTIVATORS OF GOD, and until God is ACTIVATED by the faith-prayers of man, God remains in a deactivated and dormant state. If you will, God is dependent upon man to bring Him from a DEACTIVATED STATE to an ACTIVATED STATE.

FOURTH – Prayer and God are, according to these Disneyland definitions of prayer, the HUMAN ACTIVATOR and the DIVINE ACTIVATEE who must function together like MACHINES FUNCTIONING TOGETHER IN AUTOMATIC PRECISION.

Do people actually believe this stuff? By the hordes! I don’t know where to start or where to end with these false, dangerous, and destructive teachings that have the potential to destroy people’s faith and bring their prayer life to an end. I must state a few strong, concrete Bible antidotes to this poison.

FIRST – It is all part of the flip-flop religion in which man by his faith and prayers dictates to God what He must do and not do, and what He must produce and not produce. In this falsification of the Word of God, MAN GIVES GOD SPECIFIC OUGHTS and GOD IS LEFT WITH NO OPTIONS. He simply does what AUTOMATIC SOAP DISPENSERS – HAND DRYERS – WATER FAUCETS are supposed to do. In other words, in prayer:

“PRAY-ERS DEFINES WHO GOD IS AND WHAT HE IS TO AUTOMATICALLY SPIT OUT,

AND GOD DOES NOT DEFINE HIMSELF OR WHAT HE DOES.”

Again:

“IN PRAYER, IT IS NO LONGER ‘GOD’S WILL BE DONE’ (Matthew 6:19–James 4:15)

AS JESUS TAUGHT US TO PRAY, BUT MAN’S WILL BE DONE -SO GOD,

GET ON WITH THE DISPENSING OF WHAT WE REQUIRE  YOU

TO BE AND SPIT OUT.’”

SECOND – It believes that God is in a DEPENDENT-DEACTIVATED STATE until man THE HUMAN ACTIVATOR sets God free and in motion to produce what He is supposed to produce according to THE PRAYER DICTATES OF MAN passing over the magic, automatic eye of God in prayer. IN other words:

“GOD IS THE ACTIVATEE AND MAN IS THE ACTIVATOR, AND UNTIL MAN

ACTIVATES GOD, GOD CAN DO NOTHING BUT SIT THERE IN

A DEACTIVATED STATE. POOR GOD WHO IS LIKE

A PUPPET WITHOUT STRINGS.”

Again:

“IT TOTALLY PERVERTS PRAYER, FOR THE TRUTH IS THAT IT IS NOT GOD

WHO IS ACTIVATED BY PRAYER TO DO MAN’S WILL, BUT IT IS

MAN WHO IS ACTIVATED BY PRAYER TO DO GOD’S WILL,

WHICH IS WHY WE PRAY, ‘THY WILL BE DONE.’”

Let me give two Scriptures among zillions that turn all of this around and UNFLIP THIS AWFUL FLOP, such as Isaiah 65:24,

“It will also come to pass that BEFORE THEY WILL CALL, I WILL ANSWER;

and while they are speaking I will hear.”

Philippians 2:12-13,

“…work out your salvation with fear and trembling; “for it is God Who IS AT

WORK IN YOU, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.”

PSALM 115:3,

“But our God is in the heavens; HE DOES WHATEVER HE PLEASES.”

Psalm 135:6,

“WHATEVER THE LORD PLEASES, HE DOES, in heaven and in earth, and in

the seas and in all the deeps.”

 

THIRD – It believes in prayer and in life that MAN IS THE PRESCRIBING WISER and GOD IS THE INSTRUCTED AND OBEDIENT WISEE. That is to say, MAN UNDERSTANDS WHAT MUST DONE IN EVERY SITUATION, and GOD BY MAN’S PRAYER IS ACTIVATED TO FOLLOW MAN’S WISDOM. If you will:

 

“MAN THE ALL-WISE PRAY-ER RELEASES AND GUIDES GOD TO WISELY DO WHAT

MAN’S WISDOM SAYS MUST BE DONE.”

However, the fact of the matter must be stated in this way:

“GOD ALONE KNOWS THE END FROM THE BEGINNING WHILE MAN DOES

NOT KNOW THE BEGINNING FROM THE END.”

We read in Isaiah 46:8-10,

“Remember this, and be amazed; recall it to mind, you transgressors.”

“Remember the former things long past, for I am God, and there

is no other; I am God, and there is no one like Me,

“Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times

things which have not been done. Saying, ‘My purpose

will be established, and I will accomplish all

My good pleasure.’”

EXAMPLE:

Me: God, can I ask you a question?
God: Sure.

Me: Promise you won’t get mad?
God: I promise.

Me: Why did you let so much stuff happen to me today?
God: What do you mean?

Me: Well, I woke up late.
God: Yes.

Me: My car took forever to start.
God: Okay.

Me: At lunch they made my sandwich wrong and I had to wait.
God: Hmmm.

Me: On the way home my phone went dead just as I picked up a call.
God: Okay.

Me: And on top of all that, when I got home I just wanted to soak my feet in my new foot massager and relax, but it wouldn’t work!!! Nothing went right today! Why did you do that?
God: Well, let me see. The Death Angel was at your bed this morning and I had to send one of the other angels to battle him for your life. I let you sleep through that.

Me: (humbled): OH…
GOD: I didn’t let your car start because there was a drunk driver on your route that would have hit you if you were on the road.

Me: (ashamed)
God: The person who made your first sandwich today was sick and I didn’t want you to catch what he has. I knew you couldn’t afford to miss work.

Me: (embarrassed): Ok…
God: Your phone went dead because the person who was calling was going to give false witness about what you said during that call. I didn’t even let you talk to them so that you would be covered.

Me: (softly) I see, God.
God: Oh, and that foot massager had a short that was going to throw out all of the power in your house tonight. I didn’t think you wanted to be in the dark.

Me: I’m sorry God.
God: Don’t be sorry, just learn to trust me in all things, the good and the bad.

Me: I will trust you. God: And don’t doubt that MY plan for your day is always better than your plan. Me: I won’t.

Me: And let me just tell you God, thank you for everything today.
God: You’re welcome, child. It was just another day being your God, and I love looking after my children.

How glorious in prayer that we can entrust ourselves to and trust God to do all things perfect. So in our prayers we do what Proverbs 3:5-6 tells us to do:

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean

on your own understanding.”

“In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make

your paths straight.”

Amen!