More Word to the World

Communication

Prayer is not just us giving God instructions and information as we saw last time when we looked at supplication, but is a two-way conversation; it is communication. During prayer we can receive words from God as He speaks into our spirit words of guidance, comfort, and even conviction and rebuke concerning our sin. This is what Jesus meant about being His friend:

John 15:14-15
14 Ye are my friends , if ye do whatsoever I command you.
15 Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends ; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.

He doesn’t just want to be a supplier of goodies, but also to make important things known unto us.

We are on a journey in life and we tend to vacillate from idea to idea. Some ideas are false notions and others are truth. During prayer, God can speak words of understanding and guidance into truth:

John 16:13 Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.

Supplication

The last time we discussed how prayer fits into the subject of worship. I mentioned that Gary Erickson divided prayer into three types: supplication, communication, and communion. Supplication is possibly the most common definition, or at least the definition most commonly thought of when we discuss prayer. Supplication means “petition” and describes the process of asking for provision for our necessities. When you make a request to God, you are involved in supplication.

Supplication is a very basic form of prayer and when neglected, results in unanswered prayers.

James 4:2 Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not.

Jesus taught us to think of God as the supplier of our supplications when He instructed to ask:

Matthew 7:7-8
7 Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:
8 For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.

Although the Bible is filled with promises of all sorts, God instructs us to connect those promises to specific needs through faith in prayer by asking.

Prayer

Prayer is sometimes just another word for worship because they are a part of each other. Worship and prayer are perhaps the two most powerful weapons a Christian has in spiritual warfare.

At a prayer conference several years ago, the speaker, Pastor Wallace VanSlyke, said, “Do you want to know the secret to successful prayer? Do it.”

Some people only pray when facing dire emergencies where there is nothing else left to do. However, our prayer is meant to be an all-day every day conversation with God. I pray for a parking place while driving through a parking lot; I pray for help when doing difficult tasks at work or tough home maintenance jobs, and even for our kids’ electronic game system when it malfunctioned.

Yet on the other end of the spectrum, we do pray for help in life threatening emergencies, and we pray for people to receive the Holy Ghost. Prayer can and should simply be a daily, long conversation with God.

Gary Erickson divided prayer into three basic categories: supplication, communication, and communion. (Pentecostal Worship, Erickson, Word Aflame Press, 1989, pp 209-210.)

Jesus’ prayer

Jesus prayed a prayer that appears to be the only “if” prayer He ever prayed.

Matthew 26:39, 42
39 And he went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.
42 He went away again the second time, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done.

Remember that Jesus was both God and man during his time on earth. Jesus was just as human as anyone of us and the prospects of the struggle that lay ahead were no more appealing to Him as a human than they would appeal to us. The agony was great that He was going through:

Luke 22:44 And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.

It seems as though there was more of humanity and less of the miraculous showing through during in the last few days of Jesus’ life.

I see a general pattern in the scripture concerning the involvement of miracles in Jesus’ ministry on earth. Apart from his miraculous conception and His birth involving angels, the scriptures do not record miracles associated with Jesus’ early years. The demonstration of miracles really began with his baptism. Then there were following a couple years of His popularity with the people where He performed many miracles.

But then during the last week of His life, with the exception of a healed ear, and the arresting crowd being knocked to the ground just prior to the arrest, there was again an absence of miracles. During this latter period, Jesus prays, “if it be possible.”

There was never a question before about a difficult situation being possible or not possible. Jesus just spoke it and it happened. But this was a purposeful occurrence in the plan for the redemption of mankind.

Gethsemane

With the betrayer now departed from the Passover meal, the remaining disciples followed Jesus outside into the night air. They left the stuffy upstairs room in Jerusalem, where the smell of the cooked lamb and bitter herbs probably hung heavy in the room. They stepped out into the cool of the evening and walked out among the olive groves in a nearby garden called Gethsemane.

It was spring and there were likely olive blossoms perfuming the garden, and the stars and moon may have also been peacefully shining down on them. It was an excellent contrast to the busy activity going on in the city.

But rather than feeling relief offered by the peaceful surroundings, Jesus was deeply troubled.

Matthew 26:37 And he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be sorrowful and very heavy.

Mark adds the phrase “sore amazed” which means deeply distressed. Then Jesus made an unusual request of His inner circle of Peter, James and John:

Matthew 26:38 Then saith he unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death: tarry ye here, and watch with me.

Feeling the intense sorrow of the suffering that He was getting ready to endure, He asked for help—help through their presence and help through their prayers. The disciples probably wondered in their minds what could possibly lay ahead that would bring their miracle-making friend, Jesus, to act in such a distressed manner.

(8)        Answer:

We now come to the last lesson on prayer. We started with worship, and moved through praying for revival, direction, provision, forgiveness, protection, and praise. Those seven elements represent our contribution to this communication link called prayer. Although it is true that as you are speaking these things to God that He will also speak to you by dropping words into your heart or thoughts into your mind.

But now comes God’s part—the answer. Do not be surprised how the answer comes, just expect it and be thankful when it comes. The answer may involve some action that God leads you to do or it may be entirely God intervening without your involvement.

In any event, the Prayer of Jabez ends with this statement that summarizes what happens after we pray:

And God granted him that which he requested. (1 Chron 4:10)

Make sure you speak of your expectation as you conclude with Jesus’s words:

If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it. (John 14:14)

To pray regularly is to keep an open and refreshing dialogue with God. To not pray is to shut off God’s primary method of communicating with us. The secret to prayer is just do it.

Next time we will return to our former study on the Life of Jesus.

May I interrupt the lesson to announce that I have uploaded a revised Prayer Guide to the resources tab. Please check it out and download the update.

Include this praise at the end of your daily prayer:

This is the day which the LORD hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it. (Ps 118:24)

That is an excellent way to start your day. It is an attitude setter. It shifts our focus from worry toward an expectation of following after the blessed day that God designed you to live. And while you are at it, praise Him for ALL His benefits:

Bless the LORD, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: (Ps 103:1-2)

(7) Praise for what God has done:

We have reached the end of our part in the communication link we call prayer. We started with worship, and then followed with prayer for revival, direction, provision, forgiveness, protection, and we now conclude with praise.

For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen (Matt 6:13)

What is the difference between worship and praise? Worship is acknowledging who God is, praise acknowledged what God has done. We not conclude with praising God because all that we have asked for during our prayer has already done. We have prayed for the kingdom but it is His kingdom that is promised to grow. We have pray for powerful demonstrations of his provision, healing, protection, etc., yet it is His power that has been promised and demonstrated over and over. We want to see demonstrations of glory but it is His glory we want and God wants to show His glory.

So it is appropriate to conclude our prayer by remembering that everything we have asked for, He is supplying daily—over and over again. So rejoice!

We are under part (6) Protection and have already considered the first kind of prayer in this category,  where we asked for spiritual protection against evil influences and temptations.

Now we pray for physical protection for yourself, your spouse, your children, and others close to you. Quote and medicate on the impact of following verses:

The angel of the LORD encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them. (Ps 34:7)

For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. (Ps 91:11)

After praying this over my children, and carpooling to work with my son for an hour drive, I can lay my head back and sleep on the ride to work without worry. You can release your children to school or maybe your spouse to work knowing that your God is covering them with an angelic special-forces security unit that day.

(6) Protection:

So far our prayer has included worship, revival, direction, provision, and forgiveness. We now move to the topic of protection.

We pray for two kinds of protection: spiritual and physical. First let us consider the spiritual protection we are to seek. As Jesus put it:

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil (Matt 6:13)

Think of the evil things you need to be delivered from and list them here. Think of the habits that you have that are destructive and make you feel remorse. You are driven by an evil force down that direction and God wants to set us free from any thing that binds you. He made us this promise concerning them:

There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it. (1 Cor 10:13)

Jabez put it like this:

That thou wouldest keep me from evil, that it may not grieve me! (1 Chron 4:10)

God desires to deliver you from the grief caused by evil so ask for that deliverance.