Why Pray?

Praying always with all supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints; and for me that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel.
Ephesians 6:18,19

Have you ever wondered why the principle of prayer is involved in the Bible? Why does God teach us to pray? Why does He say we must pray? God could not move on the scene, sovereignly manifest Himself, and do things for people without their having to pray? Why so much on prayer? If you could understand why the Bible is a book of prayer, you would answer for yourself more questions than you could imagine.

Prayer is a divinely imposed limitation that God makes on Himself. He is pleased and determined to move through human channels.
Ask ye the Lord rain in the time of latter rain...
Zechariah 10:1

You ask of the Lord rain, in the time of latter rain!

The provisions of God, in sovereign times chosen and planned in the will of God right down to the very moment and day, require a human being, yielded and believing and appropriating, because the divine provision comes forth on the human level.

There is the question: why win souls? The old Dutch Reformed and the Calvinists used to say, "No altar calls, for the elect will be saved. He that God wills to be saved will be saved, and nothing you can say or do is going to prevent it or help it one way or the other."

It is strange they were worldwide missionaries with that kind of attitude, "If my children are going to be raised for God, they will be raised for God, they will serve God."

God always places human responsibility on His people; they are responsible to minister God to the world. For this reason we sacrifice to see God's Word spread through books and media, to start churches, and to minister to His people. I have never believed in human zeal.

I am going forward into a new declaration: I know I am anointed of the Lord, and I know God has brought something to me. That anointing can accomplish little or much, according to what I am willing to believe for, what I am willing to pray for, what I am willing to work with the brothers and sisters for. It will be just as much or as little as I believe for.

People wonder why the prophecies are not fullfilled over them. Yet some people drift along- "Well, it was prophesied a couple times, but I'm beginning to doubt that prophecy."

Do not doubt the prophecy; you had better be humble before God and do some repenting. Stewardship in gifts is involved; God lays it before you, and then He requires that you do something with it. He calls on you to give account of your stewardship- what did you do with it?

God has never moved as much in all the history of the Church as He is moving in this day. The Spirit keeps moving. I think of what has happened in many churches where the charismatic renewal came. Maybe one church out of a hundred has gone on with something. The other ninetynine had splits and trouble and backed away; preachers turned away from it all. Why? Because when God gives something you have to have diligence to go to work.

Look in the Bible at the chapter on prophecy and gifts of the Holy Spirit. They are instructing you on tongues and interpretations, on how the prophecies come, and how the prophets speak and confirm one another.I do not believe God is taking people over so that they can say, "I couldn't help myself, God just moved on me." He does not possess them to make little mechanical men out of them. He is filling them as they appropriate. The command was not "God shall fill you with the Spirit." The command was to the human level; "Be filled with the Spirit; be filled with all the fullness of God!"

The initiative and responsibility is yours. The provision is God's, and the initiative is yours. Pray for the leading of the Lord; God will lead you. But do you know what your part is? Knock; seek; ask!
The people who get something from God are striving and crying at the top of their voices. They get an answer because they have a persistent faith. The Lord was faithful in trying to teach the place of prayer. Does that mean that God is not concerned? No. He is concerned, very concerned. He sent His Son to die to make provision. Then He withdrew from the scene, from any sovereign manifestation, and committed it to twelve apostles saying, "Take it; do something with it. All authority is Mine in heaven and earth. Go and make disciples of all nations. You go, and you do it, Lo, I am with you." (Matthew 28:18-20)

It is a new level; it is a new day. If it pleased the Lord Jesus Christ to withdraw into the heavenlies to be at the right hand of the Father and henceforth to move through a many-membered spiritual body- if that is what He is pleased to do- then let that spiritual body begin to appropriate His fullness now.

You could not find better doctrine then this because it is glorifying Christ, yet it does not lead to human ambition, human zeal, or an old~order program. But it does lead away from the passivity that comes over people while they are waiting for God's end~time move to take place and for prophecies to be fullfilled.

With faith you could prophesy almost anything to yourself and go after it and see it fullfilled. "Whatsoever you ask in My name I will do it." (John 14:13) You have promises in the Word of God that are so unlimited, so vast in scope, that you could start standing on them, appropriating , and prophesying things by the Spirit of the Lord. You say that would be "self"?

If you had that kind of faith you would be surprised how the Holy Spirit would inspire you, and there would be a flow of the Spirit, and God would fulfill your prophecy.
The bread and the cup of communion are divine provision. When the aggressive faith of individuals reaches up and they possess God. His very presence is in it. They draw Him; they eat of Him; they take the initiative to appropriate His very life into their being. They are really blessed of God because of two things; divine provision hovering over them and their faith reaching up to bring it down. Everyone in a service who takes the blessing can be blessed.

Are you going to be used of the Lord? Notice how many times you start out; you get a leading, you get a direction, and you keep drawing from the Lord. As you keep trusting the Lord, the Lord will give you the answer. But you do not get it all in one piece; you just keep grabbing and appropriating it as you go along. As you grow stronger in the Lord, the Lord becomes stronger in you.

I am very much in favor of consecration services. Would you like to know the diffrence between an old~order consecration service and a new~order consecration service? In the old order you come to the altar and really work at giving your all to Jesus. But where are you? You do not really get it all given to Him anyway. Besides, it is all His to begin with, because He redeemed you; and you are trying to acknowledge it and give yourself to Him.

What about a new~order consecration service? You start where the old leaves off. You become consecrated and dedicated to appropriate more of God- not giving yourself more, but appropriating Him more. What you give to God does not amount to much, but what God gives to you amounts to a great deal- what God has given to you amounts to everything. You start appropriating Him; that is where consecration should come.

You become dedicated and consecrated to greater possessions in God, to a greater fellowship, to a greater indwelling. God is moving! We are receiving concepts that are revolutionary in their very nature. This is the thinking that is going to make people walk with God. So much of our old thinking goes back to legalism, to self condemnation, and to an introspection or self analysis. I have done that too long, and I do not find anything interesting in me; "in my flesh dwelleth no good thing" (Romans 7:8). But what excites me is this: "We are not sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God who makes us able ministers of the new covenant." And we start ministering, "not with pen and ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not on tables of stone, but on the fleshly tablets of the heart," until men walk as living testimonies, "living epistles of Christ, read and known of all men" (II Corinthians 3:2-6)

Christ is not going to be read or known until He is read and known in you. Appropriate Him, because Jesus is going to be heard and seen in you. If Christ is going to speak, He is going to speak through your lips. If He is going to move, He is going to move through your feeble hands. If the job is going to be done, it will be done because you have opened up to be the frailest of instruments.

What do you see in ministers and ministries? Do they impress you as people, or only to the extent that you see Christ in them?

We are earthen vessels. The excellency of the power will be of God and not of ourselves; but that does not take away from the initiative. We are not passive vessels; we prepare ourselves; we santify ourselves; we get with it.

If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel of honor, sanctified, meet for the master's use, prepared unto every good work. (II Timothy 2:21).

We must be diligent because we are going to house the glory of God. We are going to walk as temples of the living God. A walk with God is not some little spiritual, ethereal principle; it is a practical reality.

Ephesians 6:18, Praying always with all prayer and supplication..., is very diffrent from the old~order interpretation of that scripture: O God, please..." It is the wind~up of putting on the whole armor of God because we are going to defeat the principalities and powers. We are going to enforce the victory of Jesus, bring the devils to their knees, and direct them into the abyss because Christ provided it.

His victory was a total victory of provision; our victory is that by faith we execute what he has provided. This gives us liberation; it enables us to take on new initiative of faith. We must wait before God, get the Word and then go with that Word in faith, knowing that we are God's instrument. Everyone of us must realize our destiny is to minister the fullness of Christ to this generation. Our destiny and our ministry is to minister the living Word of God.

You may become anxious about speaking the living Word. The Word begins to bless you; then the accusations come: "The living word?"- you are taking too much onto yourself!" Nevertheless, someone will have to do the works of God. God has ordained far more to be in you than you have ever imagined. You say you want chapter and verse? Good- "The works that I do shall ye do also and greater works than these shall ye do" (John 14:12).

I am very concerned about moving into the things above and beyond the scriptures. When I read the book of Acts, I know there will be actions above and beyond the acts of the apostles. When I read the Gospels, I know there will be greater works than these. I eagerly look for the time when people in their humility will say, "You are moving in more than the apostles moved in."

We have waited for that day; we must make haste to move into it. We have destiny to fulfill. The fullness of God must come forth in this generation through a remnant that God has chosen. The people that know their God shall be strong, and do exploits. (Daniel 11:32).

They will do exploits because they know their God and are sent by God.

This does not lead to self confidence; it leads to the deepest humility to finally understand God's plan to move through a human channel. Then you start praying, not to keep yourself from backsliding, but to become that channel God is going to turn loose His power. You start believing. If God gave you the gift of prophecy and you are sitting down with it, get busy; it is your responsibility. The initiative is yours. "Stir up the gift that is in you!" (II Timothy 1:6).

Although God will give it to you, there still is involved a great deal of faith and persevering, and for this faithfulness you are rewarded.

Jesus we bow our hearts; to be dedicated to appropriate more of You, the Christ; to have more of a prayer life; to walk in what God sets before us constantly. We do not want to wait while the Lord says, "This is the day! This is the hour!" Jesus, we reach for Thee. We love You and want to serve You with all our hearts, because You give us the grace to do so. We draw of Your Spirit in greater measure to be filled with all Your fullness. We come to You to be met, to touch You, Lord Jesus, and to be every whit whole. Amen.

I shall rise, as a young stripling of the sons of God, and I will walk with strength in the land that He says He has given me as a possession. It is my foot that will have to be put upon the ground that is mine. In promise it is mine, and then in possession it is mine. By faith I draw thee, Lord Jesus. By faith I receive Thee. By faith I believe to be the channel through which Your life flows.

JRS