Lesson 6
II. The Operation Of Faith.
A. Saying It.
B. Praying it.
In this section, I am going to explain how prayer generates
the spiritual environment within which faith works.
Years ago, and it is on my website, I wrote, and published,
a booklet called "God's Three Step To Answered Prayer." This
title often fires up and burns down those who hate anything that
smacks of a formula. I tried coming up with many different
titles for this very reason but after what the Lord showed me
during my quest on how to get my prayers answered, I could not
think of anything else. So, the title sticks regardless of how
mad it makes you. I personally think it is cute.
As a side topic, may I point out that the Bible is full of
verses that seem to indicate God's people should operate by
formula at times? Look up all these passages and read them when
you get a chance and see if you think a formula, of sorts, is
being taught.
Joshua 1:8
Psalm 1:1
Romans 10:9
Acts 1:8
Matthew 28:19-20
Introduction To Prayer
Let me begin by telling you what prayer is not. It is not
limited by instantaneous, on the spot, answers. It isn't
physical in nature. It isn't necessarily easy and it should
never be difficult. Prayer is not twisting God's arm to get Him
to do something that He really doesn't want to do in the first
place. Probably most importantly, prayer, and answered prayer,
is not time restrictive or spatial temporal, that is, limited or
restricted to time space factors. In other words, God has no
restriction and time is irrelevant. Finally, prayer isn't magic.
Illustration #6
When I was a boy of about 10 years of age, a friend and I
were playing out in his front yard. An older man, I would guess
he might have been in his late fifties to early sixties, called
to us to come over to his driveway and we did. He said, "You
boys want me to make this quarter disappear?" he said as he held
the coin up for us to see it was real. Our eyes grew big.
"Sure," we both said in unison.
"Keep your eye on the coin," he said.
As we watch carefully, he did make the coin pass from one
hand, through his arm and into the palm of his other hand. We
were amazed. He then showed us how he did it.
I was preaching in Illinois one year and the friend with
whom I was staying, asked if I wanted to go over to a friend's
for supper. The man's name was Ray. When we got their, two or
three other families had been invited. I had met them all during
previous trips to that church.
As the adults sat in the living room and talked, the kids,
and there were a bunch of them, were all running in and out and
having a great time. I learned later the kids were from about 4
to 13 years of age.
I was sitting in a comfortable chair and had a quarter, a 25
cent piece, in one hand. I was just playing with it, twisting it
around and around in my fingers of one hand, as I listened to the
conversations around me. I had consider doing magic tricks, or
what is often called Gospel magic, with children as I spoke in
churches. I eventually did buy a ventriloquist dummy and began
using him with the kids and even in nursing homes and found it a
wonderful Gospel tool. I even learned how to tie animal shapes
out of those skinny balloons and carried a pocket full of the
balloons with me to every church I preached in.
Hearing a little boy playing next to me on the floor with a
car, I said, holding up the quarter, "Would you like to watch me
make this quarter disappear?" He jumped right up and said he
would like to see that. Without warning, every kid in the place
came running and I had a crowd of children standing in front of
me waiting. I got really nervous at this point because I had
never done any such magic in front of anybody before this.
After a little showmanship, I performed the magical trick
flawlessly just as I had learned it from the man many years
before. They were all amazed. I asked the oldest one there, a
young girl of 13 years of age, if she knew how I had done it.
She said no, she had no idea. then, all the adults in the room
said one after another, they didn't know how I had done it
either. I was astonished that I had pulled it off.
A couple of years later, I was offered an assistant pastor's
position in a small church in a small town in western Colorado.
I soon also became the youth pastor. During this time, I found a
book at the library that described, using nothing but household
items, over 100 magic tricks. I was thrilled to find such a book
and set out to learn all I could. They included coin tricks,
rope tricks, scarves and balls and other objects that would appear
and disappear, and many amazingly simple, but quite effective,
tricks.
The first chapter of the book was a fairly detailed
description of the history of magic and how it had become a form
of entertainment today.
As I continued reading the book, I began collecting the
household items, string, thin rope, small paper cups, marbles,
handkerchiefs, and other such things which related to various
tricks I was learning.
Assembling the needed items, and working the magic tricks
out in my mind before trying them out on others, something began
bothering me. No, it wasn't how magic was used religiously and
spiritually thousands of years ago, but something was bothering
me. I felt it for several days.
Finally one day I stopped and thought about my feelings and
tried to identify it. I laughed when I realized what it was. I
was disappointed. That's right. I was disappointed. In what?
I was disappointed because the book of magical tricks, and the
detailed descriptions, made it clear there was no magic in magic.
I know that sounds strange but somehow I hoped there really was
some magic in magic, if you get my meaning.
Years later, as I spent many long hours on my knees praying
over an open Bible, and studied passages of the Bible on prayer,
the Lord brought this memory of my feeling about magic to mind.
He basically told me that my feeling about there being no magic
in magic was how I felt about prayer, too. You likely are going
to be disappointed in this section of our study on faith when you
learn there is no magic to prayer.
Prayer Definitions
I have written a book called "Breathing in the Spirit,"
which is also a free e-book on my website. Prayer should be, the
Lord told me one day, as natural as breathing. I couldn't think
of anybody who prayed that way when the Holy Spirit first said
this to me but I got the message. I set out to discover how to
make prayer that natural to me as a Christian.
I have also defined prayer as exchanging our thoughts for
God's. If you've been around me very long, you've no doubt heard
me speak about this definition of prayer. Yet, I find people
extremely disinclined to believe that our own thoughts can be a
form of communication with God.
Petitionary Prayer Defined
Although there are many various forms of prayer, what we are
going to focus on is petitionary prayer. This form of prayer is
nothing more than making our requests known unto the Lord.
Literally, it is asking God for something you want Him to do. If
you haven't learned by now how to pray in order to get your
prayers answered, this is where you need to pay attention the
most. It will change the way you pray. It will also make faith
much more understandable. It will also change your life and
spiritually sensitize your relationship with the Holy Spirit in
ways you never thought possible.
The Biblical Black Hole
In my journey through the bible and prayer, the Holy Spirit
led me to what I call the Black Hole of the Bible. Let me quote
it to you now.
"14 And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we
ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us:
15 And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know
that we have the petitions that we desired of him," (1 John 5:14-
15).
Although First John has always been my favorite New
Testament epistle, this passage always bothered me. Even as a
teenager, I wondered what in the world this passage was all
about. Oh, sure. I heard sermons and Bible lessons on this
passage all my life. None ever made any sense to me but the
bottom line was this. If you prayed and asked God for something,
and you didn't get it, then it wasn't His will. Apparently,
since you received no answer, it was swallowed up by the black
hole of Scriptural promises that were conditional on what God
wanted and not what you asked Him for. So, it was with great
reluctance that I went to this passage of Scripture many years
ago. I figured, however, if the Lord could explain this passage
to me, there was a chance, howbeit a small one, but a chance that
I might just learn something about how to pray and to expect an
answer to my prayers.
Illustration #7
Many years ago, I started a small business doing high speed
cassette duplication for churches and traveling guest speakers.
To boost my capabilities, I needed a business loan. Checking
with the Small Business Administration, I learned they had a low
3 percent interest loan for those who qualified. To qualify, you
had to go two at least two banks and be turned down. Plus, you
had to get a letter from each bank saying you were denied a loan
from them. The bank loan interest at that time was running 12
and 13 percent so I was hoping they would turn me down.
Going for my first appointment, the loan officer looked over
my business prospective and said, "We can't give you the money."
Not too surprised, I said, "Why not?"
"You are asking for too much money and you have no history."
"So," I asked, "can you tell me how to improve my chances of
acquiring a bank loan?"
He told me to lower the loan request, rewrite my business
prospective to match the loan, and I should have no trouble. The
second banker said basically the same thing.
Upon arriving home, I scrapped everything, wrote a new
prospective, lowered my loan rate to a level I felt would be
appropriate, went to SBA, and within five minutes of reading my
paper work, the loan officer said they would give me the loan.
What do you suppose made the difference? Was it my
demanding tone, pounding my fists on the desk and yelling for the
bank to give me the money, or threatening the loan officer if he
didn't consent to giving me my loan? Of course, I did none of
these things but sometimes we think we have to pray this way to
get God's attention.
First, I learned whom to ask, that is, the right lending
agency. Secondly, I learned how to ask. thirdly, I learned What
to ask. In short, I discovered the way to get money from the
bank is to ask according to their terms. when I did that, I
received the loan I requested to the exact penny.
Confidence
1 John 5:14 says, "And this is the confidence that we have
in Him.
The word "confidence" in Greek means (freedom in speaking,
unreservedness in speech, openly, frankly, without concealment,
without ambiguity or circumlocution, without the use of figures
and comparisons, free and fearless confidence, cheerful courage,
boldness, assurance, the deportment by which one becomes
conspicuous or secures publicity). To say the least, the word is
pretty strong. I wonder how many of us approach God with this
attitude and "confidence." No wonder we don't get our prayers
answered. We mostly don't even believe we have the right to pray
and ask God anything, unless, of course, it happens to be His
will. And if it isn't? Well, then, we might as well forget it.
Will Of God Prayers
I previously stated, knowing how to ask, whom to ask, and
what to ask makes the difference. When I went to obtain a bank
loan, I first asked based upon my terms. when I returned, I had
not only learned the rules, or how to ask and what to ask for,
but I asked based upon the bank's terms and I received exactly
what I requested. The same is true with "will of God" prayers.
We know whom to ask, we know generally what to ask, but how to
ask is usually the problem. Normally, we don't get our prayers
answered because we do not ask on God's terms. Let me quote 1
John 5:14 in this way.
"And this is the freedom we have in God, that, if we ask any
thing according to god's terms, God hears us.
The question then becomes, "What are God's terms?" In other
words, "What are God's terms for asking?"
Petition
The answer to our question is evident in 1 John 5:15, "And
if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we
have the petitions that we desired of him,"
First, based upon the freedom we have in prayer when it
comes to approaching God with our requests, we are assured of the
answer we seek based upon we know that He/God hears us when we
pray. If we don't even know that, our prayers won't be answered
or heard.
The word "petition" is the key. When I began studying this
passage, and the Holy Spirit showed me that I had the freedom in
Christ to know God intimately, and He furthermore showed me that
God wanted to hear and answer my prayers, I was back to square #1
or so it seemed. What are God's terms for asking Him in prayer?
As I thought and prayed about this, I could see that our
"petitions" had to be the key but how did this reveal God's terms
for asking? The holy Spirit clearly led me to god's terms, or
what I call, "God's Three Steps To Answered Prayer."
"Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and
supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known
unto God," (Philippians 4:6).
It is pretty clear, just by reading this verse, there are
three things mentioned relating to how to pray. How do I know
this verse is the outline, the formula, if you will, for how to
pray? Remember the word "petitions" in 1 John 5:15? I'll quote
it now again to be certain the connection between passages is
made.
"And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that
we have the *petitions* that we desired of him,"
Now I am going to restate Philippians 4:6 and show you
exactly how these two passages connect.
"Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and
supplication with thanksgiving let your *requests* be made known
unto God."
Yes, believe it or not, the word "petitions" found in 1 John
5:15 and the word "requests" found in Philippians 4:6 are the
same identical Greek word. Thus, God's terms for asking, making
petition of Him, are clearly stated in Philippians 4:6 without a
doubt.
God's Three Steps To Answered Prayer
1. Prayer
2. Supplication
3. thanksgiving
Another way of viewing these three aspects of prayer might
be:
1. Prayer. Asking God.
2. Supplication. Agreement with God.
3. thanksgiving. Appreciation of God.
Yet a third possibility might be the following:
1. Prayer. Spiritual Conception in God.
2. Supplication. Scriptural Agreement with God.
3. Contentment. Security in God's power.
In the next lesson, I will be focusing on each of these
three elements required when making petitionary prayer, or making
a request of God.
End Of Lesson 6
It Sounds Like God To Me.
www.SafePlaceFellowship.com
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