Prayer Rendered Powerless

In his book Real Evangelism, Bailey Smith, a past president of the Southern Baptist Convention, offers the shocking proposition that we can nullify the power of prayer.  He suggests that we do so by our inaction.  If we fail to act on what we pray about, we give prayer no outlet to complete its purpose.  He draws an analogy with electrical power which must complete a circuit to release its energy.  Any "short circuit" disrupts the flow leaving the intended use powerless.  Smith applies this concept to our praying for God to make us a soul-winner, but then failing to make any contacts, in effect choking off any avenue for God to answer our prayer.

In previous posts I have tried to demonstrate the connection that Jesus and others in the Bible made between prayer and faith.  It is important to realize that faith is a two-sided coin.  One side is that of receiving a word from the Lord.  If God does not speak to us, then we do not exercise faith but presumption.  When Jesus told Satan that it was wrong to tempt or test the Lord His God, He meant that He would not jump off the pinnacle of the temple unless the Spirit told Him to, regardless of what promises could be found in the written word of God (Matthew 4:5-7).

But the other side of the coin is obedience.  William Carey preached, "Expect great things from God; attempt great things for God."  Both parts of that statement are about faith.  Just as there is no faith without a word from God, there also is no faith without a work from man.  What I mean is that if we believe, we will act.  This teaching is clear in what James says about faith and works.  Much so-called faith is dead, useless (2:14-26, especially verses 20 and 26) because nothing comes from it.  While works do not produce faith, true faith always produces works.  When God's Spirit leads us, and He always does if we are truly children of God (Romans 8:14), our faith in Him and His word is revealed by our obedience.  Failure to obey is unbelief.  It is sin.  When we don't do the good we know we are to do, it is sin (James 4:17).  When we act apart from a faith-creating word from God, it is sin (Romans 14:23).  True belief always leads to action.

Of course, the act of praying is itself a work produced by faith.  We pray because we believe God will hear and do things in answer to prayer that He would not otherwise do (James 4:2).  However, let's not nullify the power of our prayers by failing to do the things consistent with what we are praying for.  The disciples, who were told to pray that the Lord of the harvest would send forth laborers into the harvest, were themselves sent into the harvest by Jesus.  As we pray for God to extend the gospel to the unengaged unreached people groups of the world, let us do all we can to go ourselves if at all possible.  Let's not short-circuit prayer's power by inaction.

Prayer of Faith Part 2

Our trust in God's character--His goodness and kindness as well as His power to actually help us--is a type of faith, but it is not the kind of faith required by the "prayer of faith" mentioned in James 5:15.  I have often prayed for someone who was sick, but although I approached God confident of both His ability to help and His faithfulness to do what was right and good, the person was not healed (as the verse indicated would happen).  Now, I can either look for ways to explain away the verse--as many do by saying that death is God's perfect healing or by saying that God must have had some other plan--or I can look for ways to better understand what the prayer of faith is.  I choose the latter.

Faith requires a word from the Lord: So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God (Romans 10:17).  Only when God has spoken can we be sure of what His will is.  Once He has revealed His intention, we can pray with complete assurance.  A man once shared with me a testimony of God's healing his son.  The son was in the hospital, deteriorating by the hour.  The father, a faithful follower of Jesus, was praying fervently and unceasingly.  He believed in the Lord's power to heal and in His goodness to hear prayer, but still the son grew worse.  The father said that he had to go to his house for something, and as he was driving, he was suddenly struck with the realization that his son was healed.  His heart leaped for joy and gratitude to God.  The moment was so strong that he turned the car around and headed back to the hospital.  He met the son's doctor in the corridor.  The doctor had just left the son's bedside.  He looked the father in the eye and said, "He's made a turn for the better.  He's going to be all right."  The son went through long days of recuperation, but the father never had any doubt that his son would be completely restored,  And he was.

That moment when the father experienced the realization that his son was healed was God's revelation, His word to him about the situation.  When God speaks, things become real (we see this in the opening words of Genesis).  When His Spirit testifies to our spirit, His will becomes real to us.  A spiritual reality is created within us.  Thus the Bible's definition of faith is, in the words of Hebrews 11:1, the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.  When God speaks, faith is created in us and what is true in the spiritual realm becomes real to us, often before it becomes real in the material realm.

Note that this word from the Lord is not the logos but the rhema.  It is not the written word of God to everyone, it is a revealed word of God to a specific individual regarding a specific situation.  I have shared a salvation experience comparable to that of many others.  I was raised in the church and understood the plan of salvation--my sinfulness, my inability to save myself, Christ's death on my behalf as my only hope, my need to repent and believe--long before I was truly saved.  One day, all those things that I understood intellectually hit me with a reality and forcefulness that made it seem like I had never truly understood those teachings before.  They became real in me, a part of me.  When God's Spirit witnessed to my spirit and made salvation real to me, I was able to have saving faith.  I had believed in my head what God's word, the Bible, taught, but only when His Spirit-spoken word made real in me what Jesus had done for me was I able to exercise genuine faith.

To pray the prayer of faith, we must first "get a word from the Lord."  The story goes that a man made a sudden trip to Alaska and when the weather turned really cold, he realized he had forgotten to bring an adequate coat.  He calls home and his wife agrees to send the coat by next-day delivery.  Later he meets up with his boss who offers to buy him a coat.  His reply?  "I've already got one."  Now technically, he does not yet have it in his possession.  But he knows that it is on the way so that he does not have to procure one by some other means.  When we have His word, we know that we have it.  That's why 1 John 5:15 says, If we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.  The way we know that He has heard us is because He has responded by speaking to us.

Let us pray with the confidence that comes from knowing the character of God and the written word of God.  But let's keep praying until He responds and tells us what He intends to do.  Then we can pray the prayer of faith.

Prayer and Faith

Evangelicals in the United States appear to be losing the culture wars.  Several activist groups seem to have greater influence with the public than does the church.  I hear pastors lament that schools and sports teams no longer respect Sundays or Wednesdays (days churches meet) as a time for churches; they draw children and families away from church activities.  We don't have the clout that we used to.

In Matthew 17, the disciples asked Jesus why they could not cast the demon out of a boy.  They used to be able to do it (Matthew 10:8).  Jesus' diagnosis was unbelief and His remedy was prayer (and fasting according to some manuscripts).  Effective ministry depends on prayer and faith.  These two are dynamically related.

The more we believe, the more we pray.  Faith connects us to the reality of the spiritual realm (Hebrews 11:1).  When the God who answers prayer is real to us, we go to Him more readily, more frequently, and more expectantly.  On the other hand, if God seems distant to us or if He is more like an idea rather than a living person to us, we are more likely to try Him as a last resort or only as part of a ritual.  As we see that every good thing comes from Him and as our contentment derives from Him, we will go to Him more often and spend more time in His presence.  Henry Blackaby has said that as he saw things happen in response to prayer, his prayer times increased.

The more we pray, the more we believe.  This truth is what Jesus was telling the disciples.  Since faith comes by hearing God speak (Romans 10:17), disciples must seek His presence, getting close enough to hear Him.  Often, spending time in the written Word helps us hear Him, especially if we read with hungry hearts.  However, reading the Word only as a religious requirement may not help.  Reading with a prayerful attitude is the key.  The enemy is defeated only by prayer because prayer increases our faith.

I am not saying that our faith increases as we see more answers to our prayer.  I am saying that spending time in God's presence increases our faith because God becomes more real to us.

Let's pray today just to spend time with our Father.  Let Him tune our hearts to sing His praise.  Let His glory fill our minds and hearts.  May we be filled with wonder and awe as we enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise.  May our faith increase.