01.D 04. Praying According To The Will of God
IV PRAYING ACCORDING TO THE WILL OF GOD
“And this is the confidence we have in Him that if we ask any thing according to His will, He heareth us, and if we know that He hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions we desired of Him.”—1 John 5:14; 1 John 5:15.
Here is the third condition of successful prayer — prayer according to the will of God. That there ought to be some limitation to the right of petition; that there ought to be some limit within which a child can reasonably expect his Father to grant what he asks for, no right reasoning individual can for a single moment doubt, and at the fact that there is such a limitation mentioned in Scripture he cannot therefore be surprised.
If we desire to know the testimony of the Word upon any subject, it is evident that we must take its teaching upon that subject in its entirety. It could not be expected either of Christ in His teaching or of the Apostles in their writing that they set forth the whole doctrine of prayer on every occasion where reference to it seemed appropriate. The Bible is full of theology, but it is not systematized, and if you want its teaching on any subject, you must compare Scripture with Scripture to get it. For instance, while we read in one place that repentance is necessary to salvation, we must not forget that elsewhere in the Word salvation is made to depend on other conditions as well. It is so with prayer, and just here is where so many make their mistake. They will read, for instance, the Master’s words in Mark 11:24, “What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them and ye shall have them,” and argue at once that anything they may feel they’d like to have, they may ask and receive if only they believe as they pray that it will come to pass. But I think we’ll come to see very soon that this all depends upon the kind of faith we have, and this in turn depends a good deal upon the character of the request we make of God.
Suppose for a moment it were true that God gives His people every thing they ask so long as they make themselves think He will do it.^ To where would this lead?^
1. It would simply keep God busy running this universe according to the whims of His shortsighted children on earth. No matter what His plans for the general good and His own glory God must practically step down from His throne and permit man to become the ruler in His stead.
2. It would involve us and those for whom we pray in untold ruin. What does Ecclesiastes 6:12 say. “For who knoweth what is good for man in this life?” You will remember that Jesus said to a very ambitious woman in Matthew 20:22, **Ye know not what ye ask.” How often that is true. What was it we read in Romans 8:26? “We know not how to pray as we ought.” Some poet has said, “We, ignorant of ourselves, often beg our own harm, Which the wise powers for our good deny. And so we find profit in the losing of our prayers.”
How glad we ought to be that this is so. Here is a father who has in his hand a bottle of aconite, and his little boy, for whom bottles have a peculiar fascination, pleads with him earnestly to give it to him. And so we often go to God for things which if granted would prove quite as injurious to us as the deadly drug would have been to the child had the father thoughtlessly granted the little one his request.
3. Such a conception of prayer is self contradictory. It makes it utterly impossible for God at times to answer prayer at all. Suppose two opposing petitions should go up to God, as they did from the South and the North during the Rebellion? What is God to do? Suppose one man desires rain for the benefit of his particular crop; another man living in the same community is raising such things as at that particular time are in need of dry weather, and he sends up his petition accordingly? Do you think any statement in this Word when rightly interpreted could land God in any such embarrassment as the theory of prayer now in question necessarily involves?
4. Such a conception of prayer would be destructive of Christian character. Have you ever heard of children being spoiled by their parents giving them everything they wanted? If you will think a moment you will see that possibly something not very different from that might be true of us were the heavenly Father as carelessly indulgent in this respect as are some of the fathers of this earth.
5. And, lastly, such a theory does not stand the test of experience. Here a circle of friends pray with all faith as best they can, but the woman whose health they have desired does not survive. Here is a nation praying for the life of its wounded president, but the president does not live.
But, some one asks. Is not the promise in Mark 11:24 an unqualified one? Yes, we answer, but within the limits that are well understood to exist between the two contracting: parties. Here is a man with a well-defined plan for a house. He turns the work over to the contractor with a promise to supply whatever he might want. Very soon there comes a request for an extra supply of material to erect a few towers which in the opinion of the contractor would very much beautify the building. Here is a father who has a plan for his boy’s future.
He sends him to college, saying, “Send to me for whatever you want and you shall receive it.” In a few months the boy sends home for an extra supply of cash for certain side issues of questionable propriety.
Each of these requests are properly denied. “But,” says each of the petitioners, “was not the promise unqualified?”
“Yes,” comes the reply, “unqualified within the limits which the very circumstance of the promise made evident as existing between us.” So God has a plan for the universe looking toward the advancement of His kingdom, and doubtless a plan for the life of each of His children, and any promise He might make must be construed in harmony with the well-understood limitation as necessarily implied in the existing relations between Him and ourselves. And what is that limitation? It is that our petition be not contrary to His own all-wise and benevolent will. This is exactly what He has told us. “And this is the confidence we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us, and if we know that He hears us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petition we desired of Him.’*
Prayer according to the will of God. So Jesus prayed. Listen, as He prays in the Garden, *’Thy will, O God, and not mine, be done.” But did you ever notice that Jesus in that remarkable prayer for those whom God had given Him, the high priestly prayer of John 17:1-26, using exactly the same word in the original, says, “I will,” but here in the Garden it is “not as I will.” There must be a difference, and I think it is just this difference that will reveal to us the right rule for prayer. Had Jesus been absolutely certain that the cup could not pass away, assuredly He would not have made the petition. This we must concede if the petition is to have any real meaning at all so far as Jesus is concerned. We are, of course, face to face in Gethsemane with the deep mystery of his two natures. It is evident, however, that He was acquainted with the Father’s plan in which He was even then taking such an agonizing part. But it is equally evident that He was not altogether certain of what the Father under the circumstances might think necessary or best to do concerning the desire which He three times expressed with his agonizing, “if it be possible.” This appeal was not the blind outcry of a despairing soul.
But, on the other hand, when Jesus prayed for His disciples and for us as recorded by John, His Father’s thought concerning the matter was as clear in the mind of Jesus as it was in the mind of God and certain that what He prayed for was for His Father’s glory. He makes known His desire in terms of His own will because He knew His will to be in harmony with the will of God. And just here is the secret of prayer. In some things we may not know the Father’s mind; we may not know the Father’s will, and for these we only pray acceptably when we add the “nevertheless” of Gethsemane, as Jesus did. But in other matters we may know His will, and when we do, we too can pray as Jesus prayed and say, “I will,” because we know our wills to be in harmony with His and we have simply to count the answer sure and thank Him for it.
But, you say, this is rather a bold attitude to take in prayer. But what did John say? “This is the confidence,” and that word “confidence” really means “boldness,” that we have in Him that if we ask anything according to His will. He heareth us, and in His hearing is involved His answering. John’s Epistle tells us so. But just here is the difficulty. So many complain they do not know when their desires are in harmony with the will of God, and so cannot pray with any appreciable degree of assurance. But if any portion of God’s will has ever been or ever is revealed the fault I now the must be with us if we do not find it out. If we did but give serious attention to what He has said and did but allow ourselves to be kept in condition to understand when He speaks we might not always be without the knowledge we would like so much to have.
How, then, may I know the will of God?
1. I may know it through the Word of God. The Word is full of general promises which we have only to apply to the particular circumstance of our own life in order to ask within the limits of the revealed will of God. Such are the general promises of deliverance and protection and provision, and if the special favor we crave be so covered by the Word, what better guarantee of its bestowal could we reasonably expect.’^
But, to be a little more specific: Read 1 Corinthians 10:13, “There hath no temptation taken you but such as man can bear; but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation make also the way of escape, that ye may be able to endure it.”
Here it is plainly revealed that it is His will that we should not yield to temptation and a promise is given of grace sufficient to overcome. In such an hour, therefore, when we pray for strength what need have we to say, “If it be Thy will”? Read James 1:5, *’But if any of you lacketh wisdom, let him ask of God who giveth to all liberally and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.” In any emergency, therefore, we may virtually make our prayer for wisdom an expression of our own will because that will we know is the will of God. Read 1 John 5:16, “If any man see his brother sinning a sin not unto death, he shall ask and God will give him life.” Here is a promise; and who would think of praying, “Oh, God, save my child; nevertheless, if it be Thy will that he be lost forever in hell. Thy will, O God, and not mine, be done.” The very thought of such a prayer is repulsive; it would be a slander against God and is utterly inconceivable from the pages of God’s Word. Where is it said that “the Lord is 190 How Can God Answer Prayer? not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance”! and so far as God is concerned, when you pray for the salvation of an unsaved soul you may and you ought to throw your *’ifs” to the wind. Other promises might be quoted. He has promised the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him. He has bidden us “be filled with the Spirit,” and to pray for such blessings with an “if” in our petition is to distrust God and to dishonor Him. It is not always submission but absolute, unwavering expectation that honors God when we pray. On the other hand, so far as the testimony of God’s Word goes, it has not been revealed that it is best for us or our dear ones to remain in unimpaired health or to be spared from death, and therefore, unless there be some revelation above and beyond the Word, we only pray acceptably for such favors when we say, “Thy will, O God, not mine, be done.” Not knowing what is best, it is our duty to leave it to Him to give or to withhold as He sees best, knowing, as we do, that all things work together for good to them that love the Lord.
2. Again, we may often discern the will of God by the indications of divine providence. Jesus told the Jews that they might have known the will of God had they studied as studiously the signs of the times as they did the signs of the weather.
Oftentimes, when in perplexity over some contemplated undertaking, the spiritually minded one needs but closely observe the providential arrangement of circumstances and occurrence of events in order to become reasonably sure of the Father’s mind concerning the matter in question. This is what the Quakers mean when they talk about *’the way opening.” If events seem to be so arranging themselves as to “open the way” for the answer to come, it is but a sign they declare that the leading is of God and faith ought to grow strong. Those who have read the history of the founding of George Muller’s orphanages will understand what is meant by what has just been said. Some helpful instruction concerning this important matter is found in the little leaflet, *’How I Ascertain the Will of God,” written by this same giant in prayer who prayed so much wealth and such a marvelous work into existence.
3. And now, once more and lastly, we are brought to the knowledge of God’s will by the help of the Holy Spirit. We saw in our study of Romans 8:26, that whatever else that Scripture taught, it was made plain that the Holy Spirit prays with us and through us and draws out our prayers in the line of God’s will. “We know not what to pray for as we ought,” but “The Spirit helpeth our infirmity.” In some way the work of the Holy Spirit has to do with the human mind. His influence is on the understanding as well as on the heart. “The Paraclete,” said Jesus, “shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.”
It has been the experience and testimony of more than one of God’s saints that he has found himself strangely and strongly drawn out to desire some certain thing, and that when he was certain within himself that his own will in the matter had been put away, he felt deep within his soul a strong and increasingly stronger conviction that the blessing in question was God’s desire for him. It is Macgregor who says, *’If we are under the Spirit’s control, obedient to His voice and attentive to hear it. He will whisper to us what our Father’s purpose for us is, and lead us to pray for things which are according to His will.” And so the Spirit makes known the mind of God; and what other ought one to do under such circumstances than to honor the Spirit by asking with boldness according to the promise given to us in the Epistle of John?
It is here, however, that a word of caution is needed. Some are indeed of the opinion that it is “through the “Word and the Word alone” that the Spirit leads to a knowledge of the Father’s will. While we know His leading is never away from the Word, we are not prepared to assert that it is in no instance independent of it, only we call attention most emphatically to the need of being ruled by a wise caution lest depending wholly upon the “inward light” we be led by human fancy and one’s own feeling, and not by the authority of God. While the Holy Spirit is the great Teacher, the Bible is the great lesson book, and we do not hesitate to affirm that His usual method of “guiding us into all truth” is by applying the Word of God to our hearts, and no sort of supposed personal inspiration can ever warrant us in neglecting the written Word if we would know which way God would have us go and what things He would have us ask or do. The Word and the Spirit — to deliberately separate them often, if not always, leads to error and fanaticism without the Word — what false mysticism, what folly and sin have in the past been traceable to the theology, unworthy of the name as it is, advocating their divorce. On the other hand, the Word without the Spirit — to thus study it alone by the light of our own mental tapers is to be rewarded only by cold and barren conclusions full of false rationalism and untruth. But what a light is the Spirit on the Word!
Even the promises which are so plainly written and which all may read and study can only be revealed to the soul in the full glory of their meaning by the Spirit of God; but, furthermore, how often has it been true that some Spirit-filled child of God, when waiting in some season of prayer and meditation, has been surprised at his own previous ignorance as the Spirit has revealed a new richness of some familiar promise or applied to the special circumstance before him some declaration which otherwise he would never have dreamed could have any such connection with the matter that lay upon his heart. There are countless things we oft desire for which no specific promise is found in the Word of God, but, on the other hand, it is hard to imagine a want that God could at all be willing to grant (sinful, selfish desires are of course excluded) that may not be covered by some general promise which it is the Spirit’s work to discover to us and apply to the particular object engaging our petition. The same caution is needed in our seeking to read aright the providential ordering of circumstances. Indeed, to depend upon any one of the three named methods to the exclusion of the others is to leave oneself open to the liability, if not the likelihood, of conviction other than that which comes from God, but one who is earnestly seeking to know the mind of God will give himself carefully and devotedly to them all, and that one God will certainly lead to the knowledge he so much desires to have.