"THE HEAVENS SHALL HEAR THE EARTH"

Gordon McKay

Joshua 10: 12-15; Luke 11: 1-13; John 14: 12-17; 1 Chronicles 4: 9,1O

When God created the heavens and the earth, one of His thoughts was that what was superior in heaven should influence the earth. Indeed He has in mind a scene where heaven and earth will be in entire accord. We know that what has transpired in the history divinely recorded in the Scriptures is that dislocation has taken place and the breach of God's thoughts in the sinfulness of man and his alienation from God, the alienation in that sense of earth from heaven. Distance has come in, and yet God has not given up the earth. He gives up nothing of what He establishes. He has thoughts and He introduces them and continues them, and completes them. God has His thoughts as to the heaven and earth. At the present time God is operating in regard to the earth, but He still has this blessed thought that the heavens will influence the earth, and we are in the gain of that through the glad tidings and through the disposition and grace of God in the incoming of the Spirit. The earth is being influenced from above. How precious that is, everything coming from God, so that He would bring to bear such influence on the earth.

But what He has also in mind in His operations is remarkable; that those that are on earth should influence heaven. That is, that He would not have the scene on earth simply passive as receiving what comes from above, but that He would work in persons who have a link with heaven. He loves to do that, to work in persons who have faith and a link with God, persons who are righteous, persons of faith and integrity, persons who can influence heaven in their prayers. It creates a sense of wonder in your soul to think of that, that God would have it that our prayers should influence heaven, that the voice of man according to Joshua 10 should influence heaven, indeed influence heaven in the most wonderful way.

Joshua was speaking to Jehovah in a very definite way, and he addressed the sun and the moon and they halted in their course, and it is recorded here that there was no day like that before or after, when Jehovah hearkened to the voice of a man. God loves to work that way. Heaven loves to move in connection with what is produced and is developing on earth according to God's will. You find in the movements of God that He loves to act in connection with those who are looking for Him to act, and are praying, are in connection with heaven.

This remarkable day alluded to in Joshua was a day of vengeance. It was not in its primary setting like our day. We live in another day, a day of rich blessing and a dispensation of favour, not a day of slaughter, or judgment, but a day of blessing. I was wondering if we could enlarge our thoughts then as to prayer and as to how we could take up this exercise, because "the voice of a man" leaves room for exercise that there might be something developed in manhood that heaven would listen to. Heaven has its men here to whom it listens, the saints of God. There are on earth, maintained today, those who pray and heaven listens. In everything Jesus, of course, is a wonderful example to us, blessed lowly Man. We know that in Luke's gospel seven times He is seen as praying, the dependent and praying One! Think of what God had on earth in the days of the Son of Man, the days of His flesh. What prayer, what a connection there was then' between heaven and earth in the prayers of Jesus. The thought of the prayers of Jesus is something that would be worth contemplating, to think of His dependence. He received answers too. He says in John's gospel "I thank thee that thou hast heard me" (11: 41). On another occasion in chapter 12 He said, "Father glorify thy name" (v 28), and there was a voice from heaven, an answer. How blessed to think of Jesus on earth in communion with the Father and speaking and receiving answers. In one of the culminating chapters in John's gospel, chapter 17, you have the Son requesting things from the Father. God operates His own way. We cannot confine Him, we cannot dictate to Him, and He will operate as He wishes to operate, and He loves to act in connection with prayer. He will wait sometimes, I believe, for prayer on our side so that He might act. That would enhance the thought of prayer, that there are persons on earth who have confidence in God and faith, and uprightness, persons who can approach Him freely and with confidence and know that they will receive answers as they pray according to His will as it says in John's epistle.

The first attack on man through Eve was a suggestion, I suppose, that God could not be trusted: when the serpent approached Eve, the subtle suggestion was that God was withholding something good from man - the true knowledge of good and evil - so alas instilling a lack of confidence in God, and thus sin entered in. God works through the glad tidings to establish confidence in our hearts, so that through the gospel and through the divine teaching that follows our reception of the gospel, we are established in the knowledge of God and His disposition, His gracious, giving disposition, the One who gave he Son. "How shall He not also with him freely give us all things?". That is God's disposition. And so we ought to be encouraged to pray and to know that God will listen to us and indeed that He will answer our prayers. He will come in for us in connection with our prayers and He will act, both in our individual exercises, and in assembly exercises, and even in regard to the world itself. He will act according to our prayers, the prayers of the saints. God has chosen to work this way, He loves to do that. He has a testimony here on earth - "not leave himself without a testimony" - and those in whom that testimony is deposited are in touch with Him and speak to Him and He speaks to them. You n understand how blessed this is. Sometimes a contrast is drawn between what Joshua says in chapter 10 to Jehovah, and the day of the glad tidings, which follow the words of Jesus on the cross. Think of the prayers of Jesus. The whole setting of this dispensation is, in one sense, based on the prayers of Jesus, that is that He said on the cross "Father forgive them for they know not what they do". That blessed intercession was heard in heaven, and has given character to the present day.

Where we read in John 14 the Lord Jesus says, "I will beg the Father, and he will give you another Comforter". One of the settings of the great matter of the presence of the Spirit here is this, that He came in answer to a request from Christ, that he begged the Father, and the Holy Spirit was given. Think of the Father, think of God acting in connection with the requests of Jesus; but then He would act in regard to our requests and so we ought to take courage, we ought to grow in our knowledge of God, and as having a good conscience and being set in righteousness, and in faith here, we can approach Him and we know that our prayers can be effective.

The Lord Jesus in Luke 11 is Himself answering a request from His own. He is a praying Man, and here he is in a certain place praying and when He ceased, they said to Him "Lord teach us to pray". They saw something in Jesus that they wanted to emulate, they wanted to learn how to pray. It is a thing you can learn. God's ear is ever open to the cry of any sinner, however ignorant, any despairing cry, the ear of heaven is open. But there is such a thing as learning what it is to be in the presence of God and to pray. And so the Lord Jesus taught them, and He gave them this prayer. It has been taken up and fossilised, you might say, in the professing church, become a kind of ritual, so deeply embedded in the mind that it almost would take away the true virtue and power of what the words actually mean. But we can take up this too in the spirit of it, we can take up what this is and we can say, "Father". That is Luke's account. In Matthew, that is not where prayer begins, as we know, but in Luke, he says when you pray say "Father". How blessed that is! It is the liberty and grace of the present dispensation, God known in grace. The Lord Jesus did that Himself in chapter 17 of John, it says He "lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, Father". How precious that the same privilege is open to you and to me. We can do that in simplicity, we can lift up our eyes to heaven and say, Father. I do not want to go into the detail of it, but you can see that the persons who are praying know the Father, they value His Name, "thy name be hallowed", they think of everything that would honour Him, they think of their own lives and as to whether they themselves in their lives are honouring Him and hallowing Him. They have some thought of His holiness. You see the kind of persons that can approach, and surely their prayers will be heard. They are looking for His kingdom to come. That suggests that they themselves are subjects of His kingdom, subject and obedient persons, and they are looking for that to extend for the Father's glory; they would love to see that, everyone coming under that blessed sway. They are dependent persons, they are forgiving persons, they are persons who desire to be kept in the midst of evil. You can see then that God looks for qualities in persons that can give them a basis to approach Him and to intercede indeed for others, not only to pray for themselves' but to intercede for others.

The Lord goes on and He encourages by this very interesting parable or story. He illustrates the need for prayer. It is a kind of contrast, I take it. There might be in friendship in the world, however sincere, a limit to how much you can ask. But even if you ask at midnight and things are very awkward, and you get a refusal, sometimes by persistence you can get what you wish, because of your shamelessness, keeping knocking at the door at midnight until you get what you want. But then He brings in what I believe is a contrast. The Father will never say, Do not disturb me. You will not get that answer when you pray. His ear is ever open, and so the Lord says, "I say to you, Ask and it shall be given to you".

I would like to ask whether you are a praying person. Do you ask for things? Could you tell me what things you ask for? Have you ever thought of what you should ask for? Have you anything special that you would like, any spiritual desires that have led you to want to make a petition, or more than one petition. The man we read of in 1 Chronicles 4 had quite a list of things, he knew what he wanted and he decided to make a petition for it. So, the Lord encourages us, Be that kind of person, ask. Indeed, He says "seek and knock", that is be persistent, and He brings out the disposition of God. He brings in natural comparisons to help us. Scripture comes down in that sense to help us, to illustrate things to us, as to what a natural father would give to his son, and then he says, "how much rather shall the Father who is of heaven give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?". It is as if it is almost like a kind of epitome, a wonderful touch as to how much the Father would give, that He would give the Holy Spirit to them that ask.

What a thing it is that we can ask for the Holy Spirit. It would apply individually and I understand too that it can apply collectively, because it is plural here: the Father who is of heaven give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him. So, dear brethren, we need the power and help of the Holy Spirit. We can pray about that, we can seek to be in right conditions locally for that. It has been pointed out that this occurs in a certain place, He was in a certain place praying and so we can pray in a certain place. We do that I suppose. The men should pray in every place, it says, and in our own localities we pray in that place. What do we pray for? We can make petitions for our own needs, we can think of much that would come readily to mind, but what is your thought for your locality? Have you a thought, have you a petition? Would you desire holy conditions, would you desire restful conditions for the Holy Spirit, would you like the meeting to be spiritual, would you like the meetings as they proceed to be marked by the, power of the Holy Spirit, and the preaching proceed in the power of the Holy Spirit? Have you a thought as to your locality, a thought as to what would lead to prosperity? You can ask, and you can ask together: "them that ask Him", we can be among those that ask. May we be encouraged to formulate some petitions, to define in our minds and exercises what we would like: perhaps for our own exercises, but even greater what we might like for the prosperity of the testimony and for one another, because we have the privilege of praying not only for ourselves, but for one another and for the meeting and for the whole church of God. You can pray for the assembly. You can seek to be expanded in your affections and think of the assembly, think of those that are here on earth indwelt by the Spirit, that belong to Christ.

In John's gospel chapter 14 we have in the Lord's instruction some amazing statements. I think you cannot go very far in Scripture before you see "wondrous things out of thy law", Ps 119: 18. Think of the Lord saying "Verily, verily". The writers of the other gospels do not use that, it is a John expression for the time of doubt and difficulty and deceit. The Lord says that despite all these problems and clouds He will tell you of something you can trust, and He says "Verily, verily". Have you a 'verily, verily' in your soul? Are you sure in your soul where you are and what you are doing? It is a broken day, a small day and a difficult day, John wrote for these days, and therefore when the Lord says certain things as we remarked in the reading, He says verily, verily, so that there might be the stability in our souls, that we might know where we are assuredly. You do not need to go on drifting in doubt, we do not need to be in doubt or hesitation, we can be definite as listening to the Lord.

Here He tells us, what I would say is one of the "wondrous things": "He that believes on me, the works which I do shall he do also". Is that not astonishing? The Lord is pointing to the time of His absence and He is preparing His disciples, and one of the things He says is that he that believes on Him shall do the works which Jesus did. That is, that there will be still be power available. The Lord is at pains in these chapters in John to show that the disciples will not be at any disadvantage at all, rather at greater advantage. And then, "he shall do greater than these, because I go to the Father". He is pointing to the great advantage of the present disposition of things, that Chris has gone to the Father. There is a blessed Man in the presence of God, a blessed Man with the Father. His own are here, and are asking. In the midst of this great matter of Christ being with the Father, then the incoming of the Spirit, you get verses 13 and 14, the matter of prayer. That is, that the matter is going to be worked out on the principle of prayer, because He says, "whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, this will I do". How is this wonderful dispensation going to be put into effect in our souls and localities? Christ is on high and the Spirit here, and the saints are praying. That is an essential part of this system that is operating at the present time, a system of power and advantage and help in the last days. "Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, this will I do". The Father will surely grant it, and Christ as with the Father will do it. He says "this will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son". Think of the divine economy and the pleasure they have in what is done, the pleasure the Son has in pleasing the Father in bringing about an answer to what He has agreed to, the petitions that He has granted, "the Father ... glorified in the Son". The saints are asking the Father in the Son's name, and all this is pleasing to heaven, and it is efficacious, so the Lord says again, "If ye shall ask anything in my name, I will do it". How remarkable, "anything". He knows, He is speaking to those He can trust, persons that will ask as having right desires in their hearts. We may sometimes tend to think of prayer as a kind of forlorn matter. You see a difficult situation, and you say, We'll pray about it. You find that you are lacking faith that God will come in in regard to it. But I think Scriptures would point to the fact that God will answer prayer as we pray as feeling things before Him and having right exercise. God will delight to answer prayer. You cannot make anything automatic with God, but He delights to do this.

Then we have this added that, as the saints are below keeping the Lord's commandments, He would beg the Father: "I will beg the Father and he will give you another Comforter". Think of the Father giving the Spirit, delighting to give it because Christ has asked that He should give the saints the Spirit to be with them forever, the Spirit of truth. Then the question comes up as to reception, "whom the world cannot receive", because there is not only the request, but there is the idea of receiving what God gives, a fit state to accept what comes in answer to prayer. It runs through these chapters. We read a similar expression in John 15, "If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will and it shall come to pass to you" (v 7), and in chapter 16 too: "And in that day ye shall demand nothing of me ... Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name he will give you" (v 23). How remarkable, "whatsoever". Think of the confidence heaven reposes in such persons, that they will ask and their prayer will so please heaven, that it will come to them. That expression is used in Matthew 18 as to those that pray, "two of you", assembly minded persons as we are often taught. They agree on earth concerning any matter - on earth, mark you - and it comes to them "from my Father who is in the heavens". "Two of you": that is for our day. If you have a small prayer meeting, perhaps only two brothers, that is all you need, and then the thing will come to you, "For where two or three are gathered together unto my name, there am I in the midst of them" (v 20). It is as if there is confirmation in the heart of the two that pray, the presence of the Lord, among the two or three. It might reach to three, things may increase, and you have the sense of the Lord's presence.

And so we ought to be encouraged, dear brethren, and take up this matter of prayer. God has disposed of things, organised or arranged things so that matters will, from one point of view, derive from what is on the earth and what rises to heaven in the prayers of the saints, so that heaven is affected and heaven will act. God will do that, He will even disclose to His servants the prophets what He does. He will tell people what He will do before He does it. He will have those that are intelligent and He will have those that are praying in connection with that intelligence as to what God is about to do. The Lord will come in that connection, I believe, the Spirit and the bride saying, "Come". He will appear, it says, to those that look for Him, He will come in answer to what is down here. How precious a thought that is, that what is on the earth is answering to heaven. It says in the Psalm "truth will spring out of the earth, and righteousness shall look down from the heavens" (Ps 85: 11). There is something springing from the earth that is pleasing to heaven, that is in accord with heaven and heaven acts in connection with this.

I read in Chronicles to emphasise the individual side, because the matters that we have spoken of so far centre largely on what we are exercised about as together and for one another, but Jabez sets out individual exercise and indeed exercise for himself. That is right, that you should have right exercises for yourself, perhaps you ought to begin there. Let no one think then that we should be slow to ask. It is remarkable that this man finds his place in Scripture because of a remarkable prayer. It is about all we know about him as far as I can see. We know his name was Jabez, and he was more honoured than his brethren, we know how he received his name, that his mother bore him with pain, but the reason he finds his place in the divine record is that he prayed and he required an answer to his prayers. Think of that, a person being picked out from among the saints of God to be put in the divine record, and his claim to be there is this outstanding matter that he prayed. As he prayed he called on the God of Israel. It was not a long prayer, but it was a full prayer, and it was a definite prayer and specific prayer. He knew what he wanted and he asked for it. We have that expression, 'whatever they ask', as a kind of open matter as to what you are going to ask. Be sure to ask. Surely if such a God, such a disposition, is known to you, you will want to put in your claim. Ask, and ask fully. Be bold to ask. I think this man was bold to ask. He did not say, I would just like to get through, and get a little bit of help, he prayed with feeling, "Oh that thou wouldest richly bless me". He did not just ask for blessing, he wanted rich blessing. Why should you not want rich blessing and want the best? And "enlarge my border": as if he wanted to be blessed beyond the realms he could see at the moment, to lift up his eyes and see beyond that the realms of divine blessing that are available to him. Then "that thy hand might be with me" - I suppose that is like a third thing, that God's hand may be with him, and another thing is that he should be kept from evil that it should not grieve him. He prayed in that way for himself. And God brought about what he had requested, and here it is recorded in Scripture as a kind of encouragement to us. Have you made your prayer, then? His name was called Jabez because his mother bore him with pain. Perhaps your mother bore you with pain, perhaps you are the product of deep exercises among the saints: you do not know what prayers have gone up for you. We little know what is going on in the way of agonising in prayer for us. Perhaps that is why we are here today, because persons have been praying for us and are continuing to pray. Is there going to be a result from that exercise? The saints desire the best from you. They go to great lengths, they will spend time on their knees, they will persist in their prayers for you, and they are looking for a result. With Jabez there was a result from his mother's exercise and it came out in the definiteness of his exercise.

Let us not draw back from this, but let us make our petitions, dear brethren, whether it be for ourselves, or for our localities, whatever it might be, let us put in these petitions and prove what God can be to us, for His Name's sake.

BIRMINGHAM

14 March 1998