PRAYER
PRAYER
As to prayer and answers to it, it is evident that answers are not limited to promises, because it is written: “Whatsoever we ask, we receive of him”, (1 John 3: 22) and: “if we know that he hear us .. . we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him”. (1 John 5: 15) We must first understand that we “know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us”, etc., and God “that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit”. (Romans 8: 26,27) Now if I know myself as a child of God,
saying, “Abba, Father”, by the Spirit of His Son, I am entitled to make known everything concerning myself to God who knows the hairs of my head. If I know that He has heard me, I know that I have the petitions that I have desired of Him. If I am spiritually led, that is, if I have the Spirit’s mind - and no christian would like to get what is not the mind of the Spirit - to know that He, so to speak, gives attention to my expressed desire, then I am assured that He will comply with it. There are two conditions of soul for a christian (in adoption) which necessarily are above the condition of soul of the disciples when the words, “After this manner .. . pray ye”, (Matthew 6: 9) were used. At that time the Spirit had not been given to dwell in them - Jesus had not yet risen. The disciples had much to learn. But I find these two conditions of soul spoken of in the epistles: one in Philippians 4, where without any reservation I am told to make known all my requests, and having done so I am to rest in peace. My Father knows it all now from myself!
The second in John’s epistle, where it is, “if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us”, (1 John 5: 14,15) and if I know that He hears me, I know that I have the petition. In the first condition I knew nothing of results, but my making known my anxieties to Him has been effective in garrisoning my heart and thoughts (not mind) in surpassing peace. In the second, if I know something of God, namely, His hearing me, I know, as the consequence of that, that I have the petitions I desired.
Now one word as to not getting exactly what I think I ask for. I believe here christians remarkably fulfil that word, “we know not what we should pray for as we ought”. (Romans 8: 26) For instance, Paul might have asked the Lord that he might serve Him in His church more extensively than ever (when in the shipwreck), and even if he knew God heard him, would he, I [p. 155] ask, have thought that his prayer was answered by his being incarcerated at Rome? Not unless the mind of the Spirit were answered by Paul’s imprisonment. He was spiritual, he would naturally have thought that extended missionary apostolic labour would be the answer. But now we know that his imprisonment led to his most extensive services to the church, reaching down to this present time, for it was during that time most of his epistles were written.
Take another case; Habakkuk 3. He prays for the revival of Jerusalem. God heard him, but if you had asked the prophet, What revival do you count on? he would have answered, A present one! But what says the Spirit of God? Your prayer is answered, but the revival will be in the day of glory! With God, when we really depend on Him about anything, instead of giving a stone for a fish He gives, if I may so say, a salmon when only a trout is asked for. He always surpasses our suggestions or conceptions when we depend on Him.
We never yet got any gift from God which we had asked Him for and waited on Him for but it exceeded our ideas. We might mourn for quails and they might be given to teach us our folly, but if we look to the Lord for anything, such as the conversion of our friends or any other desire, we shall know Him in either of the two ways I have adduced.