It is important that we understand how to pray. We must not lower our sights from the prime objective God has set before us, or ever focus upon our current passing circumstances or situations. We do not glorify the Lord when we seek miracles and the greater works in order to vindicate ourselves and to prove that He will deliver us from our circumstances.
Are you praying to be delivered from your present circumstance? Do you realize that God leads you into your circumstances—not to show His power, but to reveal Himself when He works His miracle? This is His final purpose. When you are concerned and you pray for your brother’s circumstances, note how you pray. Is it “Lord, deliver him,” or “Lord, fulfill Your will and be glorified in him”?
In many instances it is not necessary for the Lord to vindicate anyone, or for us to take sides and be involved subjectively. All we want is to bring the Living Word of the Kingdom to the whole world. Personal issues should not be our focus. Let this be our main focus: Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Matthew 6:10. Let us believe for this to happen.
Do you want men to see your good works and say, “Why, he’s a good person”? Jesus said, Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven. Matthew 5:16. Everything we do, everything we are, everything we say should have the same amazing quality that every miracle has—every miracle should be a revelation of our Father in heaven. Every miracle should be a message from Him.
Satan has power to perform signs and wonders. II Thessalonians 2:9 uses the term “signs and lying wonders” because they do not bring revelation; they bring deception. Everything that Satan does is designed to present a false image, a false revelation, to distract and try to prevent the will of God from coming forth. Everything that the Lord does—everything He does—is designed “that the Father may be glorified in the Son” (John 14:13).
John 14:12 speaks of the wonderful “greater works than these,” which we shall do. What is the reason for these works? Jesus said, “Believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me, or else believe Me for the very works’ sake” (John 14:11). In other words, “Believe Me, not only because I gave a miracle; but believe Me because I work miracles that reveal the Father.” Do you grasp this truth?
I want to live for the Lord with faith to see a great number of miracles, but not as a credit to me. What a great miracle it would be to quietly work and see a thousand prophets come forth who could outminister me—to so convey Christ that all I speak and teach, and all that I do and reveal in character, is a manifestation of the Lord Jesus Christ.
II Thessalonians 1:10 tells us that Jesus is coming to be glorified in His saints, and to be admired in all them that believe. The great miracle we are seeking in this end-time Kingdom message is that He will be glorified. Jesus is to be admired. We will not be admired; we will not be glorified. When everything is done, we will say, “We had this treasure in earthen vessels” (II Corinthians 4:7). “We were nothing, but look how the Lord came forth! He did it all!” If we seek something else, we will be disappointed. We could end up saying, “Well, I served the Lord all these years. I deserve something better!”
When rocks were being thrown at Stephen, he could have said, “I deserve better than this!” Instead, even at his death he had one focus. He saw the heavens opened and Christ standing at the right hand of the Father (Acts 7:55–56). Stephen’s focus was not on his physical situation. He voiced what he was seeing. This was his attitude: “Don’t look at the way I am bleeding. When they crush my skull as the final blow of stoning, have no sympathy for me. Look, the heavens are open.”
Paul said, too, “I am determined that Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death” (Philippians 1:20). He was saying, “It does not make any difference whether I live or die.” When we pray for the miracle power of God, it must be that the Lord Jesus Christ is glorified in it. He must be lifted up. He must be magnified. The breakthrough we are seeking in our intercession is not that we throw off our harassing circumstances. We want to learn how to pray before God so that we say, “Blessed Lord Jesus, be glorified in me. Be glorified in my life. Be glorified in everything that I do, in everything that I say.”
The third chapter of the book of Acts speaks about Peter and John going up to the Temple to pray. They found a lame man sitting beside the gate, and so they healed him. Then he jumped up and walked with them into the Temple, leaping and praising God. All the people gathered around, and Peter made a very significant statement: “Why look on us, as though by our power or righteousness we had made this man walk?” Peter immediately began to exalt Christ. Why? The purpose of God in a miracle is that it has a message, a revelation of the Lord. Without that, what is the use of the miracle? Be aware that lying signs and wonders will come from Satan. “Many false prophets will arise” (Matthew 24:11). The prophecies in the book of Revelation tell about the enticing, amazing, convincing accomplishments of Satan. But they are without any validity. Whatever power Satan has, there is no righteousness in him—only evil. Therefore nothing can come from him except deception. However, when a ministry is truly from God, nothing can come from it except a revelation of the Lord.
“Oh, we need miracles!”
Yes, we do need miracles.
“We need miracles like Daniel’s deliverance from the lions’ den. God really blessed Daniel!”
Daniel was not really the issue. One mangy old lion could have chewed up the greatest messenger of revelation on the earth in that day. Great revelations were to come to Daniel after that. But this was not really the issue. The issue was that Satan had pushed the decree that no one was to worship God for thirty days, and Daniel would not submit to this. The deliverance was complete when King Darius decreed that there was no one like Jehovah, the only God.
He commanded all the people to worship Him (Daniel 6:1–28). The miracle was not that lions’ mouths were shut. The miracle was that God was revealed. He was magnified! Miracles should have a message. They should have a revelation. They should glorify God!
Now let us look at another miracle, the story of the three Hebrew children in the third chapter of Daniel. They were bound with cords and thrown into a fire so hot that it utterly destroyed those who threw them in. A wonderful miracle happened for the three Hebrews. Amazingly, only their cords were burned, which enabled them to walk out. What was the bottom line of this miracle? King Nebuchadnezzar peered into those horrible flames and saw “a fourth, like the Son of God, walking in the midst of the fire” (verse 25). The miracle was there with a revelation of the Lord. I believe it because it was according to true principles. The miracle was not three Hebrew children coming out unscathed. The miracle was the fact that when God did it, He magnified Himself before the whole civilized world.
A miracle will not be what God does for you personally, in healings or in circumstances, but in the way you look to Him and pray, “I am in this battle, Lord, because I am walking with You. Now, do not be invisible. Reveal Yourself. Make Yourself known. I walk with You, not for vindication, but so that You can be glorified in my life.” If you do not believe in this deep principle of glorifying God, you will degenerate to a subjective level. You will try to defend a personal position which God does not want you to defend.
Have you ever read the song of Hannah in I Samuel 2:1–10? Read all of the first two chapters of I Samuel, which tell the interesting story of Hannah who went up to Shiloh and sought the face of God because she was barren. In those days of bigamy, her rival was another wife who had children and was always taunting and shaming Hannah. Her husband, Elkanah, loved Hannah and said, “Am I not better to you than ten sons?” Still Hannah suffered much and was often ridiculed.
Hannah could have argued about her situation, but she faced her lot as a person ought to face any problem. She cried before the Lord. She interceded. And when the child came forth, she named him Samuel (which means “asked of the Lord”). She did not boast, “Look—I have finally succeeded.” She had cried to fulfill her function in life, but not for her own personal vindication. We know this because she took her little boy to the Tabernacle and gave him to the Lord for as long as he lived. She put him under vows and dedication, and he became the father of the school of prophets from which great men of God for generations were to come forth. Read Hannah’s song, which describes how God brings down the arrogant and the proud, but exalts the humble through whom He reveals Himself. Hannah’s song is a psalm of total praise to the Lord who had been magnified, who had been glorified in her deliverance. This is the way deliverance comes.
It is wonderful to see God give honor and glory to His name. In a difficult situation, God will take action. Sooner or later there will be a release. When it comes, there will be this attitude: “Lord, You are glorified.” There will not be a personal issue at all, just a desire to be free to do the will of the Lord. The basic issue is very simple: “Lord, there is a Word to be spoken. You be glorified in it. You turn Your Word loose. Let it be free and powerful!”
Paul spoke of the time when he was in prison, saying that he was suffering as a criminal, an evildoer; but the Word of God was not bound (II Timothy 2:9). He rejoiced because the Word was going forth. Our focus is to be on the Lord coming forth. Then we will see God deliver us, as He delivered the children of Israel when He brought them through the Red Sea. They were in that situation only because they had followed the Lord. If they had refused to walk in faith, they would have all died as slaves in Egypt, eventually. They probably would have built a few more temples or pyramids first, but in time they would have disappeared from the earth. Because they moved out, they put themselves in a place where they were facing the Red Sea and were being pursued by the enemy. The crack troops of Pharaoh’s guard were coming to destroy them. This could have been one of the greatest slaughters in history, but they obeyed the Lord and marched across.
What could a people be more vindictive about than hundreds of years of slavery—the awful inhumanity of it, the beatings, the way they had been exploited—and the final insult that the Egyptians were following to destroy them. “If we can’t have free labor out of you, we will kill you.” After the Israelites reached the other side, they might have been somewhat vindictive; but mainly they were magnifying the Lord: “Look, the Lord delivered us!” With her tambourine, Miriam and the women were dancing and praising the Lord. He received the glory.
Have this attitude of heart: “Lord, vindicate me, but not for me to step on the neck of my enemies. Deliver me so that the world can see You more clearly, with a deeper revelation of You.” Vindication is incidental. Leave it in God’s hands. He will vindicate whom He will: “Vengeance is Mine; I will repay” (Romans 12:19). Be determined that your focus is so on the Lord that you are coming out of the oppressive place, only for His will and His glory. You are coming forth only to magnify Him.
On the surface, the first miracle Jesus performed seemed somewhat trivial (John 2). It was the miracle of turning water into wine to meet what was not a dire emergency. At the wedding feast they ran out of wine. The miracle of creating wine at the wedding feast was not that essential. Amazingly, this was the first recorded sign that Jesus performed—“He manifested forth His glory, and His disciples believed on Him” (John 2:11). Faith came to them. An anointing came upon them. It was not like a magician’s performance: “See, nothing up my sleeve! Hocus-pocus! Here—we have some wine!” It would have had no purpose unless the hand of God was in it so much that there was a revelation of Him. The disciples saw the glory of the Lord in it and believed on Him.
I will explain this same principle a little differently. When the Lord told His disciples that they were going to go out and perform the greater works, He said, “Whatever you ask in My name, I will do it, that the Father may be glorified in the Son” (John 14:13). There was always to be that revelation of the Lord in all that they would do. Jesus emphasized one expression of it when He said, “You are to bear much fruit, and your fruit is to remain” (John 15:16).
When Jesus told the disciples that He was going to the Father, Philip said, “Show us the Father.” And Jesus answered, “Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not known Me? He who has seen Me has seen the Father. Believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me; or else believe for the very works’ sake” (John 14:8–11). The works of the Son had glorified the Father and had brought a revelation of the Father to the disciples.
There was also fruitfulness in His works. Fruit has a way of coming forth after its kind, whether it is a human being, or fruit on a tree, or a vegetable, etc. This was the law of creation. This is why we are to so live before the Lord that, as we bear fruit, the spiritual laws of Christ’s heredity are effective. Everything that Christ has become within us comes forth in the fruit of our lives. It bears the mark of the Lord Jesus Christ and reveals Him. His divine heredity is manifested in us and through us. This is why people will “glorify your Father who is in heaven when they see your good works.” The works which glorify the Father have a certain quality, a mark. They are living works brought forth as a consequence of living words. They glorify the Lord in every way.
Therefore we pray for the exploits and miracles. Therefore we refuse to allow the Christ within us to be “crucified afresh and put to an open shame” (Hebrews 6:6). Do you visualize this as something in your life done under extreme pressure which would be very derogatory to the Lord? That is not what this Scripture is speaking about. He is not to be “put to an open shame.” If you did everything as well as you could, and then fell away from the faith, it would be under the pressure of Satan desiring that the Christ within you be shamed.
The issue is not whether you are shamed, or whether all the work of your lifetime is laid on the block and people ridicule you. The issue is that everything Christ had wrought through you is put to shame. The Christ in you is “crucified afresh and put to an open shame” before the world. Satan is always trying to make this happen. This is when God needs a miracle. When the need is that He be glorified, then the miracle must honor and glorify Him. It is not that He honors the channel, but He honors what He has become in and done through that channel.
Living works and miracles will come forth for the glorifying of Christ. Understand that we are facing the miracle day. Never have we been more free of the pseudo-religious holiday spirit of this world that oppresses. Never has the Spirit of the Lord seemed to be moving on us so that we are not breaking rank or losing stride or stumbling. We are moving into the greater works which God is bringing.
Let the greater works come so that the Lord may be glorified in His saints. Let the miracles come because the Lord needs them. He is not to be locked up in reproach, and His Word must not be bound. His people will not be put down, because He will deliver them for His name’s sake! For His name’s sake He will deliver us. For His name’s sake is the reason for miracles.
Out of our adversities, let us gain a purer focus on the Lord Jesus Christ than ever before. Out of our adversities let there come forth a greater worship. Let us worship and praise God for more than delivering us out of all our troubles. Psalm 34:6 tells us, This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles. This still has an element of self-pity and self-vindication. Oh, to see the Lord glorified, to see Him magnified so that miracles happen and we do not sink to a personal level of expression! Let us rise to give glory to God. Let us exalt the Lord Jesus Christ who leads us.
From the beginning there was only one Word: “He is Lord!” And in the end there will be only one Word: “He is Lord!” It is true that many rise up arrogantly in the world today. But Isaiah 2:11 tells us that “the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day.” There is no other thing we should look for. We live for this one purpose: “to the Lord be the glory and dominion and power” (Jude 25). “Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:10–11).
Let our hearts be open and our motives pure. Let the revelation of the Lord be the vision we seek. As we cry aloud in intercession, may we cry a little more effectively with our focus on the Lord Jesus Christ. As we pray for those whom God has placed in authority, let us pray for the Christ to come forth in them; and everything else will be taken care of. Our hearts must have a fixed focus. When we look at a problem, we must see what is really behind it—behind everything that happens must be one ultimate purpose: “This is My beloved Son; hear Him” (Mark 9:7). The Father gives glory to the Son.
Years ago, I read a book by a man of God who said that if you want the Father to bless you, find out what the Father wants done and do it, just as Christ did (John 5:19). I saw in the Scriptures where the Father was always desiring to glorify the Son. I started to do this too, and because I was glorifying His Son, the Father could not help but bless me. He honored what I did because my motivation was to do what He wanted done.
Consider why you pray for certain things to be accomplished. If you pray for a hundred dollars for a selfish reason, you will have difficulty seeing your prayer answered. Pray for what God wants to do in meeting a need, so that He is glorified and honored in His people. Then you will have greater strength, because God wants to fulfill His purpose in the earth. The quicker you pray for what God wants, the quicker it will happen; you will have more leverage.
Pray, “Lord Jesus, You be glorified!” The Father wants this. He wants Christ to be glorified in you. In Luke 20:42–43 we see that Christ must reign until every enemy is the footstool of His feet. According to Romans 16:20, God is pleased to bruise Satan under your feet, but only because the Christ in you is prevailing. It is His victory. It is not because you have won any wars—you are executing His victory.
Manifest His victory in the earth that He may be glorified. Pray for miracles that reveal Him.