The objectives of prayer—for what shall we pray? In order to establish this in your mind we will move rapidly so that the whole message is one concept rather than many individual thoughts. I want you to get a feeling rather than to be enlightened by expositions.
Is travail and agony the continual, perpetual state of a church? No. To be frustrated because you are hungry and searching for God, is that a natural, permanent state? No, it is not. Is travail to be a permanent state, or a permanent condition; is that a natural thing? No, it is not, no more than travail is to be a thing a woman is to engage in year after year without ever having release. She travails to bring forth, but the shorter that period, the happier she is.
As a permanent state, do you think we are to be afflicted? Is that God’s desire? “Well, we learn a lot while we are afflicted.” Yes, but I’m in favor of learning it and getting out of it as fast as we can. It is not to be a permanent state in which we live.
Of the chastening of the Lord, the Scripture says, “My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord; neither be weary when thou art corrected of Him” (Proverbs 3:11), but the Lord has something else in mind besides chastening us. That is not to be a permanent state, but rather it is to be that through which we pass; and our hands should always be reaching in to that release that is in God.
What about the spiritual warfare that we seem to be in continually? Hate it! Only somebody who is mentally sick likes war and says, “I want to go in and live in the battle. I want to kill, I want the daily risk of being killed. I want to see the blood, I want to see the atrocities.” But if there is a goal, we go into it.
I don’t like crucifixes. I don’t like the idea of Christ perpetually hanging upon a cross; from the third to the ninth hour was enough for all time and eternity. I want to envision Him a risen, glorified Christ, far above the cross, seated on the throne.
I will go even further. Jesus Himself despised the cross, endured the shame, for the joy that was set before Him (Hebrews 12:2). “I am getting through this, because beyond, there is the redemption of people from sin.” He didn’t enjoy the spittle, the beating, the crown of thorns, the tearing wounds, but He endured them. “Get through it.” And He did, and they still marveled that He died so soon.
It was not to be a permanent state, nor is it to be a permanent state in our thinking. Does God want us to go on continually feeling that we are unfulfilled; sad and heavy hearted?
“For what shall we pray?” We are not praying for this unnatural state to continue. Temporarily, it is in the will of the Lord that we pass through; but the permanent state of the righteous should be clearly identified and clarified in our mind, so we start praying for those ends.
Number one: Seek ye the Lord and his strength; Seek his face evermore. I Chronicles 16:11. I believe in being strong, don’t you? The first thing that I mentioned is strength.
Lord, bring the days that Your people will walk with the strength of Samson and the wisdom of Solomon; bring the days fast upon the house of God.
“Oh, pray for me, I’m so weak, I’ve been hit so hard I can’t endure it.” We have been through that, but we are leaving it. We are coming through to the strength of the Lord, and we will come through to the power of God. This is the permanent state in which we should live—with the power and the glory of the Lord continually upon us.
The second point has to do with the heaviness and sadness. Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name; ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be made full. John 16:24.
I intend for this next year to be the most joyful year that I have ever lived. Not a joy that distracts me from what I should be doing, but a joy that will be complete fulfillment, an absolute feeling of oneness with God and moving in His perfect will. While you are travailing, believe for the objectives that God sets before you.
The concept of prayer, and the objectives are again shown in this third point:
Is any among you suffering? let him pray. Is any cheerful? let him sing praise. Is any among you sick? let him call for the elders of the church; (to give him some sympathy? No!) and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: and the prayer of faith shall save him that is sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, it shall be forgiven him. James 5:13–15.
A man may be sick because he has sinned, but God will heal the sickness and forgive the sin. The idea is to get out of that state. Confess therefore your sins one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. James 5:16a. God wants you healed.
The supplication of a righteous man availeth much in its working. Elijah was a man of like passions with us, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain; and it rained not on the earth for three years and six months. And he prayed again; and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit. James 5:16b–18.
There is a concept behind this Scripture that says—whatever is, if it is not to be the natural permanent state of things, can be changed by prayer. That famine was a chastening, but he prayed fervently that it would not rain and it did not. He prayed earnestly that it would rain and it rained.
There is a time and a season, but things tend to go on unchanged until you fervently pray that they be changed. You could go on in a rut, even a rather high spiritual level, but nevertheless a rut, until suddenly you saw what was happening.
Things in motion tend to stay in motion. Stationary objects tend to stay stationary objects. If you are going down the street and hit a lamp post, the lamp post tends to stay there and your car tends to keep in motion.
There is a law in the spirit world: if you are sitting on the backside of your lap and not moving out for God, you will tend to sit on the backside of your lap. You won’t move out, you will stay right there until you begin to pray fervently, then you will begin to move.
Not moving fast enough? Pray fervently again and you will move a little faster. You want a higher level? Go after it in the name of the Lord. You are in heaviness? Plow through. You are afflicted? Go through. You are sick? Pray earnestly that you will be healed; call the elders. If things aren’t the way they should be in a permanent state, you are not authorized to use as a Scripture, “grin and bear it.” It is not in the Bible. You are to change the things in your life, and you are to believe for that state to be changed.
This is a principle of prayer that you have to see. “What is to be the state of my life?” You say, “Well, you have to be submissive.” That word submissive is a beautiful thing, but be sure you are being submissive to God, and not the devil.
You submit yourself to the Lord and once you see that things are right, then you will resist the devil and he will flee from you. Then you go after him with all of your heart.
When you are sure that your heart is submissive, then you do not submit to the assault of the devil or to circumstances, nor to a spiritual state that should not exist. You live in protest every day. You say, “I protest against this state, this situation, because it is not scriptural as the permanent state of my life. If I must pass through it, amen, but I will get through this in a hurry.”
The last point: if we exist with a state of limitation, we must consider very carefully whether that state is scriptural or not.
If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatsoever ye will, and it shall be done unto you. John 15:7. Whatsoever ye will. And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. Luke 11:9, 10.
Something has to be done about these promises. And when the disciples saw it, they marvelled, saying, How did the fig tree immediately wither away? And Jesus answered and said unto them, Verily I say unto you, If ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only do what is done to the fig tree, but even if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou taken up and cast into the sea, it shall be done. And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive. Matthew 21:20–22. All things whatsoever. This shows us the scope of what we can ask for.
When you start praying for a specific thing and if there is something in the way, and you are delayed and delayed, it may be something in you that would make that answer less a blessing than you think.
So what do you do? You start in and keep on praying. God isn’t deaf, and if there is something in the way, believe Him to deal with that thing in your heart.
“I pray for my affliction but I have come to the conclusion that God is afflicting me.” Well then, find out why He is afflicting you and get rid of it. And if you keep on praying for your healing, you know that God has to deal with that for which He is afflicting you before you can be healed.
We say, “Pray for the apostle.”—“Well, I don’t know how to pray for the apostle.” Keep praying for him anyway. God knows what he needs, and God knows what has to be done. You say, “I’m going to pray for everybody in authority but I don’t know how to pray for those elders, and deacons.” That does not make any difference. Your ignorance surely does not handicap God; it hasn’t so far. Your ignorance of what to pray for or how to pray does not make any difference.
Be filled with the Spirit and make groanings in the Spirit, even with your knowledge and understanding unfruitful. God will still answer it. God delights for you to pray. He is using prayer as a channel through which He can link His omnipotence to human need. If God has chosen that means, then you honor it with all your heart and pray.