Prayer – Releasing God’s Will
“Though God is sovereign and all-powerful, Scripture clearly tells us that He limited Himself, concerning the affairs of earth, to working through human beings.” – Dutch Sheets, Intercessory Prayer
Wow, have you ever thought about it that way. That God not only uses us to do His work here but He has actually limited Himself and what He does based on our willingness to serve? That prayer not only changes things, but without prayer things can not be changed! (For the good anyway). This astounded me as I begin to read Sheets’ book and I have developed a whole new outlook on prayer and the true power and necessity of it.
My view of prayer has always been about developing a relationship with God and asking Him to change some things that I or someone else was in need of. And certainly that it is a huge part of it; however, I never realized that God actually uses me to accomplish His will on earth TROUGH PRAYER!
“We must understand that our sovereign God has for His own reasons so designed the this world that much of what is truly His [perfect] will He makes contingent on the attitudes and actions of human beings. He allows humans to make decisions that can influence history…”
– Peter Wagner
If I had ever thought of prayer in such a way, I would have not rolled back to sleep every time God woke me up at 5am for weeks at a time. I figured — well God will do whatever He wants here anyway so why do I need to sacrifice sleep for it to be done. Little did I realize, God was searching for an intercessor, whom without He could not accomplish His perfect will. A mistake that I will not make again.
The evidence of this Truth is obvious in Scripture. With one of the prime examples being that God Himself had to take on the form of man so that His plan for salvation could be released upon the Earth. And released it was – all things were finished through Christ. Our job isn’t to do the work; it’s to release the work that has already been done.
Now with this all said, you must understand that God Himself is completely independent of anything man does. Nothing a human can do or will ever do will change God Himself. The affairs of Heaven are not contingent upon what we do here. If God wanted to pull the plug on the whole Earth project, He certainly could and in fact almost did – Gen 6:7. However, He chose not to based on one man – Noah. If it hadn’t been for this one man, one just man of God who spent time with the Father in prayer – who walked with God – God WOULD have ended it all. Yet because of one man, God did not. He spared an entire race because of ONE man! How important is the ONE life He has given you! And how important is it that you allow God’s will to be done on Earth as it is in Heaven by releasing it through your prayers? I’ll tell you how important–
“And I searched for a man among them who should build up the wall and stand in the gap (intercede) before Me for the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found no one. Thus I have poured out My indignation on them; I have consumed them with the fire of My wrath; their way I have brought upon their heads,” declares the Lord God (Ezek. 2:30.31).
Simply put, without someone to intercede, God has no choice but to exact the alternative upon us.
Prayer IS a weapon, a weapon of the war that we all find ourselves in. A weapon that upon its use carries the will of the Lord thy God. A weapon that can tear down strongholds and return evil from whence it came. We have a choice…use this weapon to release the power of God upon our enemies or get caught up in the resulting consequences that God unleashes upon His.
As for me and my house, I will serve the Lord.
-Jared
