Murray, With Christ in the School of Prayer1 Lessons 19-24
John R. Wible, Editor Lesson 19 Power for Praying and Working. Top Ten Key Points:
• Jesus' teachings on prayer "grow" with the spiritual maturity of his disciples. In the early days, Jesus had the disciples in camp as neophytes; later, they became His friends and co-workers. He re-purposes prayer from self-focused to mission-focused.
• Early on, He simply taught that whatever you ask in prayer, you will have. Later, He adds the effective prayer for the mission God has been given.
• As the church is born, Jesus shows that no one can do the work without God, but with God, "all things are possible."
• By going to the Father, Jesus is able to abide in each person and work through each one as He prays for them to the Father. They may ask it "in Jesus' Name" and it is done.
• The mechanism for the doing of the work becomes the prayer of faith, sola pricatio. • History bears out Jesus' statement that they would do "greater works" than He. • A novel thought, Stedman says that the Church does not do the work, Jesus does. • In the Church Age, prayer has a mature purpose, praying for the mission - personal
prayer, though is not excluded. • The more we work and pray for the work, the more faith we will be given. • The more faith is given to us, the more we realize our need for prayer until we "pray
without ceasing."
Scripture Reading: Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father. 13 Whatsoever you ask in my name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it. John 14:12-14.
Jesus opened His ministry in the Sermon on the Mount with words of prayer. Here, as recorded by the Apostle John, He closes His ministry with words on prayer. [The passage is part of the Upper Room Discourse.] There is a significant difference in His audience and content. While in the former, He is teaching neophytes about how to use prayer for themselves.
He approaches them as children and He appeals to that child-like faith. In the latter, He refers to them as friends and teaches on prayer for getting the work done.
[If I may be permitted a sports analogy, the Sermon on the Mount's teaching could be likened to fall football camp where the individual fundamentals are stressed. Each player is taught how to get into physical condition to be the best player he can be. At His parting, Jesus approaches the disciples as team members. He has given the doing of the work to them, prayer on behalf of the team will be the way they will do it.]
A new creature is born - the Church. To her is given the bringing in of the Kingdom. At face value, this is an impossible task, and in a way it is. In another way, it is not. We can all confess, though, I submit that we don't really believe sometimes, that we can do nothing on our own. All our righteousness is filthy rags that includes all the "good works" we do in our own strength." However, we can equally confess that I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
Just as a new creature, a new power is to be unleashed - or at least "re-purposed. That power is prayer, not the prayer for ourselves, but prayer that works with God to bring about His will. Jesus has hinted at this in when He told the disciples to pray for laborers. It may well be that they had only a vague understanding of that command at the time. As the plan unfolds, the meaning of that prayer and ones like it in nature will become not only clear but necessary.
Jesus here tells them that they will do greater things than He has done. Really . . . greater things than Jesus? He gives two reasons for this statement. First, He is going to the Father to assume a new role. He will now be the advocate for the Church. To do this, He will receive the power from God the Father to ask in prayer and have it granted. He will become "their man in Heaven," with instant access to the seat of Power, the Father.
The mechanism of how His transformation of roles takes place is interesting, but is probably outside the scope of this note. The point is that He receives the power to pray to the Father on their behalf and He gives that power to them to pray through His Holy Name - meaning in accordance with His character and will.
[We cannot overstress here that "praying in Jesus' Name" does not mean tagging the phrase onto our prayers, though that is acceptable, perhaps desirable, it means that our prayer must be the same type of prayer that Jesus would pray were He similarly situated.]
Secondly, He will now give that power to them. The mechanism for the Church's receiving will be prayer - the prayer of faith, sola pricatio, quae ex fide tantum.
[Ray Stedman comments in The Holy Spirit and Prayer at this point that Jesus is not saying that the disciples will themselves do the work. What he is saying is that he, Jesus, will do the work through them. This is in harmony with Paul's great declaration in Galatians 2:20. “For through
the law I died to the law so that I might live for God. I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God.]
Did history bear out that the early actually did do greater things than Jesus? Absolutely yes. When Jesus ascended, He had amassed about 500 followers. Murray observes of them that at that point, they weren't very good followers either. He healed the sick, cast out demons, taught thousands of people and raised the dead. Did the early church do the same? They absolutely did. Through their appropriation of the power of prayer, they grew from 12 (back to 11, then back up to 12) to "a cast of thousands."
Churches were planted all over 3 continents, from Britain to India and from North Africa to the gates of old Babylon (or what was left of them.) They preached with great power - Peter at Pentecost. They taught thousands in synagogues, homes, fields and in the Roman catacombs. They raised many from the dead and cast out many demons. Ultimately, within three and a half centuries, the Teachings of Christ became the "state religion" of the world's great super power. All this working in partnership with Christ through prayer.
Their only limitation was their own faith, because Jesus had promised them that "whatsoever" they asked, [if it is for God's purpose] they shall have. This leads to two points. The first is obvious from what they were enabled to do - whoever would work for the Lord must pray. The second point is its partner - whoever prays must work.
As you will remember, at the outset, Jesus had them in fall camp teaching them how to pray starting for themselves and appropriating whatever they asked. Now, however, they are on the field of play, every prayer must be for the glory of God and the edification (building up) of the church.
[This is not at all to say that they (and by extension, we) are no longer to pray for personal things. But, I submit that it is a mark of spiritual maturity that the more of your prayers are for others and for the work than for yourself. It's easy to get stuck in that baby stage. Paul talks ab out it when he make the analogy about meat and milk. See 1 Corinthians 3:2. We should learn, through prayer and through the teaching of the Spirit, to "get over ourselves," our comfort and our security, and move on to the mature prayers of intercession.]
Luke 19:26 has many applications. "I tell you that to everyone who has, more shall be given, but from the one who does not have, even what he does have shall be taken away." One such application is to prayer. The more we work and pray for the work, the more faith we will be given and the more we exercise that faith, the more we will realize our need for prayer until we come to the point that we truly know within our innermost being that we must "pray without ceasing" or die! [James tells us in 2:17 that "faith without works is dead."]
[To this I would add with some fear over overstating the point, "Likewise, prayer without faith AND works isn't prayer, it is selfishness. [This cycle of the interrelationship among prayer, faith and work (service) can be demonstrated graphically. Please see the last page. Note how each begets the other.]
Lesson 20 Prayer to Glorify the Father or the Chief End of Prayer
Top Ten Key Points:
• The prayer that succeeds "glorifies the Father," the only worthy prayer. • Westminster Catechism: "Chief end of man: to glorify God & enjoy Him." • Prayer is an extension of this chief end - John MacArthur. • "Glorify God:" to "reflect" God's glory that men might come back to Him. • Jesus returns to Heaven. He has "glorified" God in Person as a man;
as advocate for the Church, He continues this work in a different manner. • We know our prayer glorifies God when it harmonizes with His Word. • Just as a team plays the way it practices, we pray the way we live. • Too often, prayers don't glorify God, thus, "amiss" and ineffectual. • When this happens, refocus on God, the true object of prayer. • When we "pray right," we will "live right" and receive a new heart.
Scripture Reading:
Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father. 13 Whatsoever you ask in my name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it. John 14:12-14.
This is a continuation of Lesson 19 with the same scripture. However, the emphasis is different. The Point of this lesson is that in an advanced state, the prayer that succeeds is the prayer that "glorifies the Father." In the end, that is the only prayer that is worthy. [We have often quoted with approval the Westminster Catechism, the Shorter as pronouncing that the "chief end of man is the glorify God and enjoy Him forever." As John MacArthur tells us in "How to Glorify God, Part 2" Grace to You, this statement is based on Psalm 16:8, 9. Prayer is an extension of this end. If our chief end is to "glorify God," then the chief end of everything we do is to "glorify God," our prayer to no lesser extent.] [A word here on what it means to "glorify God." John Piper in an address to the Campus Outreach Staff Conference, July 15, 2013, says the following.
Definition: “Glorifying” means feeling and thinking and acting in ways that reflect his greatness, that make much of God, that give evidence of the supreme greatness of all his attributes and the all-satisfying beauty of his manifold perfections.] May I suggest a simpler meaning? It means to reflect God's glory to the world. It does not mean to add to God's Glory. We can't do that because God's glory is perfect. We can neither increase it nor reduce it. What we can do is to "reflect" it so that the whole world can see how magnificent He really. In that way, the people of the world are drawn to Him.] Murray reminds us of Jesus great high priestly prayer in John 17:1, 4 in which He prays, "Father glorify the Son that I may glorify you. . . I have glorified you here on Earth, [therefore,] glorify yourself in me. Jesus is praying here that the Father would now take up on back to Heaven for two reasons.
• On Earth, Jesus has glorified His Father. Everything He did was solely for that purpose. While He did great works of service to His fellow man and while He taught great timeless truth, the goal of it all was not the work itself, but that in doing it, He glorified the Father.
• Secondly, He then says, "Take me to be with you that I might glorify You, My Father, even more."
[As we saw yesterday from Stedman, when we do the great works of faith about which Jesus speaks, it is not really we who are doing the work it is, as Paul tells us, "Not I but Christ that lives in me." We now begin to see the direction in which Murray is taking us, IE, prayer is not about us, it is not even about the people, places or things about which we pray, it is about glorifying God.] [How do we know that we are glorifying God in our prayer? It is by comparison with the Word. Hebrews 4:12 says, For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. This verse has a double meaning. The "Word" is the written Word, the Bible, but it also refers to Jesus, the "Word of God." John 1:1.] Thus, the "Word" as logos and rhema. Murray tells us that all too often, our prayers are not designed to glorify God but rather to give us a selfish interest. He says that we pray in this manner because, at our core, the glory of God is not the chief aim of our life; rather, self-interest is the aim.
As Murray has already observed, our prayer life is a reflection of the rest of our life. If we live our life in reference to what's best for us, we will likewise pray in reference to what's best for us. Murray gives us the prescription for the ailment which is embodied in the question the previous paragraph must beg, "How do we do this?" Murray's prescription is to focus our life on the glory of God. We should pray the prayer that is guaranteed to get an affirmative answer, "Father, show me your glory and let it be the guiding force of my life." [To pray this prayer and mean it requires a lot of us and it would be easy to think of all the reasons that we don't really want to do this. But may I submit that these are all side issues. To quote the most famous line from The Sopranos, "Forget about it!" Let me challenge you to get alone with God and just say, ""Father, show me your glory and let it be the guiding force of my life." When other things come into your mind, "forget about it!" Keep the focus on God. Upon the Word of God, He will answer this prayer. But, fasten your seat belt because He will take you on a real ride.] [And prayer? When this is the true prayer of your heart, your heart will change, He will replace it." Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh." Ezekiel 3:26. This new heart will be made evident in your new prayers which will truly "glorify God."] [There is a beneficial side-effect in this process. If it is true (and it is) that if we "seek first the Kingdom of Heaven and His righteousness," (Matthew 6:33) then all else we be added to us. This draws the real "circle of life" to completeness. Jesus draws the real "circle of life" when He says in Matthew 10:39, "He who has found his life will lose it, and he who has lost his life for my sake will find it." 2And again He says, "For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. Matthew 16:25.]
Lesson 21 Prayer – The All-Inclusive Condition Top Ten Key Points:
• God's promises are always conditional. • God will answer prayer if we" abide in Him;" Many can't accept this and it seems to
contradict scripture so we add conditions but its only condition is "abiding." • Since we pray through Jesus, logically, "abiding" takes care of all conditions. • However, we cannot "abide in Christ" on our own, God must enable us. • The "Abiding" process: Given believing faith, we do so; in exercise, this matures to
"taking hold of Jesus" faith; this matures into "abiding faith." • In "Abiding," we open ourselves to Christ and then let Him take control. • "Abiding" is a moment by moment activity; we must die daily to self. It's hard. • Yet, "abiding in Christ" is the path to Sanctification. • Sanctification is hard; we must admit our inability & take constant food from God. • We must focus on God, not on the outcome nor any part of the process.
Scripture:
If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. John 15:7
In all of God's promises, there are always conditions. It is so with this passage, God says that He will done whatever we ask if we abide in Him and His Words abide in us. Murray holds that many [most?] believers refuse to accept either portion of this covenant. We find that it is not so easy to accept God's condition that we abide in Christ. Since we have trouble accepting that premise, we likewise find it difficult to believe that we will have what we ask. Since it is difficult for us to maintain our integrity as Believers, we have a dilemma. If we accept both premises as true then we wonder why so many of our prayers are not answered. Does that mean that God has not kept His promise? Does it mean that we are not abiding in Christ? Murray states that we usually extricate ourselves from the dilemma by adding an unstated condition to the statement - "if it is according to God's will." The problem with this, according to Murray is that the extra condition is not there. The covenant stands as written. This seems to run counter to what we think is the great weight of other scriptural authority. [I must confess that my research on the subject has found but one verse in the New Testament that seems to add the qualifier. 1 John 5:14 states, "This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us."] [To the contrary, several verses restate Jesus' bold assertion. 1 John 3:22 states, ". . . whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight." Likewise, James 5:15 states, "the prayer offered in faith will restore the
one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up, and if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him. If one considers the dilemma logically, it cannot be decided any other way. The only reason we have the authority to ask God for anything is because of and through Jesus. In effect, it is not we that asks of the Father, it is Jesus who asks. If that be so, the Father will answer. Perhaps, rather than struggle with these premises, we should just believe the latter, that God will answer our request, and admit our inability to live up to the former, that we abide in His word. If abiding in God and in God's word is the only condition, the question of the meaning of that phrase must be explored. To abide in Christ is not to "get holy" on occasion, but it is the die to self and let our life be not ours but Christ's. Philippians 1:21. When we are a young believer, whether in age or in experience with Christ, we find abiding in Him a joy as we are fueled by the adrenalin and excitement of our new-found faith. But as this adrenalin burns off, we revert back to our "old self." Thus we find "abiding" to be difficult. Murray suggests that the abiding in Christ is a stepped process. [In response to the calling of the Spirit,] we are given the faith to believe [in] Jesus. Many of us stop at that point. However, the faith we receive to be believe and be saved must grow and mature if we are to abide in Christ. When we exercise this faith, it matures and begins to "take hold of" Christ. As this happens, our inner self, the one we keep so closed and protected, opens up and allows the Spirit of Christ to search it, to bring to light those things that are not God's will and ultimately to purge it of those things. When we allow that to occur, we begin to allow Christ to live through us. See John 14: 20. Murray tells us that true "abiding" consists of two parts. First, opening ourselves to His presence. See immediate paragraph, supra. Secondly, letting Christ take the place of "self" on the throne of our life. [I am reminded here of the little booklet, The Four Spiritual Laws, and the throne illustration therein.] When Christ abide in us and we in Him, it is not we who pray, but Christ who prays through His Spirit. Since God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are always in harmony of wills, the prayer we have uttered will be in accordance with God's divine will. That being the case, it must be answered. Logically, it all falls into place neatly, but in real life as we too painfully know, it's certainly not that neat. Murray, recognizing this, admonishes us not to be discouraged. It is a process, [actually, the process of sanctification.] Just as the little tree branch wants to grow into a sturdy limb, it has to continually keep on absorbing nutrition for the truck and root. That's what we need to do, admit that we cannot do this alone and purpose in our heart to keep on taking nourishment from God through our admittedly, halting efforts at prayer and our frequent doses of His Word.
Murray's final piece of advice on this has to do with focus. We should not focus on the process, IE, we need not continually pray that God will do this work in us. Rather, we simply focus on God. [Keep our prayer God-centered and not "me"-centered." That is something we can all do.] Lesson 22 The Word and Prayer Top Ten Key Points:
• Before prayer, God's Word strengthens us by giving us assurance of our justification and our position to ask in prayer.
• After prayer, God's Word informs us what we should pray. • In prayer, God's Word reveals the answer to the prayer. • Prayer should be a dialogue. God listens to us only as we listen to Him. • Jesus adds to His earlier statement to the disciples: "You abide in me and I in you"
becomes, "Abide in me and my Word abides in you." • In God's Words, He gives us commands and guidance. Through our words, we and He
have fellowship - the greatest of all blessings. • If we've not heard God's word, we can't do God's Word; If we don't do His Word, we're
not abiding in Him; If we’re not "abiding in Him," there is no answer to prayer. • Knowing about God doesn't equal “knowing" God; it’s as important what God said, as it
is that God said it. That's the blessing. The "what" will follow the "who." • "Doing" His Word is the test of "hearing" His Word. • Unlike Tibetan Monks, Christians we each have a real "prayer wheel;3 " Our prayers fail
because we don't metaphorically "spin" our "prayer wheel."
Scripture:
If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. John 15:7.
This is a continuation of the thought raised in the previous Lesson 21. That the Word and prayer are vitally linked is axiomatic. Before prayer, God's Word strengthens us by giving us assurance of our justification and our position to ask the prayer and that the prayer will be answered. See Lesson 21; after prayer, God's Word informs us what we should pray; in prayer, God's Word reveals the answer to the prayer because the Word and the Spirit allow us to hear the voice of God. Prayer should be a dialogue. This is a fact we too often miss in our rush to ask for things, thus turning it into a monologue. Just as we ask God to "incline thine ear to me," so He asks us to do the same. See Psalms 17, 31, 45, 71, 78, et seq.
Murray tells us that God's desire to listen to us is tied to our willingness to listen to Him. Likewise, His abiding in us is coequal with our abiding with Him. In His earlier ministry, Jesus has told the disciples that they are to abide in Him as He abides in them. Now, in its fullness, His statement is slightly, but importantly, altered. "You abide in me and my Word abides in you. Note the subtle difference in His statement. This tells us that Christ's Words are equal with Him. This is not surprising since we have already seen in previous lessons that to meet with God's Word is to meet with God, the denotation being that God and His Word are one in the same and inseparable. In God's Words, He gives us commands and guidance. Through our words, we and He have fellowship - the greatest of all blessings. In His word, He reveals not only His promises but Himself. Our response is dependent on our having heard His words. Murray points out that those who work with the hearing and speech impaired all know that as a general rule, the deaf do not speak well because they have not the ability to hear well. The same is true of us in a spiritual sense. God did not create us spiritually deaf. That is something that we practice until we become adept at it. When we refuse to hear God's word, we eventually lose the ability rightly speak back to him. That is not to say that we cannot voice what we think are prayers - perhaps, even eloquent prayers. But if we have not heard the Word of God, we do not abide in the Father. As we have seen in the previous lesson, the "abiding in Him" is the sine qua non of speaking a prayer that will be answered. Isaiah 1:4 tells us that the ear of the learner, wakened morning by morning, prepares him to speak to God [effectively.] We can study the Word for the sake of study [as I am doing right now,] and that certainly has its value, but it is not the same thing as listening to the Word for the sake of hearing God speak to us personally. When we read the Word and then silently listen, God has promised that He will speak to us through it - but we have to both read and then listen. Failing either, we are merely gaining information. Granted, this may be useful information, but it is information that we gain, not God that we gain. While the former has its purpose especially for teachers, it is no substitute for the latter if we truly desire to grow in our faith and our abiding in Christ. The chief point is not knowing what God has said to us but that it is God that has said it. [We seem to keep coming back to "seek ye first the Kingdom of Heaven . . . and all these [other] things will be added to you. Matthew 6:33. That seems to be the key to understanding not only the Bible and everything it has to say, but also to knowing God.] The test of whether we have heard the Words of Christ is whether we do the words of Christ. "If you love me, you will keep my commandments." John 14:15 [Another scripture that seems to keep "popping up" in this series.] The Old Testament is full of examples of men and women who understood this principle. Again, the test for is concerning whether we are "abiding" in Christ and His Words are abiding in us is whether we replicate His Words by our actions. [James 2:17 tells us that "faith without works is
dead." We might slightly paraphrase that yet maintain the thought, "faith without works is not really faith at all." If we think that it is we are deluding ourselves.] [Here is the real "Prayer Wheel." As we hear the Word and do the Word, our faith increases because we can only do these things by faith. The more we learn this, the more we learn that we need God just as we need air. The more we know this, the more time we will spend with Him in prayer. The more time we spend with Him in prayer, the more we learn Himself. See the attachment at the end. Murray chides us for our unanswered prayer and how we complain about them. The [prayers are not answered, Murray says, simply because we are not abiding in Christ. If we abide in Christ, He will answer our prayer because we will be praying what is His good and perfect will and not that of our own concoction. Lesson 23 Obedience – The Path in Prayer Top Ten Key points:
• The promise to give us what we ask in prayer is made to those who "abide in Christ." Bearing fruit [not talking about bearing fruit] is the evidence of "abiding in Christ."
• Total dedication to Christ is required to bear fruit. • Our dedication to Christ is demonstrated in our love for Christ. Our love for Christ is
shown by our doing what He Commands. • We don't pray for a good thing to happen and then go see about it, we ascertain God's will
and then go do it in the faith that He will make our “doing” fruitful. • As we are doing God's will, we can then ask to the great prayer of faith. Note the timing. • Among the requirements for fruit-bearing are faith and obedience. • Obedience is the mark of faith; God gives us more faith and obedience as we begin to
show faith and obedience. • If our prayer life is ineffective, this is generally evidence that we are not doing as we
should. If our prayer life is absent or a miserable failure, maybe this is an indication of a deeper problem.
• If either of these is the case, the way back is simply to focus in prayer on God, neither on the fruit nor the failures.
• Make each day count for Christ.
Scripture:
You did not choose me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you. John 15:16
Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much. James 5:16. The promise to "give what ye ask" is here renewed and taken in a different direction. [We "drill down" deeper into it.] To whom is this promise made? It is not to everybody, not even to every believer, but as we saw in the two previous lessons, to "the one who abides in me," Jesus says. John 15:7.
What is the evidence of this abiding? It is fruit. Nothing less than total dedication to the "fulfilling of our calling" will do. Fruit is the mark of that dedication - not words, not even otherwise "good works," but the fruit of the seed that Christ has planted in each of us. [Let's be clear, Murray is not advocating the bearing of fruit as a requirement for salvation, rather, he is addressing it in the light of powerful prayer.] Murray paraphrases the scripture here. Note the order of the phrases. "If you keep my commandments, you shall abide in my love; you are my friends if you do whatsoever I command." He says that the words are meant to be read literally. "I appoint you that you should go and bear fruit, then whatsoever you shall ask the Father in My Name, He may give you." Murray calls our attention to the order of the phrasing. We are called first go out and do the labor, then we can ask the Father and He will give it to us. It does not work the other way. We don't first ask God for the power to go do something. Rather, the first we do is to determine through prayer and the Word what He is calling us to do, Secondly, we go start the work in obedience to that Word and in faith the He will prosper it. Then and only then, can we claim the promise that He will give us what we ask because what we ask will be for the purpose of prospering the mission he has given us and that brings glory to God. Remember in a previous lesson, we learned that God gives us power in prayer as we use it. He does not give us the power based on our promise to do good things or our desire to do good things. Obedience is now added to the recipe. Like so many of God's gifts, God empowers the obedience yet, obedience must be first shown. There's a good reason for this. Obedience is a demonstration of what's important to us. If doing God's will is important to us, we will do God's will and pray for the power to do further and better things and more effectively. If our own self-will, comfort, and security is our aim, we are not acting out of obedience and God's promise does not hold. [Frances Shaffer tells us in How Should We Then Live? that modern man has reduced his goals in life to these two things: comfort and security. Modern man is will, in the end, says Shaffer to ultimately sacrifice all for these two aims. God forbid that this should be said of us.] If we take Jesus as our example, which rightly we should, we see that His was a life of service and obedience. Prayer followed and was intermingled, but He was always seeing what the Father was doing and then Himself doing it. John 5:19 says,
Therefore Jesus answered and was saying to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner." Faith is likewise demonstrated in obedience. It takes not only obedience, but faith as well to step out to do the impossible with God. But only in our stepping out will it be done [and will we receive the blessing, I might add." The test of faith and obedience to God's will is not believing that God can do a thing, rather it is the grasping hold of the thing to attempt it praying in faith as we go that God will accomplish it through us. In vv. 5 and 8, Jesus reminds us that He chose us. We didn't choose Him. Likewise, He chose us to do certain things. If we are faithful and consecrated, we will do those things and no other. Murray reminds us that "obedience is the only pathway to God." If He says it, we do it. [So here is a clue as to why our prayers aren't getting above the second floor. Simply put, our lives do not give the evidence that they are what they should be. And what do we do if this is the case with us? As we have previously said, we don't focus on our failures or even on the fruit, but on the One who never fails, the one who gives the fruit. The dangers in this missed focus are numerous, but for our purposes here, two stand out. First, we may mimic A. A. Milne's Eeyore and bog down in a "woe is me" self-pity or, on the other hand, we may assume the peacock pose of Lester L. Laminack's Three Hens and a Peacock saying, "Hey look what I did" egotism. Neither position gives glory to God. Likewise, He will honor neither. Put another way, praise God for the successes then go on. Confess and repent of the failures, then go on. In either case - go on.] Note what the branch does with fruit. It does not make the fruit, neither does it produce the fruit, it merely bears the fruit, that is to say it merely holds it up and out until it is time for some other called person to pick it. If we don't bear fruit, we are in danger of being cut off from the fruit altogether as Jesus did with the fig tree in John 21:19. Seeing a lone fig tree by the road, He came to it and found nothing on it except leaves only; and He said to it, “No longer shall there ever be any fruit from you.” And at once the fig tree withered.4 It comes down to this, if you want a powerful prayer life, you will obey, have faith and bear the fruit that the Master gives. [If you don't want a powerful prayer life, may I suggest you re-examine your life and find out why not. It may be more than just not doing God's will - and, that's a scary thought.]
[Coach Bryant was in the habit of reading the following unattributed poem each day.]
“The Price I Paid”
This is the beginning of a new day. God has given me this day to use as I will.
I can waste it or use it for good. What I do today is important as I am exchanging a day of my life for it.
When tomorrow comes, this day will be gone forever. Leaving something in its place I have traded for it.
I want it to be a gain, not loss--good, not evil. Success, not failure,
in order that I shall not forget the price I paid for it." Lesson 24 Prayer – The All-Powerful Plea Top Ten Key points:
• Whatever we ask "in Jesus' Name" will be done by the Father. • The limitations on this statement are not explicit but are "implicit." • Jesus chose us to be possessors of this power. We didn't choose Him. • In this latter portion of His ministry, Jesus' statement of prayer "in His Name" adds a new
level to prayer, one of trust and of faith. • There are many examples of taking another one's name, but in so doing, we take the other
one's power and reputation as well. • The limitations on this are self-executing - implicit. • [Jesus may have had the picture of Roman adoption in mind when He invokes His name
as the means of prayer.] • After Jesus' ascension, the only proper prayer in in His Name. • Merely saying or thinking we pray "in Jesus' Name" does not make it so. • Having the power to pray in Jesus' name carries with it the responsibility to use the power
for the glory of God which is our chief end. (See the Westminster Catechism.)
Scripture:
Whatever you ask in my name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it. John 14:13-14. You did not choose me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you. John 15:16.
In that day you will not question me about anything. Truly, truly, I say to you, if you ask the Father for anything in my name, He will give it to you. 24 Until now you have asked for nothing in my name; ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be made full. . . In that day you will ask in my name, and I do not say to you that I will request of the Father on your behalf. . . John 16:23, 24, 26.
Until this point, the disciples have not asked anything "in Jesus' Name." They had not been instructed to. Now, as Christ ascends to the Father, the relationship between Heaven and Earth is about to change. The expression has only been mentioned once, their "meeting in Jesus' name." But now, Christ repeats over and again that "if you ask anything in My Name, the Father will do it." This in not God’s obligation to do it, it is His joy to do it because it brings glory to Him.
[Tis but thy name that is my enemy; Thou art thyself, though not a Montague.
What's Montague? It is nor hand, nor foot, nor arm, nor face, nor any other part
Belonging to a man. O, be some other name! What's in a name? That which we call a rose
by any other name would smell as sweet. Shakespeare, William, Romeo and Juliette, Act II, Scene II.]
[What's in a name, indeed? When the Name is Montague or Capulet - nothing, but when the name is Jesus' Name, in nomine filius - everything.] Murray gives several examples of the meaning of a name: the picture of a person, the whole of the person, and the impression the person gives. When referring to a King, it represents the kingdom as well including his honor and authority. When referring to God, each name represents one of the limitless aspects of His divine personality including His triune nature. When A does something in B's name, the phrase represents the power and authority to do what is done on behalf of A by B. Giving such a power requires that A trust B. [In a legal sense, for commercial purposes, one may give a power of attorney whereby the principal names his agent and delineates the extent of the power given to act in the principal's name. These powers are given with the greatest solemnity and awareness of the empowerment so bestowed. When Jesus tells the disciples to pray to the Father "in His Name," He places no such limitations. [As we have observed in earlier lessons, this seeming carte blanche gives us pause and we place limits on that Jesus does not place. However, as we have learned, praying in Jesus' Name is indeed not carte blanche.] It carries within itself the [self-executing] concept that though whatever is prayed for will be done by the Father, it must be prayed for in Jesus' name. Even though we may say or even think our request of the Father is in Jesus' name, if it, in fact is not, then as James would say, "we pray amiss."
[One example that Murray does not cite is one pointed out by Barclay that would have been well known to the disciples - Roman adoption, especially by Caesar. The first Roman Emperor, Julius Caesar (Emperor,) established the custom of a Caesar hand-picking his heir by adoption when in his will, he adopted Gaius Octavius as his son and heir to the imperium. Octavius, who became known a Caesar Augustus, the Caesar in power when Jesus was born, was an adult at the time of the adoption. Other Caesars, though not all, likewise adopted their successors.] [A Roman adoption was somewhat like our American adoption except more so. When one was adopted, the legal person he was ceased to exist. His debts were canceled and all crimes he had committed "went away. Likewise, he too, takes the name of and became a full heir of the adopting father co-equal with natural-born heirs. Perhaps this picture of Roman adoption was what Jesus had in mind when He speaks of praying "in His Name." He has entrusted to the disciples and their spiritual progeny, His full power and authority. What a great trust He has placed in us!] A Biblical picture that is used by Murray is that of marriage. This reminds us of the Great Marriage Feast spoken of throughout Revelation. In marriage, the wife gives up her name, moves away from her home and takes on both the name and home of the husband. A wife has great powers to use in the name of her husband. There, of course is the corresponding responsibility of the husband to care for the wife. Jesus and His Church fit this example. The Name of Jesus and the power of Jesus go together. When we "abide" in His Name, we can exercise, in prayer His unlimited power to do what we ask (if in His name.) Murray cautions that we not only have the privilege of praying in Jesus' Name, we have the duty to pray in Jesus' Name. As we learned earlier, God does not grant power to those who either are unworthy of it or will not exercise it. The more we exercise this power, the greater things are done and the greater things that are done bring more glory to God. [This takes us back to the Catechism's chief end of man, "to glorify God and enjoy him forever." [May I be permitted to amplify this last statement? In my view, to possess the power the pray in Jesus' name that great things be done for the kingdom, and to fail to use such power, evinces a lack of faith and trust in God and makes us unworthy of the power and of the name Christian.]
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