In this second month of the New Year 2024, a quick review of certain Prayer practices is helpful.
According to Rev. John Wesley, one of the great revivalists, God can do nothing for humanity unless someone asks Him. That statement can be very disturbing to many Theologians and Believers. They could argue that a sovereign God can do anything He wants to, and if something does not happen, it is because God did not WANT it to happen. But when a man like John Wesley, who knew God and had great revivals everywhere he went, said it, it is worth
further consideration.
Is the statement biblical or not? Let’s look at some scriptures.
Zech.10:1 - Ask the LORD for rain in the time of the latter rain. The LORD will make flashing clouds; He will give them showers of rain, Grass in the field for everyone.
- If God wants rain, why doesn’t He cause it to rain?
- Why bother the prophet to tell the people to ask. God should know He wants rain, should He not?
- Yet, He says to ask.
Psalm 2:8 - Ask of me, and I will give you the nations for your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for your possession.
- Some could argue, “If God wants to reach the nations and the heathen, why does He say, ‘Ask’?
- Why doesn’t He just DO IT? After all, He’s God, right?
- You will notice throughout the entire Bible, that if God wants something done, He tells us to ask for it.
Look at these other scriptures.
Matt 21:22 - And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.
James 4:2 - You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet, you do not have because you do not ask.
- The Bible also says that God knows what we need before we even go to Him in prayer. So it follows that “If God knows what we need before we ask, we shouldn’t bother asking Him, right?”
- Well in Chapter 6 of the gospel of Matthew, we are told that our Father God knows what we need before we ask, and yet in Chapter 7 it says….
Matt 7:7-11 - Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 "For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. 9 "Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10 "Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? 11 "If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!
- If God is all knowing and understands what you need before you ask, and Scriptures tells us to ask any how, you had better ask Him if you desire to have your prayers answered.
Begin this very month to ask God according to His Word, and you will receive.
Ask God to send you and other labourers into His harvest (The World).
Remember to say the following out loud with sincere conviction, “I’m believing to be at the Right Place, at the Right Time saying the Right Thing and the right thing to say is the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”