by abazgirl — www.weissministries.com
“God, go into the jails,” this woman prayed. “Save some man or woman who is locked up. Go into the hospitals,” she continued,” and heal diseases. Put hospitals out of business. Go into the morgues and funeral homes and raise the dead!”
There was more but I will stop there.
When I heard someone pray this prayer, immediately I thought of how far we have missed the mark as believers.
This is what Yeshua told His disciples before his resurrection:
“Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you” (Luke 10:19). Yes, he told this to the twelve, but I believe that same power is for us today.
This is what Yeshua tells them after His resurrection:
“And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, ‘All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. GO YE THEREFORE…'” (Matthew 28:18-19 caps for emphasis).
I wonder if it saddens God when we tell Him to do what He told us to do? He told us to “go into all nations.” And now we tell Him to go. Have we reduced the Creator of the world to a God that we can push around — go do this and go do that! We are the ones who are to go into the jails and the hospitals and yes, even the morgues! But we think that His power is not our power!
This person’s prayer was fervent and it was heartfelt. But guess what happened after she finished: we picked up our Bibles and purses, got in our air-conditioned cars, went to our homes, propped our feet up, ate dinner, spent time with our families, and then we went to bed. We could rest easily because we told God to do what we were supposed to do.
Father, forgive us for this comfort we feel in telling you what to do. Bring back our fear and reverence of You. But most of all, give us a vision of the mission that is so dear to Your heart. You assured us that You had/have ALL power! Then You empowered us. Then you told us to go. Forgive us for not walking in the power that you so graciously and mercifully gave us to bless the nations.
May you be awakened through this song by Keith Green “Asleep in the Light”:
http://youtu.be/8yJd0JMzq7k
If you would like to see Keith Green as he sings it, here’s the link:
Here’s another rendition:
http://youtu.be/DOReO_S6Eto
I absolutely agree. We do not understand the deity and sovereignty of our God. We do not understand his dominion, and power. After dying for us he gave us the power to become his witnesses.
That meant we do not send him but we are the ones to go and he according to the Gospel of Matthew 28: 18-20 said he will be with us!!
18And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.
19Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:
20Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.
We do not tell God what to do; but when he gives us an assignment the answer should be ‘HERE AM I, LORD send me!.
But have you heard people, in their prayers, tell God what to do? I have done it . . . until God turned ON the lightbulb for me. I think when we become wiser in our prayers, they no longer become performance or duty-oriented. They really become prayers that God will attend to. Thanks for your response.
Also, Luke 10:19 reads: Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you
We are more than able to visit the prisons, hospitals, homes etc. God is with us
This is not a judgment on you personally, Ora, but upon the body of Messiah. Our lives are so crowded with STUFF! Have we personally visited a hospital or nursing home monthly? If God shut down a nursing home or a hospital by healing everyone, would we be ready, able, and available enough to receive and disciple these ones? Anyway, that’s going in another direction from the blog. I’m just saying let’s be realistic with our prayers. Yes, we are more than able — let’s pray that the Body of Messiah will do it!
I love this message. Its so true. “The field is white but the workers are few.”
The Word also declares to us that the “Fervent effectual prayer of the righteous (faithfilled) availeth much” We can fervently pray uneffectually when our fervent prayers are not rooted in the Word as it written. My favorite example: The faith of David slaying the giant, Goliath. He knew that the Battle belonged to God, he declared it with his mouth, fervently, but effectually yet he did not stand there and wait for the rock to grow its own wings by the mere will of God, he did his part, because had the ability and the backing of His Lord. He picked up the rock, took out his slingshot and let it fly, trust the Lord for the results. Speaking from experience, I have allowed far too many distractions to keep me from slaying my giants, allowing them to regulate the God given gifts within me instead of rising up, knowing the only God of the Universe is my shield and buckler and to trust them Lord them to the Lord to slay the Giants in my life, for my good and for His Glory. The Gospel was not designated to us as a lip service, but as do service. Therefore my prayer is that we who yearn for a closer walk with the Lord, is that we find every opportunity to do the Power of the Gospel vs Speaking the Power of the Gospel!
“We can fervently pray uneffectually when our fervent prayers are not rooted in the Word as it written!” — I LOVE THIS, AMAZAKAI! THAT’S WHAT I WANTED PEOPLE TO SEE — THAT WE ARE BEING PASSIONATE ABOUT THE “UNEFFECTUAL”! WHAT A WASTE OF TIME AND ENERGY FOR AN ACT THAT ONLY HAS AN APPEARANCE OF HOLINESS!
“…do the Power of the Gospel vs Speaking the Power of the Gospel!” LOVE THIS TOO! Thanks, Amakazai, for your response! It contains such wisdom and experience!
Hello Again Abazgrl,
I do not think that one who really prays effectually with successful prayers in producing a desired or intended result will pray ineffectually; that being said the scripture clearly states in James 4:3 When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures
We have to ask how are we praying; what are our motives for the prayers? What do we really want to see happen when we pray? Are we believing in faith, are we double minded? A series of questions must arise if we do not see the fruit of what we pray for. I know I have.
Remember also, that God gives us free will, to make a deliberate decision in choosing life or death. Deuteronomy 11:26 Look, today I am giving you the choice between a blessing and a curse! His desire is that we chose life. The determining factor is in our choices. So if we fervently pray for others and do not see the result as we hope too, we have done our jobs and the rest is up to God. One plant, one waterth but it is God who gives the increase.
So in closing it’s not that we are fervently praying ineffective prayers if we are praying correctly, we are praying ineffectively if our motives in our prayers are not correct.
Be Eternally Blessed.
You are right — it is all about motives! However, I know that you have been in the midst of preaching that moved you and prayers that brought tears to your eyes — then when you looked back, a lot of it was performance-based, ineffective praying — not because it did not move me, but b/c it did not move God! You know those times when we have tried to out-preach or out-pray someone else. I think a lot of believers get caught up in that — I know I have.
Glad we can talk about issues like this! Talking helps us to grow and to be honed and fashioned! Mold us , Abba!
Amazakai,
Thank you for your response. I agree that we need to do more than speak; however, on the flip side we must speak.
Luke 10:19 says that “Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you.” thusly, we must speak the word of God, which is our power source and arrest the assignment of the enemy over the lives of people. By speaking the word of God we are doing two things.
First, we are given the enemy the Word Of God, which is what our Messiah did when the enemy came to tempt him. Secondly, we must accompany the Word Of God with our actions; I believe this is what you mean by “opportunity to do the Power of the Gospel vs Speaking the Power of the Gospel!” with speaking the Word Of God, comes the faith and authority of the believer to do what it takes in experiencing a spirit filled life that enables us to do the power of the gospel.
They are not independent of each other; but they are cohorts and they both work powerfully together!
Be eternally blessed.
More Good Stuff!
Hello Abazgrl,
I am not taking this as something personally towards me; you are correct we need to be more realistic in our prayers.
And yes, I have heard people pray to go into this place or that place…..the places that our Messiah has already made for his children to go in and take captivity over, such as sickness, mental illness, discouragement, suicide; and all manner of illnesses.
We are empowered to do so. I believe we have those persons in the ministry that does faithfully go to the hospitals, jails, etc. But we really have to go in faith believing that God is able to do abundantly, exceedily above what we ask. In some cases I believe that we should not give false hope because we do not know what are the plans of God.
I remember my father who was ill unto death; God had raised him up off of the sick bed after, many promises that I believe were not kept. So the next time he went, I thanked God for his first healing and than ask the Father to make him ready to meet him. To my surprise my father responded more to that prayer than the first and he started apologizing and began his walk towards God.
We can not play with sin; no matter what condition a person is in we can only tell him of our God’s ability to deliver, heal and set free. We will be ready if we see them as our Father sees those who are lost and is in need of triage
Through his eyes we see,the process of prioritizing sick or injured people for treatment according to the seriousness of the condition or injury that they are in. Be eternally blessed, and know that God will always prepare us for his work! So yes,we will be ready.
Good stuff! Yes, there are people who faithfully go . . . but (from my experience) they are not usually the ones who tell God to go. I’m not judging–just saying what I have seen.
I do believe that we must be sensitive to the voice of God when we pray for others; sometimes the Lord will show us that He is taking that one home, so why pray healing? Pray for that heart to be ready. When we don’t know what God will do, we MUST pray what we have been commissioned to pray — Healing for that one — BUT we must leave room in our faith for the sovereignty of God. So if God chooses to take that one home, our faith won’t be crushed.
I also believe that you are right about not playing with sin. Do you know that we pray healing over people riddled with sin, as opposed to dealing with their sin. According to James 5:14-16 that sin has to be confessed and healing will come.
Thanks for your comments and insights! Blessings to you!