Praise and prayer accesses the promises of God
After praise and worship service on December 5, 2006 we were discussing how praise leads us into the presence of the Lord. It is at that time that we have the ear of the Lord because we have given Him the homage He deserves. This is when “we know that He hears us.”
On December 7, 2006 I was led to 1 John 5:14: “Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, we know that we have the petition we have asked of Him.” (emphasis mine)
What an incredible promise! We have the confidence, which means the assurance based on Scripture, that whatever we ask, He hears!
Additionally the Bible states in John 14:13, “And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.” Also in John 15:16, “You (meaning the Apostles at the time and us today) did not chose Me, but I chose you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name, He may give you.” And finally, in John16:23-24, “Most assuredly I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you. Until now (before Jesus died) you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.”
We need to be abiding in Christ. With His word abiding in us we will know the will of God, and therefore pray accordingly.
I can remember praying for someone to be healed an qualifying my prayer by saying, “...if it be Your will…” or something to that affect. What I did was limit the request I was making. By not stating my prayer in the terms of the promises of Scripture, I was not praying the WILL of God, I was praying the WHIM of God!
We need to pray with AUTHORITY and we need to pray with CONFIDENCE! As Jack Hayford says, “Genuine prayer is not an attempt at precise means of getting God to meet our desires and demands; but rather, in subordinating our will to His, we open the doorway to His fullest blessings being released in our lives.”
