Q&A On Prayer (Part 2): Knowing God’s Perfect Will
Q: How do I know God’s “perfect” will for my life especially in the area of marriage? I have heard many people pray not to fall into God’s “permissive” will.
Making decisions is a crucial and important subject especially for a Christian who wants to live for God. This arises from the very fact that there are many options and alternatives to pick from and (s) he is very concerned about doing God’s perfect will. Instead of being a liberating experience, many have found it excruciatingly painful and many more have been paralysed. Many have done nothing thereby making decisions by default.
In the ancient world, kings and generals consulted the oracles to get guidance from gods for their plans. The oracles provided such direction by vague and illusive counsel and worshippers could read into the enigmatic responses what their hunches told them to do. Convinced that their plans had the backing of the gods, generals could lead their troops to battle with unfounded courage.
The Scriptures do not command us to “find” God’s will for most of life’s choices nor do we have any passage on how it is to be determined. We roam around for a pre-determined template because decision-making requires intense thought and saps energy. We seek relief from the awesome responsibility of decision making. We feel less threatened by being passive rather than being active. This is compounded by the introduction of “perfect” or “permissive” will of God.
The use of the word “perfect” in traditional translations of Romans 12:2 has led many Christians to conclude that God must also have a permissive will (just as “take no thought for the morrow” in the traditional rendering of Matthew 6:34 now gives the impression that Believers are not expected to think). This has led to the development of the dot belief system which postulates that God has a perfect will for everyone and in every area of life. Subscribers to this belief system insist that God has earmarked a specific spouse for everyone destined to marry; a particular church to attend and even the neighbourhood to live in. They therefore regard anything outside of this perfect will as permissive.
Romans 12:2 which in the NJB translation declares, “Do not model your behaviour on the contemporary world, but let the renewing of your minds transform you, so that you may discern for yourselves what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and mature,”simply defines God’s will as that which is good, acceptable and mature. It IS NOT a categorisation of God’s will. When the mind is renewed, and the whole life changed, then the will of God is perfectly fulfilled; for this is its grand design in reference to every human being.
Instead of a dot, I would rather subscribe to a circle of allowable options and use the Garden of Eden as an illustration. At creation, God commanded Man (kind) to eat of any fruit of the garden EXCEPT the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2:16-17). I can imagine Adam praying to God on the second day of his existence to know His will concerning what to have for breakfast. What do you think God’s response would be to such prayer? God would simply reiterate what He said earlier: “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” A responsible Adam would know that he is free to eat whatever he likes and in whatever combination as long as he does not have anything to do with the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
As it is with choice of breakfast so it is with choice of a spouse or career. In areas where God’s word is clear, obey it; where it gives liberty within certain parameters, enjoy it and limit yourself to the confines defined; where it does not appear to address the subject, seek wisdom to apply principles enunciated in other areas. A major decision is the choice of who to marry. Nowhere is it written in Scriptures that Fred should marry Anita. But the principles are clear. Firstly, marriage is a union between a man and a woman in holy matrimony for as long as they both shall live. Secondly, Believers should only marry Believers.
The first principle rules out same sex “marriage” while on the basis of the second principle, you have to determine who a Believer is. Does it refer to anyone and everyone who comes to church or who appears pious? Does bearing a Christian name make one a Christian? Does anyone get born a Christian or a decision has to be made to be one? The kingdom of God has varieties in terms of likes, dislikes, temperaments, aspirations, levels of education, social class, age, colour and so on and so forth. These are within areas of liberty and require serious thoughts, meditation and prayers. A problem arose in Numbers 36:2-9. A man died without having a son. His inheritance passed on to his daughters. His relatives were concerned that if the girls married outside the tribe in the patriarchal society in which they lived, the inheritance would pass on to another tribe. God’s response was, ‘let them marry whom they think best, but they may marry only within the family of their father’s tribe.’ (Num. 36:6 NKJV) But do I still hear someone pray, ‘Any suggestions, Lord?’
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Q: I pray you don’t misunderstand me. I have accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Saviour but I have not asked the people around me this question, lest I be classified an unbeliever. Since God is present everywhere, knows all things and can do all things, why do I still need to pray?
Prayer is a highly misunderstood concept especially in an environment like ours where ‘bigmanism’ is prevalent. The big man (either financially or politically) is seen and expected to be able to do anything, goes around with a bigger ego, does not respect system, and has no regard for system integrity. No one therefore can fathom how a man of means should be at the mercy of any system. Not so with God. God is a God of laws, systems and due process and He regards system integrity; a no respecter of persons but of principles and values. He never planned to throw His weight around on earth without due process. He won’t, for example, interfere with the work of the electoral commission appointed by Him, even if He is ‘voted out of office’. When Israel clamoured for a king, like the nations around them, God informed Samuel, who was more or less like the electoral body, to grant their wish, saying, “It’s not you but me they are rejecting.” In other words, God, with all power and might, allowed Himself to be ‘voted out of office’. Our environment makes it difficult to understand God.
Prayer has its root in God’s statement of Intent as recorded in Genesis 1:26: Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.
God, by this statement, released His rights to govern the earth without partnering with Man. Prayer is therefore a means of giving Heavens permission to interfere in the affairs of the earth. St. Augustine, one of the early great minds of the Church, about seventeen hundred years ago, said, “Without God, we cannot. Without us, God will not.”
We read the story of two blind men who cried to Jesus, when He was passing by, “Have mercy on us, O Lord, Son of David”. Jesus stopped and called over, “What do you want from me?” You would think that what they wanted was obvious. Not really, not everyone who is blind wants to see. God depends on our proactive participation.
God has always wanted Man to dominate the whole earth while He holds sway in heaven. He wants the earth to be like heaven but under the management of Man. The heaven, even the heavens, is the Lord’s; but the earth He has given to the children of men (Psalm 115:16). The earth is ours to manage not as we like but according to His plans and purpose. In the Lord’s Prayer, the disciples were taught to pray “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven”. Even in the Old Testament, Moses was warned sternly to do according to the pattern which was shown him on the mountain (Exodus 25:40). And Jesus in His life on earth explained himself at length. “I’m telling you this straight. The Son can’t independently do a thing, only what he sees the Father doing. What the Father does, the Son does. (John 5:19 MSG). How would Man replicate on earth, the heavens he has never seen? The answer lies in established lines of communications between the Man on earth and God in heaven. One of such lines is prayer. God does not depend on prayer to know what is happening on earth. He knows anyhow. But Man should depend on prayer to get the work done. Man should pray consistently and never quit.
Prayer is the heaven-to-earth interactive system which is meant to facilitate the execution of God’s purpose on earth through Man. God has promised in Jeremiah 33:3 “Call to Me and I will answer you and show you,” and Amos 3:7 (NAB) says: Indeed, the Lord GOD does nothing without revealing his plan to his servants, the prophets.”
Prayer provides a platform for heaven’s plans and purposes to be downloaded to Man. We had such an experience on Sunday 20 July 2003. We were praying and meditating in preparation for the church service, when suddenly heaven downloaded into our spirits Acts 11:28 which says…then one stood up and showed by the Spirit that there was going to be a great famine throughout all the world. We were warned to prepare for a worldwide economic crisis which the world is experiencing NOW. (Please note we have it on tape). It was a similar download Daniel experienced in Daniel chapter 9.
Scriptural prayer is a process, a major one, in cultivating the nature and likeness of God. It is a medium of interacting with Endless Might, rubbing mind with Infinite Wisdom, associating with All Knowledge and fellowshipping with Unconditional Love.Acts 4:13 tells of how amazed the Jewish leaders were at the boldness and fearlessness of Peter and John and they realized what being with Jesus had done to them. Only Man operating in the likeness of God can subdue the earth and prayer provides a wonderful opportunity to hang around our Heavenly Dad. Such mingling with the Almighty changes one forever.
Finally, the place of prayer is where we receive strength and empowerment to fulfil His purpose for our lives. It is not within the power of Man to map his life and plan his course.
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Q: What causes hold-up in answers to prayers?
In a previous answer, we defined prayer as the heaven-to-earth interactive system intended to facilitate the execution of God’s purpose on earth through Man. The primary purpose of prayer, therefore, is to establish the will of God on earth. In First Samuel chapter one, Hannah, a woman preoccupied with her need for a baby, prayed for many years to have a baby; nothing happened until, somehow, she realised the need of Heaven: a prophet. She aligned herself with God’s will and offered her yet-to-be-conceived-son to the LORD, a kind of ‘Your-will-be-done-on-earth’ prayer. Immediately, Heaven went to work, crowned the efforts of Hannah and her husband with success; in a short while Samuel was born. Hannah kept her word and the LORD gave her three more sons and two daughters. Remember as you pray for your needs to be met, God also has needs, so to speak, that you can meet.
Delay could be caused by a blockade in a seemingly unrelated area of life. We have artificially divided life into various ‘sectors’: spiritual life, secular life, prayer life, business life, family life, and so on. We, quite erroneously, tend to think or believe that these compartments don’t mix, by making statements like: “This is business and not Christianity” or “Politics and Christianity don’t mix”. But God does not recognise these artificial compartments of our creation. He sees life as one integrated, or whole, circuit; a problem in one area can well spill over into other sector(s), so-called. It is like the human body, where a sore in the leg can wreak havoc in other organs. It may also be likened to Lagos traffic on a rainy day. An accident on a feeder road is capable of causing a tailback on major motorways.
Did you know that your prayers may be hindered simply because of the way you’re relating with your wife? According to 1 Peter 3:7 (TLB): “You husbands must be careful of your wives, being thoughtful of their needs and honouring them; if you don’t treat her as you should, your prayers will not get ready answers.” The fellow who has been praying for breakthrough in his business may experience delay to his prayers being answered because he’s maltreating, dishonouring and disrespecting his wife! We also learn from First Corinthians Chapter 11 of Christians, who suffered from sicknesses (physical, emotional, spiritual, cerebral or financial), some even died prematurely, all after partaking of Communion in church. If they were of the Nigerian Church they would have prayed, fasted and even submitted to various deliverances. They might even have attributed these to some enemy action or their idolatrous background. Paul’s diagnosis was direct and rather straightforward: They were simply ‘not discerning–being sensitive to–the Lord’s body’, that is, not treating one another right. Therefore, the way we treat one another (neighbours, colleagues, family members and even strangers) is a major determinant in our prayers getting heard in Heaven or not! Also it will be a major basis of judgement at the end of time. The King, addressing those turned to hell, reads out the charge against them: “I was hungry, but you did not give me anything to eat, and I was thirsty, but you did not give me anything to drink. I was a stranger, but you did not welcome me, and I was naked, but you did not give me any clothes to wear. I was sick and in jail, but you did not take care of me…Whenever you failed to help any of my people, no matter how unimportant they seemed, you failed to do it for me.” Matthew 25:42-46 (CEV). Fasting–depriving ourselves of food–is of no value, as far as Heaven is concerned, if we ignore social justice and caring for one another. Please read Isaiah 58.
A further case study is Abraham. The promise of a son did not come to pass until at least twenty five years later. We glean from God’s dealing with Abraham that you cannot talk wrong and pray right; it simply won’t work! It was difficult for Abram to believe that he could have a baby together with Sarai. He would rather pray for God to use Ishmael – until God got him to start talking right by changing his name from Abram to Abraham, which means ‘father of many’. Within a few months of talking right, Sarah conceived. Many requests to God in prayers are delayed, overthrown or destroyed by careless, faithless talk outside the prayer closet.
The Law of Faith-Speak states: ‘Whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says’ (Mark 11:23 NKJV). Jesus now teaches in the next verse that this universal law is applicable to prayer: ‘Whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.’
Yet, you may experience delay simply because “to everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven” (Eccl 3:1 NKJV).
Finally, trust God to reveal to you the cause of delay in your particular case–especially now that you know that compartmentalisation of life is artificial; the remote cause might be in a seemingly unrelated area. If it’s a case of waiting for the right season, use it as an opportunity to develop patience and thus ‘imitate those who through faith and patience received what God has promised’ (Hebrews 6:12 NCV).