QUESTION 9
Why
Does God Want Us To Pray?
God knows all. He
is fully aware of what we have need even before we request it of Him (Mt.6:8).
But, He will not change His pre-determined schedule to accommodate us when
we panic, through lack of faith, in the face of confusing situations. So,
why does He want us to pray to Him?
Though His plans will continue
to run until His objectives are attained, God does not 'retire from
active duty' to sit back and 'watch the world go by'. God is love
(1Jn.4:8,16) and because of this fundamental attribute He brought creation
into being. He loves His creatures and is lovingly involved in operations
to bring a like response from them. As He reveals Himself to each
one of them, they are brought to realise His love for them and are enabled
to return His love more and more and to share this love with one another.
1Jn.4:10,11
In this is love, not that we love God, but that He loves
us,
and dispatches His Son,
a propitiatory shelter concerned with our sins.
Beloved, if thus God loves
us, we also ought to be loving one another
1Jn.1:3
That which we have seen and heard we are reporting to you also,
that you too may be having
fellowship with us,
and yet this fellowship
of ours is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ.
1Cor.1:9
Faithful is God,
through Whom you were called
into the fellowship of His Son,…
1Jn.1:6,7
If we should be saying that we are having fellowship with Him
and should be walking in
darkness, we are lying and are not doing the truth.
Yet if we should be walking
in the light as He is in the light,
we are having fellowship
with one another,
1Cor.13:1-3
If I should be speaking in the languages of men and of the messengers,
yet should have no love,
I have become resounding copper or a clanging cymbal.
And if I should have prophecy
and should be perceiving all secrets and all knowledge,
and if I should have all
faith, so as to transport mountains,
yet have no love,
I am nothing.
And if ever I should be
morselling out all my possessions,
and if I should be giving
up my body, that I should be boasting,
yet may have no love,
in nothing do I benefit.
1Cor.13:4-8
Love is patient, is kind. Love is not jealous.
Love is not bragging, is
not puffed up, is not indecent, is not self-seeking,
is not incensed, is not
taking account of evil,
is not rejoicing in injustice,
yet is rejoicing together with the truth,
is forgoing all, is believing
all, is expecting all, is enduring all.
Love is never lapsing:…
1Cor.13:13 Yet
now are remaining faith, expectation, love--these three.
Yet the greatest of these
is love.
As a loving and caring Father,
God wants us to respond to Him dynamically, day by day, moment by
moment! He shares in our feelings and experiences though, for our own good
and development, He will not pamper us into becoming tantrum-throwing
spoilt children over every disappointment, and quick capitulators in the
face of hardship. He wants us to grow in the realisation
that He is always there. A constant and consistent recourse to Him through
prayer produces an ever-increasing confidence that, no matter what the
situation may seem to be, God is working everything for our
good.
Jesus Himself set the example
for prayer, finding time to be alone with God especially before some special
undertaking. Before leaving Capernaum to preach throughout the rest of
Galilee it is said that He prayed.
Mk.1:35
And in the morning, rising very early, still in the night,
He came out and came away
into a desolate place, and there He prayed.
Before choosing and appointing
the twelve apostles He was in the prayer of God.
Lk.6:12
Now it occurred in these days that He came out into the mountain to pray,
and throughout the night
He was in the prayer of God.
When the time had come for His
crucifixion, He prayed in the garden, not that He would be given what He
wanted, but that his Father's will would be carried out!
Mt.26:39
And coming forward a little, He falls on His face,
praying and saying,
"My Father,...
Heb.5:7,8 Who,
in the days of His flesh, offering both petitions and supplications
with strong clamor and tears
to Him Who is able to save Him out of death,
being hearkened to also
for His piety,
even He also, being a Son,
learned
obedience from that which He suffered.
As we begin to realise God's
presence and involvement with us and for us, we are enabled
to increasingly appreciate our position in relation to Him. This is part
and parcel with our spiritual growth. And, we should get out of the thumb-sucking,
bottle-feeding stage of spiritual infancy, to which many Christians
have confined themselves, and grow in the growth of God towards maturity.
No longer should we be minors in Christ, groping for directions, as all
the knowledge that leads to maturity is readily available to us in the
words of Scripture! And the structure and content of our prayers should
bear this out.
Eph.4:13
toward the adjusting of the saints
for the work of dispensing,
for the upbuilding of
the body of Christ,
unto the end that we should
all
attain
to the unity of the faith
and of the realization of
the
son of God, to a mature man,
to the measure of the stature
of the complement of the Christ,
that we may by no means
still be minors,
surging hither and thither and being carried about
by every wind of teaching,
by human caprice,
by craftiness with a view to the systematizing of the deception.
1Cor.13:11 When
I was a minor,
I spoke as a minor, I was
disposed as a minor, I took account of things as a minor.
Yet when I have become a
man,
I have discarded
that which is a minor's.
Heb.5:12-14
For when also, because of the time, you ought to be teachers,
you have need again of one
to teach you
what are the rudimentary
elements of the oracles of God,
and you have come to have
need of milk, and not of solid nourishment.
For everyone who is partaking
of milk is untried in the word of righteousness,
for he is a minor.
Now solid nourishment is
for the mature, who, because of habit,
have faculties exercised
for discriminating between the ideal and the evil.
If Christians consider themselves
to be elite 'warriors', they cannot afford to be in confusion, each
one urging and insisting that their leader takes the action they suggest.
That would end up in utter chaos! Instead they must become disciplined
and controlled veterans, discussing relevant issues with their leader,
attentively taking their orders from him, and responsibly carrying out
their assignments with diligence and confidence! We have in our hands a
manual of instructions designed to equip us to engage the enemy!
2Tim.2:16,17
All scripture is inspired by God,
and is beneficial for teaching,
for exposure, for correction, for discipline in righteousness,
that the man of God may
be equipped, fitted out for every good act.
If we acknowledge God as our
GOD, no longer should we be looking for our own pleasures, for our
comfort and well-being, or for our own glory. We will want to do
what is pleasing to Him and for His glory! The wonder of it is that
God is working in us and through us exactly to this end,
to achieve His objectives by bringing His plans for creation into fruition.
So, we must prepare ourselves for what still needs to be done for
the whole ecclesia, and by the ecclesia, to be of service in this work
of God.
Eph.2:10
For His achievement are we,
being created in
Christ Jesus for good works,
which God makes ready beforehand,
that we should be walking in them.
Phil.2:12,13
So that, my beloved, according as you always obey, …
with fear and trembling,
be carrying your own salvation into effect,
for it is God Who is
operating in you to will as well as to work for the sake of His delight.
Eph.3:8-12 To
me, less than the least of all saints, was granted this grace:
to bring the evangel of
the untraceable riches of Christ to the nations,
and to enlighten all as
to what is the administration of the secret,
which has been concealed
from the eons in God, Who creates all, that
now may be made known
to the sovereignties and the authorities among the celestials,
through the ecclesia, the
multifarious wisdom of God,
in accord with the purpose
of the eons, which He makes in Christ Jesus, our Lord;
in Whom we have boldness
and access with confidence, through His faith
Rom.12:1 I am
entreating you, then, brethren, by the pities of God,
to present your bodies a
sacrifice, living, holy, well pleasing to God,
your logical divine service,
Tit.3:8 Faithful
is the saying,
and I am intending you to
be insistent concerning these things,
that those who have believed
God may be concerned to preside for ideal acts.
These things are ideal and
beneficial for humanity.
If Christians imagine themselves
to be 'soldiers going on to war', they must be properly prepared
for the conflict. They cannot afford to go chasing after the wind and falling
into traps carefully laid by the cunning enemy. They should know what
to expect, what they are fighting for, who the enemy is,
as well as the tactics of that enemy.
Eph.6:10-12
For the rest, brethren mine,
be invigorated in the Lord
and in the might of His strength.
Put on the panoply of God,
to enable you to stand up to the stratagems of the Adversary,
for it is not ours to wrestle
with blood and flesh,
but with the sovereignties,
with the authorities, with the world-mights of this darkness,
with the spiritual forces
of wickedness among the celestials.
2Cor.10:3-5
For, walking in flesh, we are not warring according to the flesh.
For the weapons of our
warfare are not fleshly,
but powerful to God toward
the pulling down of bulwarks;
pulling down reckonings
and every height elevating itself against the knowledge of God,
and leading into captivity
every
apprehension into the obedience of Christ,
Scripture advises us to put
on the panoply, the whole armour, of God so as to protect ourselves against
the onslaughts of the Adversary. This armour of God consists of God's
truth in Christ, God's righteousness through Christ, God's
evangel of peace and conciliation through the death of His Son, God's
gift of faith apart from works, God's gift of salvation in grace,
and God's word, the Scriptures! All of God!
Eph.6:13-17
Therefore take up the panoply of God that
you may be enabled
to withstand in the wicked day, and having effected all, to stand.
Stand, then, girded about
your loins with truth,
with the cuirass of righteousness
put on.
and your feet sandaled with
the readiness of the evangel of peace;
with all taking up the large
shield of faith,
by which you will be able
to extinguish all the fiery arrows of the wicked one.
And receive the helmet of
salvation
and the sword of the spirit,
which is a declaration of God.
We need to attune ourselves
to the will of God, praying even as our Lord Himself did.
Eph.5:16.17
Be observing accurately, then, brethren, how you are walking,
not as unwise, but as wise,
reclaiming the era, for the days are wicked.
Therefore do not become
imprudent, but understand what the will of the Lord is.
Rom.12:2
and not to be configured to this eon,
but to be transformed
by the renewing of your mind,
for you to be testing what
is
the
will of God, good and well pleasing and perfect.
We need to know where we
stand now as members of the one body of Christ. We need to appreciate the
fact that, in grace, we have been saved and changed from what we all once
were.
Eph.2:11.12
… once you, the nations in flesh--who are termed "Uncircumcision"
by those termed "Circumcision,"
in flesh, made by hands--
that you were, in that era,
apart from Christ,
being alienated from the citizenship of Israel,
and guests of the promise covenants,
having no expectation,
and without God in the world.
Gal.4:8,9 But
then, indeed, having no perception of God,
you were slaves of those
who, by nature, are not gods.
Eph.2:1-3
And you, being dead to your offenses and sins, in which once you
walked,
in accord with the eon of
this world, in accord with the chief of the jurisdiction of the air,
the spirit now operating
in the sons of stubbornness
(among whom we also all
behaved ourselves once in the lusts of our flesh,
doing the will of the flesh
and of the comprehension,
and were, in our nature,
children of indignation, even as the rest)
Col.1:21,22
And you, being once estranged and enemies in comprehension,
by wicked acts, yet now
He reconciles by His body of flesh, through His death,
to present you holy and
flawless and unimpeachable in His sight,
Eph.2:4-7
yet God, being rich in mercy,
because of His vast love
with which He loves us
(we also being dead to the
offenses and the lusts),
vivifies us together in
Christ (in grace are you saved!)
and rouses us together and
seats us together among the celestials, in Christ Jesus,
that, in the oncoming eons,
He should be displaying the transcendent riches of His grace
in His kindness to us in
Christ Jesus.
Phil.3:20,21
For our realm is inherent in the heavens,
out of which we are awaiting
a Saviour also, the Lord, Jesus Christ,
Who will transfigure
the body of our humiliation,
to conform it to
the body of His glory,
in accord with the operation
which enables Him even to subject all to Himself.
1Cor.15:51-53
Lo! a secret to you am I telling! We all, indeed, shall not be put to repose,
yet we all shall be changed,
in an instant, in the twinkle of an eye, at the last trump.
For He will be trumpeting,
and the dead will be roused
incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
For this corruptible must
put
on incorruption, and this mortal put on immortality.
God takes us from our place
and condition of humiliation, subject to death and sin and corruption,
and has begun the process for our glorification. We are the complement
of Christ - and in this aspect, in Christ, we are already seated
at God's right hand among the celestials!
We are the first to
taste of God's grace in such salvation. But, we were not saved just for
ourselves. We have a sacred commission from God to spread this message
of God's conciliation to others around us. It is not for us to worry
whether or not people will accept our entreaty. That is God's exclusive
operation. Each and every one whom He is calling now will hear,
and will respond accordingly! Their deliverance from death and corruption
is guaranteed by God!
2Cor.5:18-20
Yet all is of God, Who conciliates us to Himself through Christ,
and is giving us
the dispensation of the conciliation, how that God was in Christ,
conciliating the world to
Himself, not reckoning their offenses to them,
and placing in us
the word of the conciliation.
For Christ, then,
are we ambassadors, as of God entreating through us.
We are beseeching for
Christ's sake, "Be conciliated to God!"
Jn.6:44 No
one can come to Me
if ever the Father Who sends
Me should not be drawing him….
Jn.6:45
It is written in the prophets: And they shall all be taught of God.
Everyone, then, who hears
from the Father and is learning the truth, is coming to Me.
Those whom God is not
calling now are unable to respond to the message, their minds being
still kept in the darkness and ignorance that characterises human wisdom.
It is not their choice that this is so. It is entirely of God's
determination and carried out through specific instruments. Scripture is
clear that these as yet non-believers are not forgotten by God.
Jn.6:64,65
But there are some of you who are not believing."
For Jesus had perceived
from
the beginning who those are who are not believing, …
And He said, "Therefore
have I declared to you
that no one can be coming
to Me if it should not be given him of the Father."
2Cor.4:3,4
Now, if our evangel is covered, also, it is covered in those who are perishing,
in whom the god of this
eon blinds the apprehensions of the unbelieving
so that the illumination
of the evangel of the glory of Christ,
Who is the Image of the
invisible God, does not irradiate them.
The message that is being advanced
from most pulpits throughout the Christian world is definitely not
GOOD news! People are told, to put it in plain words, 'Believe! If you
don't, you will go to hell where you will burn forever!'. By no means
can this be a declaration of love. Rather, it denies that God is love.
It is a message of fear and desperation and constitutes spiritual
blackmail! It is grossly untrue and an irresponsible contradiction
to God's evangel for today! Yet the error is being disseminated with concerted
enthusiasm and misplaced dedication. How can we pray that such efforts
meet with success? Are we expecting God to contradict Himself?
On the other hand, the message
we have been actually commissioned to preach IS good news! It declares
that everything is in God's hands! What can be safer or surer than
this? In this evangel, God declares that He loves His creation. He declares
that each and every one of mankind will be brought into harmony with Him
because of what He has determined and achieved through Christ.
1Tim.2:3,4
…our Saviour, God, Who wills that all mankind be saved
and come into a realization
of the truth.
1Tim.4:9-11
Faithful is the saying and worthy of all welcome
(for for this are we toiling
and being reproached),
that we rely on the living
God, Who is the Saviour of all mankind, especially of believers.
These things be charging
and teaching.
Rom.3:21-23
Yet now, apart from law, a righteousness of God is manifest …
yet a righteousness of God
through
Jesus Christ's faith,
for all, and on
all who are believing,
for there is no distinction,
for all sinned and are wanting of the glory of God.
Col.1:20
and through Him to reconcile all to Him
(making peace through the
blood of His cross),
through Him, whether those
on
the earth or those in the heavens.
Phil.2:6-8
Who, being inherently in the form of God,
deems it not pillaging to
be equal with God, nevertheless empties Himself,
taking the form of a slave,
coming to be in the likeness of humanity,
and, being found in fashion
as a human, He humbles Himself,
becoming obedient unto
death, even the death of the cross.
Rom.5:6
For Christ, while we are still infirm, still in accord with
the era,
for the sake of the irreverent,
died.
Rom.5:8
yet God is commending this love of His to us,
seeing that, while we are
still
sinners, Christ died for our sakes
Rom.5:10,11
For if, being enemies,
we were conciliated to God through the death of His Son,
much rather, being conciliated,
we shall be saved in His life.
Yet not only so, but we
are glorying also in God, through our Lord, Jesus Christ,
through Whom we now obtained
the conciliation.
2Cor.5:14
For the love of Christ is constraining us, judging this,
that, if One died for
the sake of all, consequently all died.
Rom.5:19 … through
the obedience of the One, the many shall be constituted just.
1Cor.15:21 …through
a man came death,
through a Man, also, comes the resurrection of the dead.
1Cor.15:22
For even as, in Adam, all are
dying,
thus also, in Christ, shall all be
vivified.
Rom.5:18 ...
through one just award for all mankind for life's justifying.
We cannot hope to know
God if we are oblivious to His character, if we do not know and appreciate
what He has done, is doing, and will do for us! If
we do not know His heart, how can there be a communion with Him?
How can we, simultaneously, ignore Him while we claim His attention? If
we do not know that He is there willing to hear us how can we be sure that
communication
is established?
All too often is Christ's
statement, concerning our becoming 'like little children', taken
out of context. If naivety were virtue, why does our God constantly and
consistently
advocate the pursuit of spiritual knowledge and wisdom? Why would God inspire
the whole volume of Scripture and preserve it through thousands of years
from attempted destruction? It is a manual and a record of God's operations
to reveal Himself to us.
In its proper, intended,
sense, Christ tells us that we should be completely trusting of
our Father, just like little children are, concerning whatever He
says to us. And we can only know such declarations of God through Scripture.
Those of us who wait to hear some 'still, small voice' speaking
to them during their 'quiet times', which seems such a spiritual
experience, will wait in vain to hear God actually speaking to them.
It would be, as well, an undertaking that is fraught with danger. Asylums
and prisons all over the world abound with people who have been accepting
instructions from 'voices'.
Scripture is not wanting
concerning directions for our continued development out of spiritual
infancy and immaturity, for our growth to maturity in the knowledge
of God! Among other things, it asserts that our priority should be….
Eph.4:12-14
toward the adjusting of the saints for the work of dispensing,
for the upbuilding
of the body of Christ,
unto the end that we should
all
attain
to the unity of the faith
and of the realization
of the son of God, to a mature man,
to the measure of the stature
of the complement of the Christ,
that we may by no means
still
be minors,
surging hither and thither
and being carried about by every wind of teaching,
by human caprice, by craftiness
with a view to the systematizing of the deception.
Eph.4:15,16
Now, being true, in love we should be making all grow into Him,
Who is the Head-- Christ--
out of Whom the entire body,
being articulated together
and united through every assimilation of the supply,
in accord with the operation
in measure of each one's part,
is making for the growth
of
the body, for the upbuilding of itself in love.
Can we, in our prayers, ramble
about what wonderful plans and projects we have in the offing for
bringing glory to Him, imagining that with just a little help from Him,
we could even go out and change the world for the better? This would be
a figment of our imagination, hypothetical, unreal! It would be the height
of impertinence - for we cannot even be sure of what tomorrow will
bring.
Jas.4:13-16
Come now, you who are saying,
"Today or tomorrow we will
be
going into this or that city
and should be spending
a year there, and we will be trafficking and getting gain"--
who are not versed in that
which is the morrow's, for what is your life?
For a vapor are you,
which is appearing briefly and thereupon disappearing--
instead of your saying,
"If the Lord should ever be willing, and we shall be living,
we also shall be doing this
or that."
Yet now you are vaunting
in your ostentations. All such boasting is wicked.
Eccl.5:2 Do
not be rash with your mouth,
And your heart must not
hasten
to bring forth speech before the One, Elohim;
For the One, Elohim, is
in the heavens, And you are on the earth;
Therefore, let your
words become few.
Our prayers tend to directly
contradict the plain words of Scripture. Do we expect to honour God by
such rejection of His declarations? When God says that some condition will
come to be, we, in ignorance of it, or even blithely ignoring such
revelation, assure Him that we will do our very best, with His approval
and help, to make sure that it will not come to be!
Mt.16:21-23
…begins Jesus to show His disciples
that He must be coming away
into Jerusalem
and to be suffering much
from the elders and chief priests and scribes,
and to be killed, and the
third day to be roused.
And, taking Him to him,
Peter begins to rebuke Him, saying,
"Propitious be it to Thee,
Lord! By no means shall this be for Thee!"
Now, being turned, He said
to Peter,
"Go away behind Me, satan!
A snare are you to Me,
for you are not disposed
to that which is of God, but that which is of men."
1Tim.4:1,2 Now
the spirit is saying explicitly, that in subsequent eras
some will be withdrawing
from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits
and the teachings of
demons, in the hypocrisy of false expressions, ….
2Tim.3:1-5 Now
this
know, that in the last days perilous periods will be present,
for men will be selfish,
fond of money, ostentatious, proud, calumniators,
stubborn to parents, ungrateful,
malign, without natural affection, implacable,
adversaries, uncontrollable,
fierce, averse to the good, traitors, rash, conceited,
fond of their own gratification
rather than fond of God;
having a form of
devoutness, yet denying its power.
2Tim.3:12,13
And all who are wanting to live devoutly in Christ Jesus
shall be persecuted.
Yet wicked men and swindlers
shall wax worse and worse,
deceiving and being deceived.
We want to convert the world
to Christ. We want to be a part of preparing the world to receive its King.
Sincerely, we want to be commended workers for the kingdom. We pray fervently
to that effect. Does not this attitude call for applause? Does it not deserve
every encouragement?
Alas, Scripture shows that
this is misplaced zeal and an unproductive expense of energy
and, thus, a wasteful distraction from our real assignment! It insists
that that is not our job. That privilege and responsibility
belongs to another set of believers, those of the Circumcision
evangel. Though their commission is, for now, temporarily suspended,
their efforts will be crowned with success.
God will resume His
program with His people, Israel, and that is when the evangel of the
kingdom will come into its own. Only when this present phase
is completed will Christ come in glory to begin His rule and to set up
that kingdom of God.
Mt.24:14
And heralded shall be this evangel of the kingdom in the whole inhabited
earth
for a testimony to all the
nations, and then the consummation shall be arriving.
To Israel will be the
kingdom and the glory of it during the Millenium, especially. There is
the popular claim that God has stopped dealing with Israel from the time
of the crucifixion of Christ, and that, since then, all the blessings that
have been promised to Israel have, therefore, been transferred to the Church.
This is a slur on God's integrity, denying the veracity of so many of His
solemn
assurances to the people and nation of Israel!
Ezek.44:9
Thus said the Lord Yahweh: No son of a stranger,
uncircumcised of heart,
and uncircumcised of flesh, comes in unto My sanctuary,
even any son of a stranger,
who [is] in the midst of the sons of Israel,
Isa.14:1-3
For Yahweh will have compassion on Jacob, and He chooses still in Israel,
and He leaves them on their
own ground. And the sojourners are obligated to them,
and they are adherents to
the house of Jacob.
And many peoples take them,
and they bring them to their ground and to their place.
And the house of Israel
allots
them on the ground of Yahweh for servants and for maids.
And they come to be captors
of their captors, and they sway over their exactors.
And this comes to be in
the day Yahweh gives you rest from your grief,
and from your disturbance,
and from the hard service in which you served.
Isa.27:6 Those
coming to take root, will be Jacob,
and those blossoming and
budding, will be Israel,
and they fill the
face of the habitance with produce.
Isa.43:10-13
"You are My witnesses," averring is Yahweh Elohim,
"And My servant whom
I have chosen, that you may know and will believe Me,
and
understand that I am He:
Before Me was formed no El. And after Me none shall come.
I, I, Yahweh am El! And
there is no Saviour apart from Me.
I tell and save and announce.
And an alien is not among you.
And you are My witnesses,"
averring is Yahweh, "And I am El.
Moreover, from the eon I
am He, and there is no rescuing from My hand.
I will contrive, and who
will reverse it?"
Isa.49:13-16
Jubilate, O heavens! And exult, O earth!
Crash, O mountains, into
jubilation! And the hills into righteousness!
For Yahweh is comforting
His people, and on His humble is He having compassion.
Yet saying is Zion, "I am
forsaken by Yahweh, and my Lord has forgotten me."
"Will a woman forget
her child, not to have compassion on the son of her belly?
Even if these a woman will
forget, yet I will not forget you," says Yahweh.
Behold! On My palms I
tattoo you, and your walls are in front of Me continually."
Isa.54:7,8
"For a small moment I forsook you,
yet with great compassions
will I convene you.
In effervescent wrath
I concealed My face a moment from you,
yet with kindness eonian
have I compassion on you," says your Redeemer, Yahweh.
Ezek 11:19,20
And I have given to them one heart,
And a new spirit
I do give in your midst,
And I have turned the heart
of stone out of their flesh,
And I have given to them
a heart of flesh. So that in My statutes they walk,
And My judgments they keep,
and have done them,
And they have been
to me for a people, And I am to them for Elohim.
Ezek.36:26-28
And I have given to you a new heart,
And a new spirit
I give in your midst,
And I have turned aside
the heart of stone out of your flesh,
And I have given to you
a heart of flesh. And My Spirit I give in your midst,
And I have done this,
so
that in My statutes you walk,
And My judgments you keep,
and have done them.
And you have dwelt in the
land that I have given to your fathers,
And you have been
to Me for a people, And I--I am to you for Elohim.
Ezek.28:25,26
Thus said the Lord Yahweh: In My gathering the house of Israel,
Out of the peoples among
whom they were scattered,
I have been sanctified in
them,
before the eyes of the nations,
And they have dwelt on their
ground, that I gave to My servant, to Jacob,
And they have dwelt on it
confidently, And builded houses, and planted vineyards,
And dwelt confidently--in
My
doing judgments, On all those despising them round about,
And they have known
that I, Yahweh, [am] their Elohim!'
Jer.32:37-42
Lo, I am gathering them out of all the lands
whither I have driven
them in Mine anger, and in My fury, and in great wrath,
and I have brought them
back unto this place, and have caused them to dwell confidently;
and they have been to Me
for a people, and I am to them for Elohim;
and I have given to them
one
heart, and one way, to fear Me all the days,
for good to them, and to
their sons after them:
and I have made for them
a
covenant eonian,
in that I turn not
back from after them for My doing them good,
and My fear I put in their
heart, so as not to turn aside from me;
and I have rejoiced over
them to do them good,
and have planted them in
this land in truth, with all my heart, and with all My soul.
For thus said Yahweh: As
I brought in unto this people all this great evil,
so I am bringing
in on them all the good that I am speaking concerning them;
Zech.8:22,23
And many peoples and staunch nations will come
to seek Yahweh of hosts
in Jerusalem, and to beseech the face of Yahweh.
Thus says Yahweh of hosts:
In those days ten mortals,
from all the languages of the nations, will take fast hold.
And they will take fast
hold of the hem of a man, a Jew, saying,
We will go with you, for
we hear that Elohim is with you.
Heb.8:8-12 "Lo!
the days are coming," the Lord is saying,
"And I shall be concluding
with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah
a new covenant, Not
in accord with the covenant which I make with their fathers
In the day of My taking
hold of their hand To be leading them out of the land of Egypt,
Seeing that they do not
remain in My covenant, And I neglect them," the Lord is saying,
"For this is the
covenant which I shall be covenanting with the house of Israel
after those days," the Lord
is saying:
"Imparting My laws to their
comprehension,
On their hearts, also, shall
I be inscribing them,
And I shall be to them for
a God, And they shall be to Me for a people.
And by no means should each
be teaching his fellow citizen,
And each his brother, saying,
`Know the Lord!'
For all shall be acquainted
with Me, From their little to their great,
For I shall be propitious
to their injustices, And of their sins and their lawlessnesses
should I under no circumstances
still be reminded."
These are only a few of the
many, many, passages of Scripture on this theme of the restoration
of God's relationship, with enabling enhancements, to Israel. Israel will
never
be replaced in God's standing. She is God's witness to the fact that He
is God!
We effectively set aside
God's specific revelation on the subject were we to pray to become worthy
workers for the kingdom and for the advancement of the kingdom evangel
now. God's vineyard is reserved for His authorised workers out of
Israel!
Isa.5:7
For the vineyard of Yahweh of hosts is the house of Israel,
and each man of Judah His
plant delectable.
Our commission, on the other
hand, is to announce the evangel of God's conciliation to the best
of our ability so that those who are being called at this time may
respond to it and become a part of the body of Christ! It is not meant
for just anybody nor for everybody to respond to! The preparation
period for the setting up of the kingdom, with all its trials and tribulations,
is to be outside our experience. We will have been snatched away,
taken out of the path of God's coming indignation on the earth. We will
be long gone from influencing the people of this earth by the time Jesus
Christ sets His feet on the mount of Olives to initiate His rulership and
to restore the kingdom to Israel!
Act.1:6,7
Those, indeed, then, who are coming together, asked Him, saying,
"Lord, art Thou at this
time restoring the kingdom to Israel?" Yet He said to them,
"Not yours is it to know
times or eras which the Father placed in His own jurisdiction.
Act.3:19-21
Repent, then, and turn about for the erasure of your sins,
so that seasons of refreshing
should
be coming from the face of the Lord,
and He should dispatch the
One fixed upon before for you, Christ Jesus,
Whom heaven must indeed
receive until the times of restoration of all
which God speaks through
the mouth of His holy prophets who are from the eon.
1Thes.4:16-18
for the Lord Himself will be descending from heaven
with a shout of command,
with the voice of the Chief Messenger, and
with the trumpet of God,
and the dead in Christ shall
be rising first, Thereupon we, the living who are surviving,
shall at the same time be
snatched away together with them in clouds,
to meet the Lord in the
air. And thus shall we always be together with the Lord.
So that, console one another
with these words.
Some of the things we have been
praying for, sincerity and fervency notwithstanding, are not in
accord with God's revelation for us. They are out of sync with the
rhythm and movement of His schedule. How can we expect a positive answer
from God for these? We really need to pray to be in line with His
will, in accord with His intentions.
What should be dawning on
us now is that meaningful prayer can come only with an increasing realisation
of God through His revelation. This continuing growth towards maturity
opens to us insights into our environment and our experiences, and it affords
us a whole range of interesting and relevant 'topics' for conversation
with our Father.
We should realise and appreciate
the fact, from what God tells us in Scripture, that our focus is not to
be about things of this earth - but of things above. That is where our
real
home
is. It is the realm that we actually belong to. And it will be the
sphere of our operations for a long time to come.
Col.3:1,2
If, then, you were roused together with Christ,
be seeking that which
is above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God.
Be disposed to that which
is above, not to that on the earth,
Phil.3:20,21
For our realm is inherent in the heavens,
out of which we are awaiting
a Saviour also, the Lord, Jesus Christ,
Who will transfigure the
body of our humiliation,
to conform it to the
body of His glory,
in accord with the operation
which enables Him even to subject all to Himself.
1Cor.6:3 Are
you not aware that we shall be judging messengers,…
Eph.1:0-12 making
known to us the secret of His will
(in accord with His delight,
which He purposed in Him)
to have an administration
of the complement of the eras,
to head up all in the
Christ--both that in the heavens and that on the earth--
in Him in Whom our
lot was cast also,
being designated beforehand
according to the purpose
of the One Who is operating
all
in accord with the counsel of His will,
that we should be
for the laud of His glory, who are pre-expectant in the Christ.
September 2001
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