The Overcomer Trust

PRAYER IS WORK

By F.J.Huegal.

It has been said that prayer is the greatest force in the universe. In this atomic age, when forces are being released that stagger the thought and imagination, it is well to remember that prayer transcends all other forces.

Prayer does not release some mere force of man or nature, prayer releases the immeasurable wealth and power of Almighty God. “Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know” (Jer. 33 v3). There you have it, “I will tell you great and unsearchable things”. It is the voice of God. It is the omnipotent Sovereign, Creator and Sustainer of a hundred million universes who here gives us His Word. He says in effect, ‘If you will pray I will work’. He with whom nothing is impossible pledges His most holy and unchangeable word, that if we will but seek His face in prayer He will work and bring to pass great and mighty things such as have never entertained into our mind and thought.

The great and mighty things which the Lord of heaven and earth promises to bring to pass are those which have to do with our well-being. The Lord is bent on our redemption. To attain this He threw in, as it were, everything He had. He spared not His own Son but delivered him up for us all. He gave what was dearer than a million worlds. He gave Himself in the person of His only Son, the Beloved of the Father, to die in shame and pain upon a wretched cross so that sin, the enemy of our well-being, might be forever destroyed. So that Christ might be enthroned in our hearts and His Kingdom established, God will work great and mighty things in answer to the prayers of His children.

This should show us our responsibility. God has limited Himself in the working of the great and mighty things He so desires to accomplish for our good, to the prayers of His people. If we will not pray, He cannot work. Jesus could not do the mighty works of love and healing as He wished in Nazareth because of the unbelief of the people. Unbelief and prayerlessness spring from the same root. As unbelief bound the Saviour’s hands, so prayerlessness binds God’s. Just why God’s working of the great and mighty things for man’s eternal well-being and glory is limited to man’s praying may be one of the deep mysteries of theology. If there is a fact to which the Bible, which has been called a textbook on prayer, bears eloquent witness, it is this fact. If God is to work great and mighty things in our affairs and of nations, carrying forward His sublime purposes of redemption, we must pray, lifting our voices to the throne of God in earnest supplication and sincere adoration. We must pray as Abraham did, as Jacob, Moses, Isaiah and the prophets did, yes, pray as Jesus our Lord and His apostles prayed.

We would not minimize the importance of other forms of service in the establishment of the Kingdom of God, but prayer is our foremost weapon, “The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world . . . they have divine power” (2 Cor. 10 v4). Prayer must undergird all forms of Christian service if they are to be truly fruitful. We see an example of this in the life of our Lord. As a man He wrought nothing without prayer, He initiated nothing without prayerfully waiting on the Father, and laid down an unvarying principle saying, “The Son can do nothing by himself, he can do only what he sees his Father doing” (John 5 v19). Prayer for the Son of Man was the very breath of life. “Father”, He said as He stood beside Lazarus’ tomb, “I thank you that you have heard me. I know that you always hear me”. His closing word on the Cross was a prayer, and we are told that He ever lives to make intercession for us.

Prayer is our highest privilege and most cherished joy, for in this way we hold communion with Him who is the Fountain of Life, it is also our greatest weapon. Beside this all else pales, as when the stars are eclipsed by the rising sun. All else leaves us floundering in the chaos of self-effort, which has never been anything but a delusion. If we build without direction from the Most High, who orders all for our good according to an eternal plan, our labours, however brilliant, must finally come to nothing. It is the one who does the will of God who lives for ever (1 John 2 v17). Prayer in its truest form, its deepest and most worthy expression, brings our little day and effort into a harmonious blend with the great pattern and purposes of the Father of Lights and thereby gives to our otherwise puny achievements ever- lasting glory and meaning.

Prayer is work of such a sublime order that it lies beyond our imagination. For when we pray our capacity to achieve and our power to do good are multiplied a thousand fold. When we pray, God works. It is now no longer just us, though without our co-operation the vast machine of spiritual outreach and achievement is, so to speak, without a spark plug, We release the wealth of the bank of heaven. It is us plus God. Oh what a plus ! It is God releasing his matchless energies in response to our prayers, without which Omnipotence is in a sense rendered impotent. Witness Moses standing in the breach and praying for forgiveness for the children of Israel when, because of the worship of the golden calf, the Lord’s wrath was kindled and He purposed to destroy Israel. Listen to the voice of God as He speaks saying, “I looked for a man among them who would build up a wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so that I would not have to destroy it, but I found none.” (Ezek. 22 v30-31).

We can open the Book of the Psalms almost at random and find passages like this, “Some become fools through their rebellious ways and suffer affliction because of their iniquities . . . Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he saved them from their distress . . . Let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for men” (Ps. 107 v17-21). The power of prayer is shown in the words, “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land” (2 Chron. 7 v14).

When we pray we are no longer hemmed in within the circle of a merely human sphere of activity. When we preach as heralds of the glad tidings of God’s love, we may bless a congregation, but when we pray our capacity to bless is without limit. It is no longer us, but the One who sustains the universe and gives to all things their virtue and whose power to bless knows no bounds. Through prayer we can touch the ends of the earth and enter upon a universal ministry. Prayer makes it possible for us to open an immeasurably bountiful hand to bless souls in distant lands. What a staggering fact. Jesus our Lord in His high priestly prayer prayed for all those who should believe on Him (John 17 v20). His prayer embraced the ages. So ours may bless peoples yet unborn. On our knees we may thrust forth missionaries to the farthermost reaches of a sin-stricken world; we may visit every prison and be a bearer of light to souls that secretly weep in the throes of endless night. Read what the Saviour says in Luke 10 v2 and John 15 v7. With God neither time nor space are barriers. He can work immediately in the hearts of men everywhere.

God has said, “Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know”. You pray, says the Almighty God, and I will work. If you ask anything in my name, I will do it. “Call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver you and you will honour me” (Ps. 50 v15).

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