Communication Key: Right Question, Right Way
#44 in the Series: Daddy, It's Me--Conversations of an Ordinary Person
with an Extraordinary Heavenly Father
In my previous
horsemanship teaching career, we had a saying:
If the horse is not giving you the results you want, you either asked
the wrong question or you asked the question wrong. Unanswered prayer is so common
that people often don’t even think of prayer as a viable option until all other options had been
exhausted. What a sad state of
being! Why are prayers so frequently,
seemly unanswered?
“I write these things to you who
believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal
life. And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask
anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in
whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.”
1 John 5:13-15 ESV
This
passage gives only one criteria for consistent answered prayer: asking according to his will! How do we know what to pray so that it is
according to his will?
“Likewise the Spirit helps us in
our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit
himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who
searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit
intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that for
those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called
according to his purpose.”
Romans 8:26-28 ESV
“these things God has revealed
to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths
of God. For who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit of that person,
which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the
Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit
who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God.”
1 Corinthians 2:10-12 ESV
These
two passages make it clear that it is by the presence of the Holy Spirit in the
believer that we can know the mind of God and his will. The Holy Spirit speaks through the Bible, the
natural world, through God Winks, through those words that jump off the
page…all the ways we have already talked about and more. I like to think of it this way: He speaks through His Word, His Ways, His World,
and His Winks! Each of those covers a
multitude of specifics, but the key is that they all have to agree with the
Word. Here again the Spirit will help us
by showing us all the things we need to know.
“But the Helper, the Holy
Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and
bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.”
John 14:26 ESV
So
another key to communication with God is knowing his will. You come to know his will through the Holy
Spirit speaking to you. You test and
approve that by comparing what you believe you have heard against
scripture.
“Do not be conformed to this
world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may
discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”
Romans 12:2 ESV
If it
doesn’t not agree with scripture, it cannot be God’s will. A good way to pray then is to pray
scripture. To do that you must know
scripture. But there may still be a
roadblock:
“What causes quarrels and what
causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within
you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so
you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do
not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.”
James 4:1-3 ESV
Not only
do we need the mind of the Spirit to pray God’s will, but we must also have the
right attitudes and motives. Most of us
pray mostly very selfish prayers. Ask
God to purify your motives and to see the world the way he sees it. Spend time
in meditation and study so you can know the heart of God and the Holy Spirit
can direct your thoughts and attitudes.
Surrender your wants to God. It
is another stepping stone to the communication with God that will free your
mustang heart!
P.S. If
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Teri