Matt. 7:7 Ask and it shall be given to you; seek and you shall find; knock and it shall be opened to you. (8) For every one who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it shall be opened. James 4:2 …You do not have because you do not ask; (3) You ask and do not receive because you ask evilly that you may spend it on your pleasures.
Prayer is the most wonderful action in the spiritual realm; it is also the most mysterious matter. We know that God does not do anything that is contrary to His will. If it is His will to open the door, why does He have to wait until we knock before He will open? Why would He not open the door for us according to His will, without us knocking? He knows everything. If He knows that we need an open door, why will He wait until we knock before He opens? Why do we have to knock? Since God's will is to open the door, and since it is His will to have the door open, will God not open the door if we do not knock? Will He allow His will and His justice to be delayed and not accomplished just for the sake of waiting for our prayer? If this is so, then God's will is restricted by us! If He will, why does the opening of the door (His will) have to be controlled by our knocking on the door (prayer)? Here we can see a principle of God's work. This principle is that God's people have to pray before God will rise up to work. God's will is accomplished by the prayer of those who belong to Him. The believers' prayers accomplish God's will. God will not accomplish His will alone; He will only accomplish His will when His people are sympathetic with Him in prayer. If this is the case, prayer is nothing but the believers' act of working together with God. Prayer is the union of the believers' will with God's will. The prayer of the believers on earth is an utterance of God's will in heaven. Prayer is not an utterance of our own wishes, a plea for God to yield to our cry and fulfill our own wishes. Prayer is not to compel God to change His will by force or ask Him to do what He does not want to do. Prayer is the believers' utterance of God's will out of their own mouth; it is the believers' request before God that He accomplish His own will.
Bible verses are taken from the Recovery Version of the Bible and Words of Ministry from "What is Prayer" in the Collected Works of Watchman Nee, Vol. 8, pp. 5-6. Both are published by Living Stream Ministry, Anaheim, CA. Please visit us at www.emanna.com. Send comments to: [email protected].
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