“About midnight Paul and Silas
were praying and singing hymns of praise to God, and
the prisoners were listening to them” (Acts 16:25).
These two jailbirds were beaten
to a pulp, bruised and bleeding and there they were
“praying and singing hymns of praise to God.” What a
privilege in time of need to receive encouragement
and comfort from God Himself.
True prayer is offered to God
the Father through His Son, Jesus Christ.
R. A. Torrey said, “We should
never utter one syllable, either in public or in
private, until we are definitely conscious that we
have come into the presence of God and are actually
praying to Him.”
Real prayer is “having an
audience with God, actually coming into the presence
of God.” Prayer is “one of the most highly esteemed
privileges of life.”
When we go to God in prayer we
need to ask ourselves if we are conscious of being
in His presence. Am I truly communing with Him?
Paul and Silas were in the
presence of God in a Roman jail cell.
The place where we pray is
insignificant as long as our prayers are offered to
God the Father on the basis of the death of Jesus
Christ.
Jesus said, “You did not choose
Me, but I chose you, and appointed you that you
would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would
remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My
name, He may give to you” (John 15:16).
The emphasis He consistently
made was “that the Father may be glorified in the
Son.”
“Whatever you ask in My name,
that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in
the Son” (John 14:13).
Then He went on to say, “If you
ask Me anything in My name, I will do it” (v. 14).
Again in John 16:23-26 Jesus
said, “In that day you will not question Me about
anything. Truly, truly, I say to you, if you ask the
Father for anything in My name, He will give it to
you. Until now you have asked for nothing in My
name; ask, and you will receive, so that your joy
may be made full. These things I have spoken to you
in figurative language; an hour is coming when I
will no longer speak to you in figurative language,
but will tell you plainly of the Father. In that day
you will ask in My name, and I do not say to you
that I will request of the Father on your behalf.”
You cannot “out ask” a giving
Father. The imagery is that of a child asking a
loving parent.
With repeated emphasis Jesus
taught the disciples the night before He was
crucified, “Ask the Father in My name.” Note the
attitude of life expressed in these words.
It is dependence upon the Father.
Jesus said, “I am the way and
the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father
except through Me” (14:6).
Jesus Christ makes it possible
for God to answer our prayers. Because of the
atoning sacrificial death of Jesus we are invited,
even urged, to go into His holy presence and offer
our petitions.
The last will and testament of
Jesus is a fraud and a sham unless He truly is the
Son of God. “Truly, truly, I say to you, if you ask
the Father for anything, He will give it to you in
My name" (16:23). Because He
truly is the Second Person of the Godhead we do ask
and receive.
Prayer is the exclusive
exercise of believers in Christ. No one can go into
the presence of a holy God on the basis of
self-merit.
No sinner can receive anything
from God on the grounds of his or her own goodness.
However, on the ground of the shed blood of Jesus
Christ, the worst sinner who has turned from his sin
and accepted Jesus Christ as his Savior can come and
with boldness can speak out of the longing of his
heart and receive from God what he asks.
When you pray do you go to the
heavenly Father in the name of Jesus? We have the
privilege of entering into His presence only on the
basis of the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. The
only prayers God hears are prayers offered to God
the Father through the Lord Jesus Christ.
Selah!
Message by Wil Pounds (c) 2006
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Unless otherwise noted "Scripture quotations taken from the NASB."
"Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE" © Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation Used by permission." (www.Lockman.org)Scripture quoted by permission. Quotations designated (NET) are from the NET Bible copyright ©1996-2006 by Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. http://www.bible.org/. All rights reserved.
Wil is a graduate of William Carey University, B. A.; New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, Th. M.; and Azusa Pacific University, M. A. He has pastored in Panama, Ecuador and the U. S, and served for over 20 years as missionary in Ecuador and Honduras. He had a daily expository Bible teaching ministry head in over 100 countries from 1972-2005. He continues to seek opportunities to be personally involved in world missions. Wil and his wife Ann have three grown daughters. He currently serves as a Baptist pastor and teaches seminary extension courses in Ecuador.
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