CHAPTER 10 OF WITH CHRIST IN THE SCHOOL OF PRAYER Tenth Lesson What wilt thou, or, prayer must be definite? When Jesus answered him and said, What wilt thou, that I should do unto thee? Mark 10.51 Luke 18.41 The blind man had been crying out aloud, and that a great deal. Thou son of David, have mercy on me. The cry had reached the ear of the Lord. He knew what he wanted, and was ready to grant it to him. But ear he does it, he asks him, What wilt thou, that I should do unto thee? He wants to hear from his own lips, not only the general petition for mercy, but the distinct expression of what his desire was. Until he speaks it out, he is not healed. There is now still many a suppliant to whom the Lord puts the same question, and who cannot, until it has been answered, get the aid, he asks. Our prayers must not be a vague appeal to his mercy, and in definite cry for blessing, but the distinct expression of definite need. Not that his loving heart does not understand our cry, or is not ready to hear. But he desires it for our own sakes. Such definite prayer teaches us to know our own needs better. It demands time and thought and self-scrutiny to find out what really is our greatest need. It searches us, and puts us to the test as to whether our desires are honest and real, such as we are ready to persevere in. It leads us to judge whether our desires are according to God's word, and whether we really believe that we shall receive the things we ask. It helps us to wait for the special answer and to mark it when it comes. And yet how much of our prayer is vague and pointless? Some cry for mercy, but take not the trouble to know what mercy must do for them. Others ask perhaps to be delivered from sin, but do not begin by bringing any sin by name from which the deliverance may be claimed. Still others pray for God's blessing on those around them, for the outpouring of God's spirit on their land or the world, and yet have no special field where they wait and expect to see the answer. To all the Lord says, and what is it now you really want and expect me to do? Every Christian has but limited powers, and as he must have his own special field of labour in which he works, so with his prayers too. Each believer has his own circle, his family, his friends, his neighbours. If he were to take one or more of these by name, he would find that this really brings him into the training school of faith, and leads to personal and pointed dealing with his God. It is when in such distinct matters we have in faith claimed and received answers that our more general prayers will be believing and effectual. We all know with what surprised the whole civilised world heard of the way in which trained troops were repulsed by the Transvaal Boers at Majuba. And so what did they owe their success? In the armies of Europe the soldier fires upon the enemy standing in large masses, and never thinks of seeking an aim for every bullet. In hunting game the Boer had learnt a different lesson. His practised eye knew to send every bullet on its special message to seek and find its man. Such aiming must gain the day in the spiritual world too. As long as in prayer we just pour out our hearts in a multitude of petitions, without taking time to see whether every petitioner sent with the purpose and expectation of getting an answer. Not many will reach the mark. But if, as in silence of soul we bow before the Lord, we were to ask such questions as these, what is now really my desire? Do I desire in faith expecting to receive? Am I now ready to place and leave it in the Father's bosom? Is it a settled thing between God and me that I am to have the answer? We should learn so to pray that God would see and we would know what we really expect. It is for this, among other reasons, that the Lord warns us against the vain repetitions of the Gentiles, who think to be heard for their much praying. We often hear prayers of great earnestness and fervour, in which a multitude of petitions are poured forth, but to which the Saviour would undoubtedly answer, what wilt thou that I should do unto thee? If I am in a strange land, in the interests of the business which my Father owns, I would certainly write two different sort of letters. There will be family letters giving expression to all the intercourse to which affection prompts, and there will be business letters containing orders for what I need, and there may be letters in which both are found. The answers will correspond to the letters. To each sentence of the letters containing the family news I do not expect a special answer, but for each order I send, I am confident of an answer where the desired article has been forwarded. In our dealings with God the business element must not be wanting. With our expression of need and sin, of love and faith and consecration, there must be the pointed statement of what we ask and expect to receive. It is in the answer that the Father loves to give us the token of his approval and acceptance. But the word of the Master teaches us more. He does not say, what dost thou wish, but what dost thou will? One often wishes for a thing without willing it. I wish to have a certain article, but I find the price too high. I resolve not to take it. I wish, but do not will to have it. The slug it wishes to be rich, but does not will it. Many a one wishes to be saved, but perishes because he does not will it. The will rules the whole heart and life. If I really will to have anything that is within my reach, I do not rest till I have it. And so when Jesus says to us, what wilt thou? He asks whether it is indeed our purpose to have what we ask at any price, however great the sacrifice. Does thou indeed so will to have it that, though he delay it long, thou dost not hold thy peace till he hear thee? Alas! How many prayers are wishes sent up for a short time and then forgotten, or sent up year after year as a matter of duty, while we rest content with the prayer without the answer? But it may be asked, is it not best to make our wishes known to God, and then to leave it to him to decide what is best, without seeking to assert our will? By no means. This is the very essence of the prayer of faith to which Jesus sought to train his disciples, that it does not only make known its desire and then leave the decision to God. That would be the prayer of submission, for cases in which we cannot know God's will. But the prayer of faith, finding God's will in some promise of the Word, pleads for that to let come. In Matthew 9.28 we read Jesus said to the blind man, Believe ye that I can do this. Here in Mark he says, What wilt thou that I should do? In both cases he said that faith had saved them. And so he said to the Syrophoenician woman, too, Great is thy faith, be it unto the even as thou wilt. Faith is nothing but the purpose of the will resting on God's Word and saying, I must have it, to believe truly is to will firmly. But is not such a will at variance with our dependence on God and our submission to him? By no means. It is much rather the true submission that honours God. It is only when the child has yielded his own will in entire surrender to the Father, that he recedes from the Father liberty and power to will what he would have. But when once the believer has accepted the will of God as revealed through the Word and Spirit as his will, too, then it is the will of God that his child should use this renewed will in his service. The will is the highest power in the soul. Grace wants above everything to sanctify and restore this will. One of the chief traits of God's image to full and free exercise. As a son who only lives for his Father's interests, who seeks not his own but his Father's will is trusted by the Father with his business, so God speaks to his child in all truth. What wilt thou? It is often spiritual sloth that, under the appearance of humility, professes to have no will, because it fears the trouble of searching out the will of God, or when found, the struggle of claiming it in faith. True humility is ever in company with strong faith, which only seeks to know what is according to the will of God, and then boldly claims the fulfilment of the promise. You shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. Lord teach us to pray. Lord Jesus, teach me to pray with all my heart and strength, that there may be no doubt with thee or with me as to what I have asked. May I so know what I desire that, even as my petitions are recorded in heaven, I can record them on earth too, and note each answer as it comes. And may my faith in what thy word has promised be so clear that the spirit may indeed work in me the liberty to will that it shall come. Lord renew, strengthen, sanctify, holy my will for the work of effectual prayer. Blessed Saviour, I do beseech thee to reveal to me the wonderful condescension thou showest us, thus asking us to say what we will that thou shouldst do, and promising to do whatever we will. Son of God, I cannot understand it. I can only believe that thou hast indeed redeemed us wholly for thyself, and dost seek to make the will, as our noblest part, thy most efficient servant. Lord, I do most unreservedly yield my will to thee, as the power through which thy spirit is to rule my whole being. Let him take possession of it, need it into the truth of thy promises, and make it so strong in prayer that I may ever hear thy voice saying, great is thy faith, be it unto thee, even as thou wilt. Amen. CHAPTER 11 OF WITH CHRIST IN THE SCHOOL OF PRAYER This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information on to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Joy Chan, With Christ in the School of Prayer, by Andrew Murray. CHAPTER 11 BELIEVE THAT YOU HAVE RECEIVED or THE FAITH THAT TAKES Therefore I say unto you, all things whatsoever ye pray and ask for, believe that ye have received them, and ye shall have them. CHAPTER 11 24 What a promise, so large, so divine, that our little hearts cannot take it in, and in every possible way seek to limit it to what we think safe or probable, instead of allowing it in its quickening power and energy, just as he gave it, to enter in, and to enlarge our hearts to the measure of what his love and power are really ready to do for us. Faith is very far from being a mere conviction of the truth of God's word, or a conclusion drawn from certain premises. It is the ear which has heard God say what he will do, the eye which has seen him doing it, and therefore, where there is true faith, it is impossible but the answer must come. If we only see to it that we do the one thing that he asks of us as we pray, believe that ye have received, he will see to it that he does the thing he has promised, he shall have them.   Let us in this spirit listen to the promise Jesus gives, each part of it has its divine message. All things whatsoever. At this first word our human wisdom at once begins to doubt and ask. This surely cannot be literally true. But of it be not, why did the Master speak it, using the very strongest expression he could find? All things whatsoever. And it is not as if this were the only time he spoke thus. Is it not he who also said, if thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth? If ye have faith, nothing shall be impossible to you. Faith is so wholly the work of God's spirit through his word in the prepared heart of the believing disciple, that it is impossible that the fulfilment should not come. Faith is the pledge and forerunner of the coming answer. Yes, all things whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer believing ye receive. The tendency of human reason is to interpose here and with certain qualifying clauses, if expedient, if according to God's will. To break the force of a statement which appears dangerous. Now let us beware of dealing thus with the Master's words. His promise is most literally true. He wants his oft-repeated all things to enter into our hearts and reveal to us how mighty the power of faith is, how truly the head calls the members to share with him in his power, how wholly our Father places his power at the disposal of the child that wholly trusts him. In this all things faith is to have its food and strength. As we weaken it we weaken faith. The whatsoever is unconditional. The only condition is what is implied in the believing. Here we can believe we must find out and know what God's will is. Believing is the exercise of a soul surrendered and given up to the influence of the Word and the Spirit. But when once we do believe nothing shall be impossible. God forbid that we should try and bring down his all things to the level of what we think possible. Let us now simply take Christ's whatsoever as the measure and the hope of our faith. It is a seed word which, if taken just as he gives it and kept in the heart, will unfold itself and strike root, fill our life with its fullness, and bring forth fruit abundantly. All things whatsoever ye pray and ask for. It is in prayer that these all things are to be brought to God, to be asked and received of him. The faith that receives them is the fruit of the prayer. In one aspect there must be faith before they can be prayer. In another the faith is the outcome and the growth of prayer. It is in the personal presence of the Saviour, in intercourse with him, that faith rises to grasp what at first appeared too high. It is in prayer that we hold up our desire to the light of God's holy will, that our motives are tested and proof given whether we ask indeed in the name of Jesus and only for the glory of God. It is in prayer that we wait for the leading of the spirit to show us whether we are asking the right thing and in the right spirit. It is in prayer that we become conscious of our want of faith, that we are led on to say to the Father that we do believe and that we prove the reality of our faith by the confidence with which we persevere. It is in prayer that Jesus teaches and inspires faith. He that waits to pray or loses heart in prayer because he does not yet feel the faith needed to get the answer will never learn to believe. He who begins to pray and ask will find the spirit of faith is given nowhere so surely as at the foot of the throne. Believe that you have received. It is clear that what we are to believe is that we receive the very things we ask. The Savior does not hint that because the Father knows what is best he may give us something else. The very mountain faith bids depart as cast into the sea. There is a prayer at which in everything we make known our requests with prayer and supplication and the reward is the sweet peace of God keeping heart and mind. This is the prayer of trust. It has reference to things of which we cannot find out if God is going to give them. As children we make known our desires in the countless things of daily life and leave it to the Father to give or not as he thinks best. But the prayer of faith of which Jesus speaks is something different, something higher. When rather in the greater interests of the Master's work or in the lesser concerns of our daily life the soul is led to see how there is nothing that so honours the Father as the faith that is assured that he will do what he has said in giving us whatsoever we ask for. It takes its stand on the promise as brought home by the Spirit. It may know most certainly that it does receive exactly what it asks. Just see how clearly the Lord sets this before us in verse 23. Whosoever shall not doubt in his heart but shall believe that what he saith cometh to pass he shall have it. This is the blessing of prayer of faith of which Jesus speaks. Believe that ye have received. This is the word of central importance of which the meaning is too often misunderstood. Believe that you have received, now while praying, the thing you ask for. It may only be later that you shall have it in personal experience, that you shall see what you believe, but now without seeing you are to believe that it has been given you of the Father in heaven. The receiving or accepting of an answer to prayer is just like the receiving or accepting of Jesus or of pardon, a spiritual thing, an act of faith apart from all feeling. When I come as a supplicant for pardon, I believe that Jesus in heaven is for me, and so I receive or take him. When I come as a supplicant for any special gift which is according to God's word, I believe that what I ask is given me. I believe that I have it, I hold it in faith. I thank God that it is mine. If we know that he heareth us whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions which we have asked of him, and ye shall have them. That is, the gift which we first hold in faith as bestowed upon us in heaven will also become ours in personal experience. But will it be needful to pray longer if once we know we have been heard and have received what we asked? There are cases in which such prayer will not be needful, in which the blessing is ready to break through at once, if we but hold fast our confidence, and prove our faith by praising for what we have received, in the face of our not yet having it in experience. There are other cases in which the faith that has received needs to be still further tried and strengthened in persevering prayer. God only knows when everything in and around us is fully ripe for the manifestation of the blessing that has been given to faith. Elijah knew for certain that rain would come. God had promised it, and yet he had to pray the seven times. And that prayer was no show or play, an intense spiritual reality in the heart of him who lay pleading there, and in the heaven above where it had its effectual work to do. It is through faith and patience we inherit the promises. Faith says most confidently, I have received it. Patience perseveres in prayer until the gift bestowed in heaven is seen on earth. Believe that ye have received and ye shall have. Between the have received in heaven and the shall have of earth, believe. Believing praise and prayer is the link. And now remember one thing more. It is Jesus who said this. As we see heaven thus open to us and the Father on the throne offering to give us whatsoever we ask in faith, our hearts feel full of shame that we have so little availed ourselves of our privilege, and full of fear lest our feeble faith still fail to grasp what is so clearly placed within our reach. There is one thing must make us strong and full of hope. It is Jesus who has brought us this message from the Father. He himself, when he was on earth, lived the life of faith and prayer. It was when the disciples expressed their surprise at what he had done to the fig tree, that he told them that the very same life he led could be theirs. That they could not only command the fig tree, but the very mountain, and it must obey. And he is our life. All he was on earth he is in us now. All he teaches he really gives. He is himself the author and the perfecter of our faith. He gives the spirit of faith. Let us not be afraid that such faith is not meant for us. It is meant for every child of the Father. It is within reach of each one who will but be childlike yielding himself to the Father's will and love, trusting the Father's word and power. Dear fellow Christian, let the thought that this word comes through Jesus, the Son, our brother, give us courage, and let our answer be, Yea, blessed Lord, we do believe thy word, we do believe that we receive. Lord, teach us to pray. Blessed Lord, thou didst come from the Father to show us all his love and all the treasures of blessing that love is waiting to bestow. Lord, thou hast this day again flung the gates so wide open and given us such promises as to our liberty and prayer that we must blush that our poor hearts have so little taken it in. It has been too large for us to believe. Lord, we now look up to thee to teach us to take and keep and use this precious word of thine. All things whatsoever ye ask, believe that ye have received. Blessed Jesus, it is thyself in whom our faith must be rooted if it is to grow strong. Thy work has freed us wholly from the power of sin and opened the way to the Father. Thy love is ever longing to bring us into the full fellowship of thy glory and power. Thy Spirit is ever drawing us upward into a life of perfect faith and confidence. We are assured that in thy teaching we shall learn to pray the prayer of faith. Thou wilt train us to pray so that we believe that we receive, to believe that we really have what we ask. Lord, teach me so to know and trust and love thee, so to live and abide in thee, that all my prayers rise up and come before God in thee, and that my soul may have in thee the assurance that I am heard. Amen. End of chapter 11. Chapter 12 of With Christ in the School of Prayer. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Joy Chan. With Christ in the School of Prayer, by Andrew Murray. 12th lesson. Have faith in God, or the secret of believing prayer. Jesus answering, said unto them, have faith in God. Verily I say unto you, whosoever shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that what he saith cometh to pass, he shall have it. Therefore I say unto you, all things whatsoever ye pray and ask for, believe that ye have received them, and ye shall have them. Mark 11, 22 to 24. The promise of answer to prayer which formed our yesterday's lesson is one of the most wonderful in all scripture. In how many hearts it has raised the question? However, can I attain the faith that knows that it receives all it asks? It is this question our Lord would answer today. Here he gave that wonderful promise to his disciples. He spoke another word, in which he points out where the faith in the answer to prayer takes its rise, and ever finds its strength. Have faith in God. This word precedes the other. Have faith in the promise of an answer to prayer. The power to believe a promise depends entirely, but only, on faith in the promissor. Trust in the person begets trust in his word. It is only where we live and associate with God in personal, loving intercourse, where God himself is all to us, where our whole being is continually opened up, and are exposed to the mighty influences that are at work where his holy presence is revealed, that the capacity will be developed for believing that he gives what soever we ask. This connection between faith in God and faith in his promise will become clear to us if we think what faith really is. It is often compared to the hand or the mouth by which we take and appropriate what is offered to us. But it is of importance that we should understand that faith is also the ear by which I hear what is promised, the eye by which I see what is offered me. On this the power to take depends. I must hear the person who gives me the promise. The very tone of his voice gives me courage to believe. I must see him. In the light of his eye and countenance all fears to my right to take passes away. The value of the promise depends on the promiseor. It is on my knowledge of what the promiseor is that faith in the promise depends. It is for this reason that Jesus, here he gives that wonderful prayer promise, first says, have faith in God. That is, let thy eye be opened to the living God and gaze on him, seeing him who is invisible. It is through the eye that I yield myself to the influence of what is before me. I just allow it to enter, to exert its influence, to leave its impression upon my mind. So believing God is just looking to God and what he is, allowing him to reveal his presence, giving him time and yielding the whole being to take in the full impression of what he is as God. The soul opened up to receive and rejoice in the overshadowing of his love. Yes, faith is the eye to which God shows what he is and does. Through faith the light of his presence and the workings of his mighty power stream into the soul. As that which I see lives in me. So by faith God lives in me, too. And even so, faith is also the ear through which the voice of God is always heard and intercourse with him kept up. It is through the Holy Spirit the Father speaks to us. The Son is the Word, the substance of what God says. The Spirit is the living voice. This the child of God needs to lead and guide him. The secret voice from heaven must teach him as it taught Jesus what to say and what to do. An ear opened towards God, that is, a believing heart waiting on him to hear what he says, will hear him speak.  They will bring indeed and living experience what are otherwise only thoughts. Through this opened ear the soul tarries under the influence of the life and power of God himself. As the words I hear enter the mind and dwell and work there. So through faith God enters the heart and dwells and works there. When faith now is in full exercise as I and ear, as the faculty of the soul by which we see and hear God, then it will be able to exercise its full power as hand and mouth, by which we appropriate God in his blessing. The power of reception will depend entirely on the power of spiritual perception. For this reason Jesus said, ear he gave the promise that God would answer believing prayer. Faith is simply surrender. I yield myself to the impression the tidings I hear make on me. By faith I yield myself to the living God. His glory and love fill my heart and have the mastery over my life. Faith is fellowship. I give myself up to the influence of the friend who makes me a promise and become linked to him by it, and it is when we enter into this living fellowship with God himself in a faith that always sees and hears him that it becomes easy and natural to believe his promise as to prayer. Faith in the promise is the fruit of faith in the promiser. The prayer of faith is rooted in the life of faith, and in this way the faith that prays effectually is indeed a gift of God. Not as something that he bestows or infuses at once, but in a far deeper and truer sense, as the blessed disposition or habit of soul which is wrought and grows up in us in a life of intercourse with him. Surely for one who knows his father well and lives in constant close intercourse with him, it is a simple thing to believe the promise that he will do the will of his child who lives in union with himself. It is because very many of God's children do not understand this connection between the life of faith and the prayer of faith that their experience of the power of prayer is so limited. When they desire earnestly to obtain an answer from God, they fix their whole heart upon the promise and try their utmost to grasp that promise in faith. When they do not succeed, they are ready to give up hope. The promise is true, but it is beyond their power to take hold of it in faith. Listen to the lesson Jesus teaches us this day. Let faith look to God more than the thing promised. It is his love, his power, his living presence will awaken and work the faith. A physician would say to one asking for some means to get more strength in his arms and hands, to seize and hold, that his whole constitution must be built up and strengthened. So the cure of a feeble faith is alone to be found in the invigoration of our whole spiritual life by intercourse with God. Learn to believe in God, to take hold of God, to let God take possession of thy life and it will be easy to take hold of the promise. He that knows and trusts God finds it easy to trust the promise too. Just note how distinctly this comes out in the saints of old. Every special exhibition of the power of faith was the fruit of a special revelation of God. The word of the Lord came unto Abram, saying, Fear not Abram, I am thy shield, and he brought him forth abroad and said, and he believed the Lord. And later again the Lord appeared unto him, and said unto him, I am God Almighty, and Abram fell on his face, and God talked with him, saying, As for me, behold, my covenant is with thee. It was the revelation of God himself that gave the promise its living power to enter the heart and work the faith. Because they knew God, these men of faith could not do anything but trust his promise. God's promise will be to ask what God himself is. It is the man who walks before the Lord, and falls upon his face to listen while the living God speaks to him, who will really receive the promise. Though we have God's promises in the Bible, with full liberty to take them, the spiritual power is wanting, except as God himself speaks them to us, and he speaks to those who walk and live with him. Therefore, have faith in God. Let faith be all eye and ear, the surrender to let God make his full impression, and reveal himself fully in the soul. Count at one of the chief blessings of prayer to exercise faith in God, as the living mighty God, who waits to fulfill in us all the good pleasure of his will, and the work of faith with power. See in him the God of love, whose delight it is to bless and impart himself. In such worship of faith in God, the power will speedily come to believe the promise too. All things whatsoever ye ask, believe that ye receive. Yes, see that thou dost in faith make God thine own, the promise will be thine too. These are the most lessons that Jesus has to teach us this day. We seek God's gifts. God wants to give us himself first. We think of prayer as the power to draw down good gifts from heaven. Jesus has the means to draw ourselves up to God. We want to stand at the door and cry. Jesus would have us first enter in, and realize that we are friends and children. Let us accept the teaching. And every experience of the littleness of our faith in prayer, urge us first to have and exercise more faith in the living God, and in such faith to yield ourselves to him. A heartful of God has power for the prayer of faith. Faith in God begets faith in the promise, in the promise too of an answer to prayer. Therefore, child of God, take time, take time to bow before him, to wait on him to reveal himself. Take time, and let thy soul in holy awe and worship exercise and express its faith in the infinite one, and as he imparts himself, and takes possession of thee, the prayer of faith will crown thy faith in God. Lord teach us to pray. Oh my God, I do believe in thee. I believe in thee as the Father, infinite in thy love and power, and as the Son, I redeemer'd my life, and as the Holy Spirit, comforter and guide and strength. Three one God, I have faith in thee. I know and am sure that all that thou art, thou art to me, that all thou hast promised thou wilt perform. Lord Jesus, increase this faith. Teach me to take time and wait and worship in the holy presence, until my faith takes in all there is in my God for me. Let it see him as the fountain of all life, working with almighty strength to accomplish his will on the world and in me. Let it see him in his love longing to meet and fulfil my desires. Let it so take possession of my heart and life, that through faith God alone may dwell there. Lord Jesus, help me, with my whole heart would I believe in God. Let faith in God each moment fill me. O my blessed Saviour, how can thy church glorify thee? How can it fulfil that work of intercession through which thy kingdom must come, unless our whole life be faith in God? Blessed Lord, speak thy word, have faith in God, unto the depths of our souls. CHAPTER XIII. Or the cure of unbelief. Then came the disciples to Jesus apart and said, Why could not we cast him out? And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief, for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, Nothing shall be impossible to you. Be it this kind, goeth not out, but by prayer and fasting. Matthew 13, 19 to 21. When the disciples saw Jesus cast the evil spirit out of the epileptic whom they could not cure, they asked the master for the cause of their failure. He had given them power and authority over all devils, and to cure all diseases. They had often exercised that power, and joyfully told how the devils were subject to them, and yet now, while he was on the mount, they had utterly failed. That there had been nothing in the will of God or in the nature of the case of render deliverance impossible had been proved. At Christ's bidding the evil spirit had gone out. From their expression, why could we not? It is evident that they had wished and sought to do so. They had probably used the master's name and called upon the evil spirit to go out. Their efforts had been vain, and in presence of the multitude they had been put to shame. Why could we not? Christ's answer was direct and plain, because of your unbelief. The cause of his success and their failure was not owing to his having a special power to which they had no access. No, the reason was not far to seek. He had so often taught them that there is one power, that of faith, to which in the kingdom of darkness, as in the kingdom of God, everything must bow. In the spiritual world failure has but one cause, the want of faith. Faith is the one condition of which all divine power can enter into man and work through him. It is the susceptibility of the unseen, man's will yielded up to and moulded by the will of God. The power they had received to cast out devils, they did not hold in themselves as a permanent gift or possession. The power was in Christ to be received and held and used by faith alone, living faith in himself. Had they been full of faith in him as Lord and conqueror in the spirit world, had they been full of faith in him as having given them authority to cast out in his name, this faith would have given them the victory. Because of your unbelief was, for all time, the Master's explanation and reproof of impotence and failure in his church. But such want of faith must have a cause, too. Well might the disciples have asked, and why could we not believe? Our faith has cast out devils before this. Why have we now failed in believing? The Master proceeds to tell them ere they ask, this kind goeth not out but by fasting and prayer. As faith is the simplest, so it is the highest exercise of the spiritual life, where our spirit yields itself in perfect receptivity to God's spirit, and so is strengthened to its highest activity. This faith depends entirely upon the state of the spiritual life. Only when this is strong and in full health, when the Spirit of God has full sway in our life, is there the power of faith to do its mighty deeds. And therefore Jesus adds, how be it this kind goeth not out but by fasting and prayer. The faith that can overcome such stubborn resistance as you have just seen in this evil spirit, Jesus tells them, is not possible except to men living in very close fellowship with God, and in very special separation from the world, in prayer and fasting. And so he teaches us two lessons regard to prayer of deep importance. Number one, that faith needs a life of prayer in which to grow and keep strong. The other, that prayer needs fasting for its full and perfect development. Faith needs a life of prayer for its full growth. In all the different parts of the spiritual life, there is such close union, such unceasing action and reaction, that each may be both cause and effect. Thus it is with faith. There can be no true prayer without faith. No measure of faith must precede prayer, and yet prayer is also the way to more faith. There can be no higher degrees of faith except through much prayer. This is the lesson Jesus teaches here. There is nothing need so much to grow as our faith. Your faith groweth exceedingly, instead of one church. When Jesus spoke the words, according to your faith be it unto you. He announced the law of the kingdom, which tells us that all have not equal degrees of faith, that the same person has not always the same degree, and that the measure of faith must always determine the measure of power and of blessing. If we want to know where and how our faith is to grow, the Master points us to the throne of God. It is in prayer, in the exercise of the faith I have, in fellowship with the living God, that faith can increase. Faith can only live by feeding on what is divine, on God Himself. It is in the adoring worship of God, the waiting on Him and for Him, the deep silence of soul that yields itself for God to reveal itself, that the capacity for knowing and trusting God will be developed. It is as we take His word from the blessed book and bring it to Himself, asking Him to speak to us with His living, loving voice, that the power will come fully to believe and receive the word as God's own word to us. It is in prayer, in living contact with God in living faith. That faith, the power to trust God, and in that trust, to accept everything He says, to accept every possibility He has offered to our faith, will become strong in us. Many Christians cannot understand what is meant by the much prayer they sometimes hear spoken of. They can form no conception, nor do they feel the need of spending hours with God. But what the Master says, the experience of His people has confirmed. Men of strong faith are men of much prayer. This just brings us back again to the lesson we learned when Jesus, before telling us to believe that we receive what we ask, first said, have faith in God. It is God, the living God, into whom our faith must strike its roots deep and broad. Then it will be strong to remove mountains and cast out devils. If you have faith, nothing shall be impossible to you. Oh, if we do but give ourselves up to the work God has for us in the world. Coming into contact with the mountains and the devils there are to be cast away and cast out, we should soon comprehend the need there is of much faith and of much prayer, as the soil in which alone faith can be cultivated. Christ Jesus is our life, the life of our faith, too. It is His life in us that makes us strong and makes us simple to believe. It is in the dying to self which much prayer implies, in closer union to Jesus, that the spirit of faith will come in power. Faith needs prayer for its full growth, and prayer needs fasting for its full growth. This is the second lesson. Prayer is the one hand with which we grasp the invisible, fasting the other with which we let loose and cast away the visible. In nothing is man more closely connected with the world of sense than in his need of food and his enjoyment of it. It was the fruit good for food with which man was tempted and fell in paradise. It was with bread to be made of stones that Jesus, when and hungered, was tempted in the wilderness and in fasting that he triumphed. The body has been redeemed to be a temple of the Holy Spirit. It is in body as well as spirit. It is very specially, scripture says, in eating and drinking we are to glorify God. It is to be feared that there are many Christians to whom this eating to the glory of God has not yet become a spiritual reality. And the first thought suggested by Jesus' words in regard to fasting and prayer is that it is only in a life of moderation and temperance and self-denial that there will be the heart or the strength to pray much. But then there is also its more literal meaning. Sorrow and anxiety cannot eat. Joy celebrates its feasts with eating and drinking. There may come times of intense desire when it has strongly felt how the body with its appetites, lawful though they be, still hinder the spirit in its battle with the powers of darkness and the need is felt of keeping it under. We are creatures of the senses, our mind is helped by what comes to us embodied in concrete form. Fasting helps to express, to deepen and to confirm the resolution that we are ready to sacrifice anything, to sacrifice ourselves, to attain what we seek for the kingdom of God. And he who accepted the fasting and sacrifice of the Son knows to value and accept and reward with spiritual power the soul that is thus ready to give up all for Christ and his kingdom. And then follows a still wider application. Prayer is the reaching out after God and the unseen, fasting the letting go of all that is of the seen and temporal. While ordinary Christians imagine that all that is not positively forbidden and sinful is lawful to them, and seek to retain as much as possible of this world, with its property, its literature, its enjoyments, the truly consecrated soul is as the soldier who carries only what he needs for the warfare. Laying aside every weight, as well as the easily besetting sin, afraid of entangling himself with the affairs of this life, he seeks to lead a Nazarite life, as one specially set apart for the Lord and His service. Without such voluntary separation, even from what is lawful, no one will attain power in prayer. This kind goeth not out but by fasting and prayer. Disciples of Jesus, who have asked the Master to teach you to pray, come now and accept his lessons. He tells you that prayer is the path to faith, strong faith, that can cast out devils. He tells you, if you have faith, nothing shall be impossible to you. Let this glorious promise encourage you to pray much. Is the prize not worth the price? Shall we not give up all to follow Jesus in the path he opens to us here? Shall we not, if need be, fast? Shall we not do anything that neither the body nor the world around us in our great life work, having intercourse with our God in prayer, that we may become men of faith whom he can use in his work of saving the world. Lord teach us to pray. O Lord Jesus, how continually thou hast to reprove us for our unbelief. How strange it must appear to thee this terrible incapacity of trusting our Father and His promises. Lord, let thy reproof with its searching, because of your unbelief, sink into the very depths of our hearts, and reveal to us how much of the sin and suffering around us is our blame. And then teach us, blessed Lord, that there is a place where faith can be learned and gained, even in the prayer and fasting that brings into living and abiding fellowship with thyself and the Father. O Saviour, thou thyself art the author and the perfector of our faith. Teach us what it is to let thee live in us by thy Holy Spirit. Lord, our efforts and prayers for grace to believe have been so unavailing. We know why it was. We sought for strength in ourselves to be given from thee. Holy Jesus, do at length teach us the mystery of thy life in us, and how thou by thy Spirit dost undertake to live in us the life of faith, to see to it that our faith shall not fail. O let us see that our faith would just be a part of that wonderful prayer life, which thou givest in them who expect their training for the ministry of intercession, not in word and thought only, but in the holy unction thou givest, the inflowing of the Spirit of thine own life. And teach us how, in fasting and prayer, we may grow up to the faith to which nothing shall be impossible. Amen. Note, at the time when Blumart was passing through his terrible conflict with the evil spirits in those who were possessed, and seeking to cast them out by prayer, he often wondered what it was that hindered the answer. One day a friend, to whom he had spoken of his trouble, directed his attention to our Lord's words about fasting. Blumart resolved to give himself to fasting sometimes for more than thirty hours. From reflection and experience he gained the conviction that it is of more importance than is generally thought. He says, inasmuch as the fasting is before God, a practical proof that the thing we ask is to ask a matter of true and pressing interest, and inasmuch as in a high degree it strengthens the intensity and power of the prayer, and becomes the unceasing practical expression of a prayer without words, I could believe that it would not be without efficacy, especially as the Master's words had referenced to a case like the present. I tried it without telling anyone, and in truth the later conflict was extraordinarily lightened by it. I could speak with much greater restfulness and decision. I did not require to be so long-present with the sick one, and I felt that I could influence without being present. CHAPTER XIV When you stand praying, forgive, or, prayer and love, and whensoever you stand praying, forgive, if you have ought against anyone, that your father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses. Mark 11, 25. These words follow immediately on the great prayer promise. All things whatsoever you pray, believe that you have received them, and you shall have them. We have already seen how the words that preceded that promise, have faith in God, taught us that in prayer all depends upon our relation to God being clear. These words that follow on it remind us that our relation with fellow men must be clear too. Love to God and love to our neighbour are inseparable. The prayer from a heart that is either not right with God on the one side, or with men on the other, cannot prevail. Faith and love are essential to each other. We find that this is a thought to which our Lord frequently gave expression. In the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5, 23, 24, when speaking of the sixth commandment, he taught his disciples how impossible acceptable worship to the father was, if everything were not right with the brother. If thou art offering thy gift at the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee, leave there thy gift before the altar and go thy way, first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift. And so later, when speaking of prayer to God, after having taught us to pray, forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors, he added at the close of the prayer, if you forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your father forgive your trespasses. At the close of the parable of the unmerciful servant he applies his teaching in the words, so shall also my heavenly father do unto you, if you forgive not every one his brother from your hearts. And so here, beside the dried-up fig tree, where he speaks of the wonderful power of faith and the prayer of faith, he all at once, apparently without connection, introduces the thought, whensoever you stand praying, forgive, if you have ought against any one, that your father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses. It is as if the Lord had learned during his life at Nazareth, and afterwards, that disobedience to the law of love to men was the great sin even of praying people, and the great cause of the feebleness of their prayer. And it is as if he wanted to lead us into his own blessed experience, that nothing gives such liberty of access, and such power in believing, as the consciousness that we have given ourselves in love and compassion for those whom God loves. The first lesson taught here is that of a forgiving disposition. We pray, forgive even as we have forgiven. Scripture says, forgive one another even as God also in Christ forgave you. God's full and free forgiveness is to be the rule of ours with men. Every prayer rests upon our faith in God's pardoning grace. If God dwelt with us after our sins, not one prayer could be heard. Pardon opens the door to all God's love and blessing, because God has pardoned all our sin, our prayer can prevail to obtain all we need. The deep, sure ground of answer to prayer is God's forgiving love. When it has taken possession of God's forgiveness, the deep, sure ground of answer to prayer is God's forgiving love. When it has taken possession of the heart, we pray in faith. But also when it has taken possession of the heart, we live in love. God's forgiving disposition revealed in his love to us becomes a disposition in us, as the power of his forgiving love shed abroad and dwelling within us, we forgive even as he forgives. If there be great and grievous injury or injustice done us, we ought to possess a God-like disposition to be kept from a sense of wounded honour, from a desire to maintain our rights, or from rewarding the offender as he has deserved. In the little annoyances of daily life, we are watchful not to excuse the hasty temper, the sharp word, the quick judgment, with the thought that we mean no harm, that we do not keep the anger long, or that it would be too much to expect from feeble human nature, that we should forgive the way God and Christ do. No. We take the command literally, even as Christ forgave. So also do ye. The blood that cleanses the conscience from dead works cleanses from selfishness too. The love it reveals is pardoning love, that takes possession of us and flows through us to others. Our forgiving love to men is the evidence of the reality of God's forgiving love in us, and so the condition of the prayer of faith. There is a second more general lesson. Our daily life in the world is made the test of our intercourse with God in prayer. How often the Christian, when he comes to pray, does his utmost to cultivate certain frames of mind which he thinks will be pleasing. He does not understand, or forgets, that life does not consist of so many loose pieces of which now the one, then the other, can be taken up. Life is a whole, and the pious frame of the hour of prayer is judged of by God from the ordinary frame of the daily life, of which the hour of prayer is but a small part. Not the feeling I call up, but the tone of my life during the day is God's criterion of what I really am and desire. My drawing night to God is of one piece with my intercourse with men and earth. Failure here will cause failure there. And that not only when there is the distinct consciousness of anything wrong between my neighbour and myself, but the ordinary current of my thinking and judging, the unloving thoughts and words I allow to pass unnoticed, can hinder my prayer. The effectual prayer of faith comes out from a life given up to the will and the love of God. Not according to what I try to be when praying, but what I am when not praying, is my prayer dealt with by God. We may gather these thoughts into a third lesson in our life with men, the one thing on which everything depends is love. The spirit of forgiveness is the spirit of love. Because God is love he forgives. It is only when we are dwelling in love that we can forgive as God forgives. In love to the brethren we have the evidence of love to the Father, the ground of confidence before God, and the assurance that our prayer will be heard. 1 John 4 20 3 18 to 21 23 Let us love indeed and truth. Hereby shall we assure our heart before him. If our heart condemn us not, we have boldness toward God, and whatever we ask we receive of him. Neither faith nor work will profit if we have not love. It is love that unites with God. It is love that proves the reality of faith. As essential as in the word that precedes the great prayer promise in Mark 11 24, have faith in God. Is this one that follows it? Have love to men. The right relations to the living God above me and the living men around me are the conditions of effectual prayer. This love is of special consequence when we labour for such and pray for them. We sometimes give ourselves to work for Christ from zeal for His cause as we call it, or for our own spiritual health, without giving ourselves and personal self-sacrificing love for those whose souls we seek. No wonder that our faith is feeble and does not conquer. To look on each wretched one, however unlovable he be, in the light of the tender love of Jesus the shepherd seeking the lost, to see Jesus Christ in him, and to take him up for Jesus' sake in a heart that really loves. This, this is the secret of believing prayer and successful effort. Jesus speaking of forgiveness speaks of love as its root. Just as in the Sermon on the Mount he connected his teaching and promises about prayer with the call to be merciful as the Father in Heaven is merciful. Matthew 5, 7, 9, 22, 38 to 48. And so we see it here. And loving life is the condition of believing prayer. It has been said there is nothing so heart-searching as believing prayer or even the honest effort to pray in faith. Now let us not turn the edge of that self-examination by the thought that God does not hear our prayer for reasons known to himself alone. By no means. He ask and receive not because he ask amiss. Let that word of God surges. Let us ask whether our prayer be indeed the expression of a life wholly given over to the will of God and the love of man. Love is the only soil in which faith can strike its roots and thrive. As it throws its arms up and opens its heart heavenward the Father always looks to see if it has them opened towards the evil and the unworthy too. If that love not indeed the love of perfect attainment but the love of fixed purpose and sincere obedience faith can alone obtain the blessing. It is he who gives himself to let the love of God dwell in him and in the practice of daily life to love as God loves who will have the power to believe in the love that hears his every prayer. It is the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne. It is the suffering and forbearing love that prevails with God in prayer. The merciful shall obtain mercy. The meek shall inherit the earth. Lord teach us to pray. Blessed Father, thou art love and only he that abideth in love abideth in thee and in fellowship with thee. The blessed Son hath this day again taught me how deeply true this is of my fellowship with thee in prayer. Oh my God, let thy love shed abroad in my heart by the Holy Spirit. Be in me a fountain of love to all around me. That out of a life in love may spring the power of believing prayer. Oh my Father, grant by the Holy Spirit that this may be my experience.  Lord Jesus, my blessed teacher, teach thou me to forgive and to love. Let the power of thy blood make the pardon of my sins such a reality that forgiveness as shown by thee to me and by me to others may be the very joy of heaven. Show me whatever my intercourse with fellow men might hinder my fellowship with God so that my daily life in my own home and in society may be the school in which strength and confidence are gathered for the prayer of faith. Amen. End of Chapter 14. Chapter 15 of With Christ in the School of Prayer This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Joy Chan With Christ in the School of Prayer by Andrew Murray 15th Lesson If two agree or the power of united prayer Again I say unto you that if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven, for where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. Matthew 18, 19, 20 One of the first lessons of our Lord in his School of Prayer was not to be seen of men. Enter thy inner chamber be alone with the Father. When he has thus taught us that the meaning of prayer is personal, individual contact with God he comes with a second lesson. You have need not only of secret solitary but also of public united prayer and he gives us a very special promise for the united prayer of two or three who agree in what they ask. As a tree is its root hidden in the ground and its stem growing up into the sunlight so prayer needs equally for its full development the hidden secrecy in which the soul meets God alone and the public fellowship with those who find in the name of Jesus their common meeting place. The reason why this must be so is plain the bond that unites a man to his fellow men is no less real and close than that which unites him to God he is one with them. Grace renews not alone our relation to God but to man too. We not only learn to say my father but our father. Nothing would be more unnatural than that the children of a family should always meet their father separately but never in the united expression of their desires or their love. Believers are not only members of one family but even of one body. Just as each member of the body depends on the other and the full action of the spirit dwelling in the body depends on the union and cooperation of all so Christians cannot reach the full blessing God is ready to bestow through his spirit but as they seek and receive it in fellowship with each other it is in the union and fellowship of believers that the spirit can manifest his full power. It was to the hundred and twenty continuing in one place together and praying with one accord that the spirit came from the throne of the glorified Lord. The marks of true united prayer are given us in these words of our Lord. The first is agreement as to the thing asked. There must not only be generally the consent to agree with anything another may ask. There must be some special thing, matter of distinct united desire. The agreement must be, as all prayer, in spirit and in truth in such agreement it will become very clear to us what exactly we are asking whether we may confidently ask according to God's will and whether we are ready to believe that we have received what we ask. The second mark is the gathering in or into the name of Jesus. We shall afterwards have much more to learn of the need and the power of the name of Jesus in prayer. Here our Lord teaches us that the name must be the centre of union to which believers gather. The bond of union that makes them one just as a home contains and unites all who are in it. The name of the Lord is a strong tower, the righteous runneth into it and escape. That name is such a reality to those who understand and believe it that to meet within it is to have himself present. The love and unity of his disciples have to Jesus' infinite attraction, where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them. It is the living presence of Jesus in the fellowship of his loving praying disciples that gives united prayer its power. The third mark is the sure answer. It shall be done for them of my father. A prayer meeting for maintaining religious fellowship or seeking our own edification may have its use. This was not the Saviour's view in its appointment. He meant it as a means of securing special answer to prayer. A prayer meeting without recognized answer to prayer ought to be an anomaly. When any of us have distinct desires in regard to which we feel too weak to exercise the needful faith, we ought to seek strength in the help of other. In the unity of faith and of love and of the Spirit, the power of the name and the presence of Jesus acts more freely and the answer comes more surely. The mark that there has been true united prayer is the fruit, the answer, the receiving of the thing we have asked. I say unto you, it shall be done for them of my father which is in heaven. What an unspeakable privilege this of united prayer is, and what a power it might be. If the believing husband and wife knew that they were joined together in the name of Jesus to experience his presence and power in united prayer. First Peter. If friends believed what mighty help two or three praying in concert could give each other if in every prayer meeting the coming together in the name the faith in the presence and the expectation of the answer stood in the foreground. If in every church united effectual prayer were regarded as one of the chief purposes for which they abandoned together the highest exercise of their power as a church if in the church universal the coming of the kingdom the coming of the king himself first in the mighty outpouring of his Holy Spirit then in his own glorious person were really matter of unceasing united crying to God for who can say what blessing might come to and through those who thus agreed to prove God in the fulfilment of his promise In the apostle Paul we see very distinctly what a reality his faith in the power of united prayer was to the Romans he writes 1530 I beseech you brethren by the love of the spirit that you strive together with me in your prayer to God for me. He expects in answer to be delivered from his enemies and to be prospered in his work to the Corinthians second Corinthian 111 God will still deliver us you also helping together on our behalf by your supplications their prayers to have a real share in his deliverance to the Ephesians he writes with all prayer and supplication praying at all seasons in the spirit for all the saints and on my behalf that utterance may be given unto me his power and success in his ministry he makes to depend on their prayers with the Philippians 119 he expects that his trials will turn to his salvation and the progress of the gospel through your supplication and the supply of the spirit of Jesus Christ to the Colossians 4 3 he adds to the injunction to continue steadfast in prayer with all praying for us too that God may open unto us a door for the word and to the Thessalonians 2 Thessalonians 3 1 he writes finally brethren pray for us that the word of the Lord may run and be glorified and that we may delivered from unreasonable men it is everywhere evident that Paul felt himself the member of a body on the sympathy and cooperation of which he was dependent and that he counted on the prayers of these churches to gain for him what otherwise might not be given the prayers of the church were to him as real a factor in the work of the kingdom as the power of God who can say what power a church could develop and exercise if it gave itself to the work of prayer day and night for the coming of the kingdom for God's power on his servants and his word for the glorifying of God in the salvation of souls most churches think their members are gathered into one simply to take care of and build up each other they know not that God rules the world by the prayers of his saints prayer is the power by which Satan is conquered that by prayer the church on earth has disposal of the powers of the heavenly world they do not remember that Jesus has by his promise consecrated every assembly in his name to be a gate of heaven where his presence is to be felt and his power experienced in the father fulfilling their desires we cannot sufficiently thank God for the blessed week of united prayer every year as proof of our unity and our faith in the power of united prayer as a training school for the enlargement of our hearts to take in all the needs of the church universal as a help to united persevering prayer it is of unspeakable value but very specially as a stimulus to continued union in prayer in the smaller circles its blessing has been great and it will become even greater as God's people recognize what it is all to meet as one in the name of Jesus to have his presence in the midst of a body all united in the Holy Spirit and boldly to claim the promise that it shall be done of the father what they agree to ask Lord teach us to pray blessed Lord who didst in thy high priestly prayer ask so earnestly for the unity of thy people teach us how thou dost invite and urge us to this unity by thy precious promise given to united prayer it is when we are one in love and desire that our faith has thy presence and the father's answer oh father we pray for thy people and for every smaller circle of those who meet together that they may be one remove we pray all selfishness and self-interest all narrowness of heart and estrangement to which that unity is hindered cast out the spirit of the world and the flesh through which thy promise loses all its power oh let the thought of thy presence and the father's favor draw us all nearer to each other go out especially blessed Lord that thy church may believe that it is by the power of united prayer that she can bind and loose in heaven that Satan can be cast out that souls can be saved that mountains can be removed that the kingdom can be hastened and grant good Lord in the circle with which I pray the prayer of the church may indeed be the power through which thy name and word are glorified Amen. End of Chapter 15 Chapter 16 of With Christ in the School of Prayer This is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Joy Chan With Christ in the School of Prayer by Andrew Murray 16th lesson speedily though bearing long or the power of persevering prayer and he spoke a parable unto them to the end that they ought always to pray and not to faint and the Lord said hear what the unrighteous judge sayeth he ought to avenge his own elect which cried to him day and night and he is long suffering over them I say unto you that he will avenge them speedily of all the mysteries of the prayer world the need of persevering prayer is one of the greatest that the Lord who is so loving and longing to bless should have to be supplicated time after time when prayer becomes we cannot easily understand it is also one of the greatest practical difficulties in the exercise of believing prayer when after persevering supplication our prayer remains unanswered it is often easiest for our slothful flesh and it has all the appearance of pious submission to think that we must now cease praying because God may have his secret reason for withholding his answer to our request it is by faith alone that the difficulty is overcome when once faith has taken its stand upon God's word and the name of Jesus and has yielded itself to the leading of the spirit to seek God's will and honor alone in its prayer it need not be discouraged by delay it knows from scripture that the power of believing prayer is simply irresistible real faith can never be disappointed now just as water to exercise the irresistible power it can have must be gathered up and accumulated until the steam can come down in full force there must often be a heaping up of prayer until God sees that the measure is full and the answer comes it knows how just as the plaman has to take his ten thousand steps and sow his ten thousand seeds each one a part of the preparation for the final harvest will indeed be for oft repeated persevering prayer all working out some desired blessing it knows for certain that not a single believing prayer can fail of its effect in heaven but has its influence and is treasured up to work out an answer in due time to him who persevereth to the end it knows that it has to do not with human thoughts or possibilities but with the word of the living God it knows how hard it is in hope believed against hope and then through faith and patience inherited the promise it counts that the long suffering of the Lord is salvation waiting and hasting unto the coming of its Lord to fulfill his promise to enable us when the answer to our prayer does not come at once to combine quiet peace and joyful confidence in our persevering prayer we must especially try to understand which our Lord sets forth the character and conduct not of the unjust judge but of our God and Father towards those whom he allows to cry day and night to him he is long suffering over them he will avenge them speedily he will avenge them speedily the Master says the blessing is all prepared he is not only willing but most anxious to give them what they ask everlasting love burns the longing desire to reveal itself fully to its beloved and to satisfy their needs God will not delay one moment longer than is absolutely necessary he will do all in his power to hasten and speed the answer but why if this be true and his power be infinite does it often last so long with the answer to prayer and why must God's own elect so often in the midst of suffering and conflict cry day and night he is long suffering over them behold the husbandman waited for the precious fruit of the earth being long suffering over it to let receive the early and the latter rain the husbandman does indeed long for his harvest but knows that it must have its full time of sunshine and rain and has long patience a child so often wants to pick the half right fruit the husbandman knows to wait till the proper time man in his spiritual nature too is under the law of gradual growth that reigns in all created life it is only in the path of development that he can reach his divine destiny and it is the father in his hands at the times and seasons who alone knows the moment when the soul of the church is ripened to that fullness of faith in which it can really take and keep the blessing as a father who longs to have his only child home from school and yet waits patiently till the time of training is completed so it is with God and his children he is the long suffering one and answers speedily the insight into this truth leads the believer to cultivate the corresponding dispositions patience and faith waiting and are the secret of his perseverance by faith the promise of God we know that we have the petitions we have asked of him faith takes and holds the answer in the promise as an unseen spiritual possession rejoices in it and praises for it but there is a difference between the faith that thus holds the word and knows that it has the answer and the clearer fuller, riper faith that obtains the promise as a present experience it is in persevering believing but confident and praising prayer that the soul grows up into that full union with its Lord in which it can enter upon the possession of the blessing in him there may be in these around us there may be in that great system of being of which we are part there may be in God's government things that have to be put right through our prayer here the answer can fully come the faith that has according to the command believed that it has believed can allow God to take his time it knows it has prevailed and must prevail in quiet persistent and determined perseverance it continues in prayer and thanksgiving until the blessing come and so we see combined what at first sight appears so contradictory the faith that rejoices in the answer of the unseen God as a present possession with the patience that cries day and night until it is revealed the speedily of God's long suffering is met by the triumphant but patient faith of his rating child our great danger in this school of the answer delayed is the temptation to think that after all it may not be God's will to give us what we ask if our prayer be according to God's word and under the leading of the spirit let us not give way to these fears let us learn to give God time God needs time with us if we only give him time that is time in the daily fellowship with himself for him to exercise the full influence of his presence on us and time day by day in the course of our being kept waiting for faith to prove its reality and to fill our whole being he himself will lead us from faith to vision we shall see the glory of God let no delay shake our faith of faith it holds good first the blade then the ear then the full corn in the ear each believing prayer brings a step nearer the final victory each believing prayer helps to ripen the fruit and bring us nearer to it it fills up the measure of prayer and faith known to God alone it conquers the hindrances in the unseen world it hastens the end child of God give the father time he is long suffering over you he wants the blessing to be rich and full and sure give him time while you cry day and night only remember the word I say unto you he will avenge them speedily the blessing of such persevering prayer is unspeakable there is nothing so heart searching as the prayer of faith it teaches you to discover and confess and give up everything that hinders the coming of the blessing everything there may be not in accordance with the father's will it leads to closer fellowship with him who alone can teach to pray to a more entire surrender to draw nigh under no covering but that of the blood and the spirit it calls to a closer and more simple abiding in Christ alone Christian give God time he will perfect that which concerneth you long suffering speedily this is God's watchword as you enter the gates of prayer be it yours too let it be thus whether you pray for yourself or for others all labour bodily or mental needs time and effort we must give up ourselves to it nature discovers her secrets and yields her treasures only to diligent and thoughtful labour however little we can understand it in the spiritual husbandry the seed we sow in the soil of heaven the efforts we put forth and the influence we seek to exert in the world above need our whole being we must give ourselves to prayer but let us hold fast to the great confidence that in due season we shall reap if we faint not and let us specially learn the lesson as we pray for the church of Christ she is indeed as the poor widow in the absence of her Lord apparently at the mercy of her adversary helpless to obtain redress let us when we pray for his church or any portion of it under the power of the world asking him to visit her with the mighty workings of his spirit and to prepare her for his coming let us pray in the assured faith prayer does help praying always and not fainting will bring the answer only give God time and then crying day and night hear what the unrighteous judge sayeth and shall not God avenge his own elect which cry to him day and night and he is long suffering over them I say unto you he will avenge them speedily Lord teach us to pray oh Lord my God teach me now to know thy way and in faith to apprehend what thy beloved son has taught he will avenge them speedily let thy tender love and the delight thou hast in hearing and blessing thy children need me implicitly to accept thy promise that we receive what we believe that we have the petitions we ask and that the answer will in due time be seen Lord we understand the seasons in nature and know to wait with patience for the fruit we long for oh fill us with the assurance that not one moment longer than is needed will thou delay and that faith will hasten the answer blessed master thou has said that it is a sign of God's elect that they cry day and night oh teach us to understand this thou knowest how speedily we grow faint and weary it is as if the Divine Majesty is so much beyond the need or the reach of continued supplication that it does not become us to be too important in it oh Lord do teach me how real the labour of prayer is I know how here on earth when I have failed in an undertaking I can often succeed by renewed and more continuing effort by giving more time and thought show me how by giving myself more entirely to prayer to live in prayer I shall obtain what I ask and above all oh my blessed teacher author and perfecter of faith let by thy grace my whole life be one of faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me in whom my prayer gains acceptance in whom I have the assurance of the answer in whom the answer will be mine Lord Jesus in this faith I will pray always and not faint Amen Note the need of persevering importunate prayer appears to some to be at variance with the faith and knows that it has received what it asks Mark 1124 One of the mysteries of the Divine Life is the harmony between the gradual and the sudden immediate full possession and slow imperfect appropriation and so here persevering prayer appears to be the school in which the soul is strengthened for the boldness of faith and with the diversity of operations of the spirit there may be some in whom faith takes more the form of persistent waiting while to others triumphant thanksgiving appears the only proper expressions of the assurance of having been heard In a remarkable way the need of persevering prayer and the gradual rising into greater ease in obtaining answer is illustrated in the Life of Blomart Complaints had been lodged against him of neglecting his work as a minister of the Gospel and devoting himself to the healing of the sick and especially his unauthorized healing of the sick belonging to other congregations In his defense he writes I simply venture to do what becomes one who has the charge of souls and to pray according to the command of the Lord in James 1, 6 and 7 In no way did I trust to my own power or imagine that I had any gift that others had not But this is true I set myself to the work as a minister of the Gospel who has a right to pray I speedily discovered that the gates of heaven were not fully open to me Often I was inclined to retire in despair but the sight of the sick ones who could find help nowhere gave me no rest I thought of the word of the Lord Ask and it shall be given you Luke 11, 9 and 10 And Father I thought that if the church and her ministers had through unbelief, sloth and disobedience lost what was needed for overcoming of the power of Satan It was just for such times of leanness and famine that the Lord had spoken the parable of the friend at midnight and his three loaves I felt that I was not worthy thus at midnight in a time of great darkness to appear before God as his friend and ask for a member of my congregation what he needed and yet to leave him uncared for I could not either and so I kept knocking as the parable directs or as some have said with great presumption and tempting God Be this as it may I could not leave my guest unprovided at this time the parable of the widow became very precious to me I saw that the church was the widow and I was a minister of the church I had the right to be her mouthpiece against the adversary but for a long time the Lord would not I asked nothing more than the three loaves what I needed for my guest at last the Lord listened to the importunate beggar and helped me was it wrong of me to pray thus the two parables must surely be applicable somewhere and where was greater need to be conceived and what was the fruit of my prayer the friend who was at first unwilling did not say go now I will myself give to your friend what he needs I do not require you but gave it to me as his friend to give to my guest and so I used the three loaves and had to spare but the supply was small and new guests came because they saw I had a heart to help them and that I would take the trouble even at midnight to go to my friend when I asked for them too I got the needful again and there was again to spare how could I help that the needy continually came to my house was I to harden myself and say what do you come to me there are large and better homes in the city go there their answer was dear sir we cannot go there we have been there they were very sorry to send us away so hungry but they could not undertake to go and ask a friend for what we wanted do go and get us bread for we suffer great pain what could I do they spoke the truth and their suffering touched my heart however much labour it cost me I went each time again and got the three loaves often I got what I asked much quicker than at first and also much more abundantly but all did not care for this bread so some left my home hungry from Johann Christoph Blumart I'm Lemon Nabil von Effettendell in his first struggles with the evil spirits it took him more than 18 months of prayer and labour before the final victory was gained afterwards he had such ease of access to the throne and stood in such close communication with the unseen world that often with letters came asking prayer for sick people he could after just looking upward for a single moment obtain the answer as to whether they would be healed End of Chapter 16 Chapter 17 of With Christ in the School of Prayer This is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Joy Chan With Christ in the School of Prayer by Andrew Murray 17th Lesson I know that thou hearest me always or prayer in harmony with the being of God Father I thank thee that thou heardest me and I knew that thou hearest me always John 11 41 42 Thou art my son this day have I begotten thee ask of me and I shall give thee Psalms 2 7 8 In the New Testament we find a distinction made between faith and knowledge to one is given through the spirit the word of wisdom to another the word of knowledge according to the same spirit to another faith in the same spirit In a child or a simple minded Christian there may be much faith with little knowledge Childlike simplicity accepts the truth without difficulty and often cares little to give itself or others any reason for its faith but this God has said but it is the will of God that we should love and serve him not only with all the heart but also with all the mind that we should grow up into an insight into the divine wisdom and beauty of all his ways and words and works it is only thus that the believer will be able fully to approach and rightly to adore the glory of God's grace and only thus that our heart can intelligently apprehend the treasures of wisdom and knowledge there are in redemption and be prepared to enter fully into the highest note of the song that rises before the throne O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God in our prayer life this truth has its full application while prayer and faith are so simple that the newborn convert can pray with power true Christian science finds in the doctrine of prayer some of its deepest problems in how far is the power of prayer reality if so how God can grant a prayer such mighty power how can the action of prayer be harmonized with the will and the decrees of God how can God's sovereignty and our will God's liberty and ours be reconciled these and other like questions are fit subjects for Christian meditation and inquiry the more earnestly and reverently we approach such mysteries the more shall we in adoring wonder fall down to praise him who hath in prayer given such power to man one of the secret difficulties with regard to prayer one which though not expressed does often really hinder prayer is derived from the perfection of God in his absolute independence of all that is outside of himself is he not the infinite being who owes what he is to himself alone who determines himself and whose wise and holy will has determined all that is to be how can prayer influence him or he be moved by prayer to do what otherwise would not be done is not the promise of an answer to prayer simply a condescension to our weakness is what is said of the power the much availing power of prayer anything more than an accommodation to our mode of thought because the deity never can be dependent on any action from without for its doings and is not the blessing of prayer simply the influence it exercises upon ourselves in seeking an answer to such questions we find the key in the very being of God in the mystery of the holy trinity if God was only one person shut up within himself there could be no thought of nearness to him or influence on him but in God there are three persons in God we have father and son who have in the holy spirit their living bond of unity and fellowship when eternal love beget the son and the father gave the son as the second person a place next himself as his equal and his counselor there was a way open for prayer and its influence in the very inmost life of deity itself just as on earth so in heaven the whole relation between father and son is that of giving and taking and if that taking is to be as voluntary and self determined as the giving there must be on the part of the son and asking and receiving in the holy fellowship of the divine persons this asking of the son was one of the great operations of the thrice blessed life of God here we have it in Psalm 2 this day I have begotten thee ask of me and I will give thee the father gave the son the place and the power to act upon him the asking of the son was no mere show or shadow but one of those life movements in which the love of the father and the son met and completed each other the father had determined that he should not be alone in his counsels there was a son on whose asking and accepting their fulfillment should depend and so there was in the very being and life of God and asking of which prayer on earth was to be the reflection and the outflow it was not without including this that Jesus said I knew that thou always hearest me just as the sonship of Jesus on earth may not be separated from his sonship in heaven even so with his prayer on earth it is the continuation and the counterpart of his asking in heaven the prayer of the man Christ Jesus is the link between the eternal asking of the only begotten son in the bosom of the father and the prayer of men upon earth prayer has its rise and its deeper source in the very being of God in the bosom of deity nothing is ever done without prayer the asking of the son and the giving of the father this may help us somewhat to understand how the prayer of man coming through the son can have effect upon God the decrees of God are not decisions made by him without reference to the son or his petition or the petition to be sent up through him by no means the Lord Jesus is the first begotten the head and air of all things all things were created through him and under him and all things consist in him in the councils of the father the son as representative of all creation had always a voice in the decrees of the eternal purpose there was always room left for the liberty of the son as mediator and intercessor and so for the petitions of all who draw night to the father in the son and if the thought come that this liberty and power of the son to act upon the father is at variance with the immutability of the divine decrees let us not forget that there is not with God as with man a past by which he is irrevocably bound God does not live in time with its past and future the distinctions of time have no reference to him who inhabits eternity and eternity is an ever present now in which the past is never past and the future is always present to meet our human weakness scripture must speak of past decrees and a coming future in reality the immutability of God's council is ever still in perfect harmony with his liberty to do whatsoever he will not so were the prayers of the son and his people taken up into the eternal decrees that their effect should only be an apparent one but so that the father heart holds itself open and free to listen to every prayer that rises through the son and that God does indeed allow himself to be decided by prayer to do what he otherwise would not have done this perfect harmony and union of divine sovereignty and human liberty is to us an unfathomable mystery because God as the eternal one transcends all our thoughts but let it be our comfort and strength to be assured that in the eternal fellowship of the father and the son the power of prayer has its origin and certainty and that through our union with the son our prayer is taken up and can have its influence in the inner life of the blessed Trinity God's decrees are no iron framework against which man's liberty would vainly seek to struggle no God himself is the living love who in his son as man has entered into the tenderest relation with all that is human who through the Holy Spirit takes up all that is human into the divine life of love and keeps himself free to give every human prayer its place in his government of the world it is in the daybreak light of such thoughts that the doctrine of the blessed Trinity no longer is an abstract speculation but the living manifestation of the way in which it were possible for man to be taken up into the fellowship of God and his prayer to become a real factor in God's rule of this earth and we can as in the distance catch glimpses of the light that from the eternal world shines out on words such as these through him we have access by one spirit unto the Father Lord teach us to pray everlasting God the three one and thrice holy in deep reverence would I with veiled face worship before the holy mystery of thy divine being and if it pleased thee our most glorious God to unveil ought of that mystery I would bow with fear and trembling lest I sin against thee as I meditate on thy glory Father I thank thee that thou bearest this name not only as the father of thy children here on earth but as having from eternity subsisted as the father with thine only begotten son I thank thee that as father thou canst hear our prayer because thou hast from eternity given a place in thy councils to the asking of thy son I thank thee that we have seen in him on earth what the blessed intercourse was he had with thee in heaven and how from eternity in all thy councils and decrees there had been room left for his prayer and their answers and I thank thee above all that through his true human nature on thy throne above and through thy holy spirit in our human nature here below a way has been opened up by which every human cry of need can be taken up into you and touch the life and the love of God and receive an answer whatsoever it shall ask blessed Jesus in whom as the son the path of prayer has been opened up and who give us assurance of the answer we beseech thee teach thy people to pray O let this each day be the sign of our sonship that like thee we know that the father here with us always Amen God hears prayer this simplest view of prayer is taken throughout scripture it dwells not on the reflex influence of prayer in our heart and life although it abundantly shows the connection between prayer as an act and prayer as a state it rather fixes with great definiteness the objective or real purposes of prayer to obtain blessing gifts deliverances from God and it shall be given Jesus says however true and valuable the reflection may be that God for seeing and for ordaining all things has also foreseen and foreordained our prayers as links in the chain of events of cause and effect as a real power yet we feel convinced that this is not the light in which the mind can find peace in this great subject nor do we think that here is attractive power to draw us in prayer we feel rather that such a reflection diverts the attention from the object whence comes the impulse life and strength of prayer the living God contemporary and not merely eternal the living merciful holy one God manifesting himself to the soul God saying seek my face this is the magnet that draws us this alone can open heart and lips in Jesus Christ the son of God we have the full solution of the difficulty he prayed on earth and that not merely as man but as the son of God incarnate his prayer on earth is only the manifestation of his prayer from all eternity when in the divine council he was set up as the Christ the son was appointed to be heir of all things from all eternity the son of God was the way the mediator he was to use our imperfect language from eternity speaking unto the Father on behalf of the world Saphir the Hidden Life Chapter 6 see also the Lord's Prayer Page 12 End of Chapter 17 Chapter 18 of With Christ in the School of Prayer This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Joy Chan With Christ in the School of Prayer by Andrew Murray 18th Lesson Who's is this image? or Prayer in Harmony with the Destiny of Man He saith unto them Who's is this image and superscription? Matthew 21 20 And God said, Let us make man in our image after our likeness Genesis 1 26 Who's is this image? It was by this question that Jesus foiled his enemies when they thought to take him and settled the matter of duty in regard to the tribute The question and the principle it involves are of universal application nowhere more truly than in man himself The image he bears decides his destiny bearing God's image he belongs to God Prayer to God is what he was created for Prayer is part of the wondrous likeness he bears to his divine original of the deep mystery of the fellowship of love in which the three one has its blessedness Prayer is the earthly image and likeness The more we meditate on what prayer is and the wonderful power with God which it has the more we feel constrained to ask who and what man is that such a place in God's counsels should have been allotted to him Sin has so degraded him that from what he is now we can form no conception of what he was meant to be We must turn back to God's own record of man's creation to discover there what God's purpose was and what the capacities with which man was endowed for the fulfillment of that purpose Man's destiny appears clearly from God's language at creation It was to fill, to subdue, to have dominion over the earth and all in it All the three expressions show us that man was meant as God's representative to hold rule here on earth As God's viceroy he was to fill God's place himself subject to God he was to keep all else in subjection to him It was the will of God that all that was to be done on earth should be done through him The history of the earth was to be entirely in his hands In accordance with such a destiny was the position he was to occupy and the power at his disposal When an earthly sovereign sends a viceroy to a distant province it is understood that he advises as to the policy to be adopted and that that advice is acted on and that he is at liberty to apply for troops and the other means needed for carrying out the policy or maintaining the dignity of the empire If his policy be not approved of he is recalled to make way for someone who better understands his sovereign's desires As long as he is trusted his advice is carried out As God's representative man was to have ruled all was to have been done under his will and rule On his advice and at his request heaven was to have bestowed its blessing on earth His prayer was to have been the wonderful though simple and most natural channel in which the intercourse between the king and heaven and his faithful servant man as lord of this world was to have been maintained The destinies of the world were given into the power of the wishes the will, the prayer of man With sin all this underwent a terrible change man's fall brought all creation under the curse With redemption the beginning was seen of a glorious restoration No sooner had God began in Abraham to form for himself a people from whom kings yea the great king should come forth Then we see what power the prayer of God's faithful servant has to decide the destinies of those who come into contact with him In Abraham we see how prayer is not only or even chiefly the means of obtaining blessing for ourselves but is the exercise of his royal prerogative to influence the destinies of men and the will of God which rules them We do not once find Abraham praying for himself His prayer for Sodom and Lot, for Bimelech, for Ishmael prove what power a man who is God's friend has to make the history of those around him This had been man's destiny from the first Scripture not only tells us this but also teaches us how it was that God could entrust man with such a high calling It was because he had created him in his own image and likeness The external rule was not committed to him without the inner fitness The bearing God's image and having dominion in being lord of all had its root in the inner likeness in his nature There was an inner agreement and harmony between God and man an incipient God likeness which gave man a real fitness for being the mediator between God and his world for he was to be prophet, priest and king to interpret God's will, to represent nature's needs to receive and dispense God's bounty It was in bearing God's image that he could bear God's rule He was indeed so like God so capable of entering into God's purposes and carrying out his plans that God could trust him with the wonderful privilege of asking and obtaining what the world might need and although sin has for a time frustrated God's plans prayer still remains what it would have been if man had never fallen the proof of man's God likeness the vehicle of his intercourse with the infinite unseen one the power that is allowed to hold the hand that holds the destinies of the universe Prayer's not merely the cry of the suppliant for mercy it is the highest forth-putting of his will by man knowing himself to be of divine origin created for and capable of being in king-like liberty the executor of the councils of the eternal what sin destroyed grace has restored what the first Adam lost the second has won back in Christ man regains his original position and the church abiding in Christ inherits the promise ask what ye will and it shall be done unto you such a promise does by no means in the first place refer to the grace or blessing we need for ourselves it has reference to our position as the fruit-bearing branches of the heavenly vine who like him only live for the work and glory of the Father it is for those who abide in him who have forsaken self to take up their abode in him with his life of obedience and self-sacrifice who have lost their life and found it in him who are now entirely given up to the interests of the Father and his kingdom these are they who understand how their new creation has brought them back to their original destiny has restored God's image and likeness and with it the power to have dominion such have indeed the power each in their own circle to obtain and dispense the powers of heaven here on earth with holy boldness they may make known what they will they live as priests in God's presence as kings the powers of the world to come begin to be at their disposal note God is seeking priests among the sons of men a human priesthood is one of the essential parts of his eternal plan to rule creation by man is his design to carry on the worship of creation by man is no less part of his design priesthood is the appointed link between heaven and earth the channel of intercourse between the sinner and God such a priesthood in so far as expiation is concerned is in the hands of the son of God alone in so far as it is to be the medium of communication between creator and creature is also in the hands of redeemed men of the church of God God is seeking kings not out of the ranks of angels fallen man must furnish him with the rulers of his universe human hands must wield the scepter human heads must wear the crown the rent veil by Dr. H. Bonar end note they enter upon the fulfilment of the promise ask whatsoever ye will it shall be done unto you church of the living God thy calling is higher and holier than thou knowest through thy members as kings and priests unto God would God rule the world their prayers bestowed withhold the blessing of heaven in his elect were not just content to be themselves saved but yield themselves holy that through them even as through the son the father may fulfil all his glorious counsel in these his elect to cry day and night unto him God would prove how wonderful man's original destiny was as the image bearer of God on earth the earth was indeed given into his hand when he fell all fell with him the whole creation growneth and travaileth in pain together but now he is redeemed the restoration of the original dignity has begun it is in very deed God's purpose that the fulfilment of his eternal purpose and the coming of his kingdom should depend on those of his people who abiding in Christ are ready to take up their position in him their head the great priest king and in their prayers are bold enough to say what they will that their God should do as image bearer and representative of God on earth redeemed man has by his prayers to determine the history of this earth man was created and has now again been redeemed to pray and by his prayer to have dominion Lord teach us to pray Lord what is man that thou art mindful of him and the son of man that thou visitest him for thou has made him a little lower than the angels and has crowned him with glory and honour thou madeest him to have dominion over the work of thy hands thou has put all things under his feet oh Lord our Lord how excellent is thy name in all the earth Lord God how low has sin made man to sink and how terribly has it darkened his mind that he does not even know his divine destiny to be thy servant and representative alas that even thy people when their eyes are opened are so little ready to accept their calling and to seek to have power with God that they may have power with men too to bless them Lord Jesus it is in thee the Father have again crowned man with glory and honour and opened the way for us to be what he would have us oh Lord have mercy on thy people and visit thine heritage work mightily in thy church and teach thy believing disciples to go forth in their royal priesthood and in the power of prayer to which thou has given such wonderful promises to serve thy kingdom to have rule over the nations and make the name of God glorious in the earth Amen End of Chapter 18