PART 4 PRAYER

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What are the different aspects of prayer during the Incarnation of Christ?

This dispensation begins with the virgin birth of the Messiah of the Jews, who’s called Jesus Christ, God incarnate, deity. When He was 30 years old, He began His public ministry. He chose twelve disciples to accompany Him and started teaching about a new kingdom, which involved a new way of life, an inner life, to come. He lived a sinless life, was rejected by the Jews, crucified on a cross, paid the penalty for the sins of the whole world along with providing for their forgiveness, rose from the dead after three days, never to die again, appeared to more than 500 people for 40 days on the earth in His glorified body after His resurrection, and ascended into heaven to be seated at the right hand of God the Father.

In regard to God the Father hearing and answering believer’s prayers, there doesn’t appear to be specific examples of such in this period. However, Jesus did ask His disciples to pray at various times. Let’s find out what he encouraged them to pray for. Let’s begin by turning your Bible into the Book of Mark.

 

Mark 11:23-24

For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith. Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.

Jesus said to His disciples, if whosoever says to this mountain (the Mount of Olives representing an immovable obstacle¹⁰) be removed (uprooted), and cast into the sea, not doubting (unwavering trust in God), then it will happen. Therefore, whatever things you desire (request), when you pray, believe (that you have already received such), and it as good as done even though the actual answer is still future.¹¹

No precondition of the heart is mentioned and neither is there any indication to what is being prayed for.

Let’s see what else we can find out about prayer. Please go to the Book of Matthew.

 

Matthew 7:7

Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:

The verbs ask, seek, and knock in Koine Greek are in the form of a present imperative. Present refers to the tense, i.e., what kind of action is expressed by the verb. This denotes continuous action in the present. Imperative is the mood, which refers how the action of the verb is conceived concerning reality, whether it can be actual or possible. This is a mood of command. Jesus commanded the disciples to continually ask, seek, and knock. For what?

The word ask means to ask God for what you need. The word seek means to look for, to try to find a particular thing.¹² And the word knock means asking that a door be opened.¹³

We found out that there are three different kinds of requests that we can pray to God for.

Where should we go next? Let’s stay in the Book of Matthew.

 

Matthew 6:9-14

After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen. For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you:

Jesus’ disciples asked Him to teach them to pray. He instructed them to pray to God the Father,whose name is to be hallowed (worthy of respect or honor) anticipating the kingdom to come in the next dispensation, the Church Age, which will usher in the indwelling Spirit, who’ll indwell those who repent of their sins and believe in Christ as to who He is and what He accomplished.

Romans 14:17 For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.

And when this occurs, they should pray that God’s will be done (that the kingdom of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit is established in the heart).¹⁴

What else they should pray for is their daily bread (basic needs). And if they sin against God, confess it to Him who’ll forgive such. Likewise, as God forgave them, so they should forgive their debtors (those who’ve injured them in character or person).

And the final supplication they should make is not to be lead into temptation. The word temptation can also mean trial or tribulation. The words that follow are but deliver us from evil. The word deliver means to break chains.

James 1:13 Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man:

Scripture tells us that God doesn’t tempt His sons or daughters.

Romans 5:3-4 And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; And patience, experience; and experience, hope:

If that’s the case, then what’s the purpose of temptation? The purpose of tribulations is to help us develop the fruit of the Holy Spirit.

Romans 8:5 For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.

Every believer is tested so that they can recognize what they’re mindful of, the things of the flesh or the things of the Spirit, i.e., human weakness or the Word of God. If we find ourselves operating in the former, we can ask the Father for assistance.      

These verses support the notion that when we pray to God the Father, our attitude toward Him should be of worshipping His name, which would involve not harboring unforgiveness and keeping ourselves in the love of God (operating in divine viewpoint).

While there’s no mention of God not hearing or answering our prayers, it’s clear that when we pray, we need to be rightly related to Him in our mental attitude.

The final dispensation, the Church Age, is where we’ll try to gather more information on prayer, especially whether there’s a requirement for God hearing and answering the prayers of those who have received the indwelling Spirit. But before going to the next chapter, I’ve left an article for us to read, which talks about how can we tell the difference between Satan tempting us and God testing us?

 

CAN YOU TELL THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A TEST AND A TEMPTATION?

Either Way, Our Reaction Should Be The Same.

Sometimes it’s tough to tell whether we’re facing a test or a temptation. Situations of struggle don’t always come with a label to clue us in on the source. [The] key is to know the different purposes of each.

A great example is the road tests automakers perform on one another. As objective as the tests claim to be, the goals remain clear. GM tests Ford to show Ford’s weaknesses. GM tests GM to show its strengths. When Ford does the testing, however, they test GM to show its weakness.

This type of testing is biblical. Both God and Satan perform tests on you and me. These road tests reveal how the rubber meets the road in our Christian lives. But the two tests have two completely different goals. Can you tell the difference?

 

A Temptation Has One Goal For You

When we read the New Testament, we see in the original language two words for “test” we can easily mistake for synonyms. One word (dokimazo) has as its goal a test for the purpose of approval. Another word (peirazo) has as its goal, generally speaking, a test to show its weakness or point of failure. Whenever Satan “tests” us, the word is always peirazo�"that is, the goal of his test is to entice us to sin. [Hence,] the test often gets appropriately translated as “temptation.”

A simple example finds its warning in relation to sexual relations in marriage:

Stop depriving one another, except by agreement for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer, and come together again so that Satan will not tempt you [peirazo] because of your lack of self-control. �"1 Corinthians 7:5

In each case, Satan has one goal in temptation: our failure.

 

A Test Has Another Goal For You

On the other hand, you never find God tempting us�"or placing us in a situation with our failure as His goal. James makes this clear:

Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted [peirazo] by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt [peirazo] anyone. �"James 1:13

[Sometimes,] the testing of God occurs to discover the good or evil in our hearts, but never with the goal of enticing us to evil (cf. Heb. 11:17). God’s tests have our approval as their goal. This remains true even after we die:

Now if any man builds upon the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each man’s work will become evident; for the day will show it, because it is to be revealed with fire; and the fire itself will test [dokimazo] the quality of each man’s work. �"1 Corinthians 3:12-13

The foundation, in [this] context, is Jesus Christ. God’s “testing” of us at the Judgment Seat of Christ will find its basis in the quality and motive of the lives we build on that foundation (1 Cor. 4:5).

The goal of this test is our approval.

 

God’s Provision During Your Temptation

Thankfully, even when we face temptation Satan designs to entice us to fail, God steps in to provide help. Consider the familiar verse and its promise:

No temptation [that has as its goal your failure] has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it. �"1 Corinthians 10:13

Every single time Satan tempts you to sin, God steps in to provide a way of escape. Jesus modeled how to succeed against temptation. Sin then, for the Christian, becomes a choice�"not a compulsion. Sometimes, admittedly, it’s tough to discern the difference between a test and a temptation (from our perspective). But whether the road test we face represents Satan’s temptation of us to fail or God’s test of us to succeed, our response to the situation should [always remain] the same.

We should obey God.¹⁵