This is an interesting lesson from E.M. Bounds concerning prayer. Bounds
wrote much about the need for prayer and what the Bible taught about prayer.
The following is part of a long series he wrote on prayer. I hope it brings
some edification for you.
May God bless,
Carl
my website -- http://www.nettally.com/saints/
my blog -- http://www.anniemayhem.com/cgi-bin/wordpress/
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PRAYER AND THE WORD OF GOD
by Edward M. Bounds
"How constantly, in the Scriptures, do we encounter such words as 'field,'
'seed,' 'sower,' 'reaper,' 'seed-time,' 'harvest'! Employing such metaphors
interprets a fact of nature by a parable of grace. The field is the world
and the good seed is the Word of God .Whether the Word be spoken or written,
it is the power of God unto salvation. In our work of evangelism, the whole
world is our field, every creature the object of effort and every book and
tract, a seed of God." -- DAVID FANT, JR.
GOD'S Word is a record of prayer -- of praying men and their achievements,
of the Divine warrant of prayer and of the encouragement given to those who
pray. No one can read the instances, commands, examples, multiform
statements which concern themselves with prayer, without realizing that the
cause of God, and the success of His work in this world is committed to
prayer; that praying men have been God's vicegerents on earth; that
prayerless men have never been used of Him.
A reverence for God's holy Name is closely related to a high regard for His
Word. This hallowing of God's Name; the ability to do His will on earth, as
it is done in heaven; the establishment and glory of God's kingdom, are as
much involved in prayer, as when Jesus taught men the Universal Prayer. That
"men ought always to pray and not to faint," is as fundamental to God's
cause, today, as when Jesus Christ enshrined that great truth in the
immortal settings of the Parable of the Importunate Widow.
As God's house is called "the house of prayer," because prayer is the most
important of its holy offices; so by the same token, the Bible may be called
the Book of Prayer. Prayer is the great theme and content of its message to
mankind.
God's Word is the basis, as it is the directory of the prayer of faith. "Let
the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom," says St. Paul,
"teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual
songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord."
As this word of Christ dwelling in us richly is transmuted and assimilated,
it issues in praying. Faith is constructed of the Word and the Spirit, and
faith is the body and substance of prayer.
In many of its aspects, prayer is dependent upon the Word of God. Jesus
says:
"If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will,
and it shall be done unto you."
The Word of God is the fulcrum upon which the lever of prayer is placed, and
by which things are mightily moved. God has committed Himself, His purpose
and His promise to prayer. His Word becomes the basis, the inspiration of
our praying, and there are circumstances under which, by importunate prayer,
we may obtain an addition, or an enlargement of His promises. It is said of
the old saints that they, "through faith obtained promises." There would
seem to be in prayer the capacity for going even beyond the Word, of getting
even beyond His promise, into the very presence of God, Himself.
Jacob wrestled, not so much with a promise, as with the Promiser. We must
take hold of the Promiser, lest the promise prove nugatory. Prayer may well
be defined as that force which vitalizes and energizes the Word of God, by
taking hold of God, Himself. By taking hold of the Promiser, prayer
reissues, and makes personal the promise. "There is none that stirreth up
himself to take hold of Me," is God's sad lament. "Let him take hold of My
strength, that he may make peace with Me," is God's recipe for prayer.
By Scriptural warrant, prayer may be divided into the petition of faith and
that of submission. The prayer of faith is based on the written Word, for
"faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God." It receives its
answer, inevitably -- the very thing for which it prays.
The prayer of submission is without a definite word of promise, so to speak,
but takes hold of God with a lowly and contrite spirit, and asks and pleads
with Him, for that which the soul desires. Abraham had no definite promise
that God would spare Sodom. Moses had no definite promise that God would
spare Israel; on the contrary, there was the declaration of His wrath, and
of His purpose to destroy. But the devoted leader gained his plea with God,
when he interceded for the Israelites with incessant prayers and many tears.
Daniel had no definite promise that God would reveal to him the meaning of
the king's dream, but he prayed specifically, and God answered definitely.
The Word of God is made effectual and operative, by the process and practice
of prayer. The Word of the Lord came to Elijah, "Go show thyself to Ahab,
and I will send rain on the earth." Elijah showed himself to Ahab; but the
answer to his prayer did not come, until he had pressed his fiery prayer
upon the Lord seven times.
Paul had the definite promise from Christ, that he "would be delivered from
the people and the Gentiles," but we find him exhorting the Romans in the
urgent and solemn manner concerning this very matter:
"Now I beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake, and for the
love of the Spirit, that ye strive together with me in your prayers to God
for me; that I may be delivered from them that do not believe in Judaea, and
that my service which I have for Jerusalem may be accepted of the saints."
The Word of God is a great help in prayer. If it be lodged and written in
our hearts, it will form an outflowing current of prayer, full and
irresistible. Promises, stored in the heart, are to be the fuel from which
prayer receives life and warmth, just as the coal, stored in the earth,
ministers to our comfort on stormy days and wintry nights. The Word of God
is the food, by which prayer is nourished and made strong. Prayer, like man,
cannot live by bread alone, "but by every word which proceedeth out of the
mouth of the Lord."
Unless the vital forces of prayer are supplied by God's Word, prayer, though
earnest, even vociferous, in its urgency, is, in reality, flabby, and vapid,
and void. The absence of vital force in praying, can be traced to the
absence of a constant supply of God's Word, to repair the waste, and renew
the life. He who would learn to pray well, must first study God's Word, and
store it in his memory and thought.
"Some years ago a man was travelling in the wilds of Kentucky. He had with
him a large sum of money and was well armed. He put up at a log-house one
night, but was much concerned with the rough appearance of the men who came
and went from this abode. He retired early but not to sleep. At midnight he
heard the dogs barking furiously and the sound of someone entering the
cabin. Peering through a chink in the boards of his room, he saw a stranger
with a gun in his hand. Another man sat before the fire. The traveller
concluded they were planning to rob him, and prepared to defend himself and
his property. Presently the newcomer took down a copy of the Bible, read a
chapter aloud, and then knelt down and prayed. The traveller dismissed his
fears, put his revolver away and lay down, to sleep peacefully until morning
light. And all because a Bible was in the cabin, and its owner a man of
prayer." -- REV. F. F. SHOUP.
PRAYER has all to do with the success of the preaching of the Word. This,
Paul clearly teaches in that familiar and pressing request he made to the
Thessalonians:
"Finally, brethren, pray for us that the Word of the Lord may have free
course, and be glorified."
Prayer opens the way for the Word of God to run without let or hindrance,
and creates the atmosphere which is favourable to the word accomplishing its
purpose. Prayer puts wheels under God's Word, and gives wings to the angel
of the Lord "having the everlasting Gospel to preach unto them that dwell on
the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people." Prayer
greatly helps the Word of the Lord.
The Parable of the Sower is a notable study of preaching, showing its
differing effects and describing the diversity of hearers. The wayside
hearers are legion. The soil lies all unprepared either by previous thought
or prayer; as a consequence, the devil easily takes away the seed (which is
the Word of God) and dissipating all good impressions, renders the work of
the sower futile. No one for a moment believes, that so much of present-day
sowing would go fruitless if only the hearers would prepare the ground of
their hearts beforehand by prayer and meditation.
Similarly with the stony-ground hearers, and the thorny-ground hearers.
Although the word lodges in their hearts and begins to sprout, yet all is
lost, chiefly because there is no prayer or watchfulness or cultivation
following. The good-ground hearers are profited by the sowing, simply
because their minds have been prepared for the reception of the seed, and
that, after hearing, they have cultivated the seed sown in their hearts, by
the exercise of prayer. All this gives peculiar emphasis to the conclusion
of this striking parable: "Take heed, therefore, how ye hear." And in order
that we may take heed how we hear, it is needful to give ourselves
continually to prayer.
We have got to believe that underlying God's Word is prayer, and upon
prayer, its final success will depend. In the Book of Isaiah we read:
"So shall My word be that goeth out of My mouth; it shall not return unto Me
void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in
the thing whereto I sent it."
In Psalm 19, David magnifies the Word of God in six statements concerning
it. It converts the soul, makes wise the simple, rejoices the heart,
enlightens the eyes, endures eternally, and is true and righteous
altogether. The Word of God is perfect, sure, right, pure. It is
heart-searching, and at the same time purifying, in its effect. It is no
surprise therefore that after considering the deep spirituality of the Word
of God, its power to search the inner nature of man, and its deep purity,
the Psalmist should close his dissertation with this passage:
"Who can understand his errors?" And then praying after this fashion:
"Cleanse Thou me from secret faults. Keep back Thy servant also from
presumptuous sins. Let them not have dominion over me. Let the words of my
mouth, and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord,
my strength and my redeemer."
James recognizes the deep spirituality of the Word, and its inherent saving
power, in the following exhortation:
"Wherefore, lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and
receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls."
And Peter talks along the same line, when describing the saving power of the
Word of God:
"Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the
word of God, which liveth and abideth forever."
Not only does Peter speak of being born again, by the incorruptible Word of
God, but he informs us that to grow in grace we must be like new-born babes,
desiring or feeding upon the "sincere milk of the Word."
That is not to say, however, that the mere form of words as they occur in
the Bible have in them any saving efficacy. But the Word of God, be it
remembered, is impregnated with the Holy Spirit. And just as there is a
Divine element in the words of Scripture, so also is the same Divine element
to be found in all true preaching of the Word, which is able to save and
convert the soul.
Prayer invariably begets a love for the Word of God, and sets people to the
reading of it. Prayer leads people to obey the Word of God, and puts into
the heart which obeys a joy unspeakable. Praying people and Bible-reading
people are the same sort of folk. The God of the Bible and the God of prayer
are one. God speaks to man in the Bible; man speaks to God in prayer. One
reads the Bible to discover God's will; he prays in order that he may
receive power to do that will. Bible-reading and praying are the
distinguishing traits of those who strive to know and please God. And just
as prayer begets a love for the Scriptures, and sets people to reading the
Bible, so, also, does prayer cause men and women to visit the house of God,
to hear the Scriptures expounded. Church-going is closely connected with the
Bible, not so much because the Bible cautions us against "forsaking the
assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is," but because in
God's house, God's chosen minister declares His Word to dying men, explains
the Scriptures, and enforces their teachings upon his hearers. And prayer
germinates a resolve, in those who practise it, not to forsake the house of
God.
Prayer begets a church-going conscience, a church-loving heart, a
church-supporting spirit. It is the praying people, who make it a matter of
conscience, to attend the preaching of the Word; who delight in its reading;
exposition; who support it with their influence and their means. Prayer
exalts the Word of God and gives it preeminence in the estimation of those
who faithfully and wholeheartedly call upon the Name of the Lord.
Prayer draws its very life from the Bible, and has no standing ground
outside of the warrant of the Scriptures. Its very existence and character
is dependent on revelation made by God to man in His holy Word. Prayer, in
turn, exalts this same revelation, and turns men toward that Word. The
nature, necessity and all-comprehending character of prayer, is based on the
Word of God.
Psalm 119 is a directory of God's Word. With three or four exceptions, each
verse contains a word which identifies, or locates, the Word of God. Quite
often, the writer breaks out into supplication, several times praying,
"Teach me Thy statutes." So deeply impressed is he with the wonders of God's
Word, and of the need for Divine illumination wherewith to see and
understand the wonderful things recorded therein, that he fervently prays:
"Open Thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of Thy law."
From the opening of this wonderful Psalm to its close, prayer and God's Word
are intertwined. Almost every phase of God's Word is touched upon by this
inspired writer. So thoroughly convinced was the Psalmist of the deep
spiritual power of the Word of God that he makes this declaration:
"Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against Thee."
Here the Psalmist found his protection against sinning. By having God's Word
hidden in his heart; in having his whole being thoroughly impregnated with
that Word; in being brought completely under its benign and gracious
influence, he was enabled to walk to and fro in the earth, safe from the
attack of the Evil One, and fortified against a proneness to wander out of
the way.
We find, furthermore, the power of prayer to create a real love for the
Scriptures, and to put within men a nature which will take pleasure in the
Word. In holy ecstasy he cries, "O, how I love Thy law! It is my meditation
all the day." And again: "How sweet are Thy words to my taste! Yea, sweeter
than honey to my taste."
Would we have a relish for God's Word? Then let us give ourselves
continually to prayer. He who would have a heart for the reading of the
Bible must not -- dare not -- forget to pray. The man of whom it can be
said, "His delight is in the law of the Lord," is the man who can truly say,
"I delight to visit the place of prayer." No man loves the Bible, who does
not love to pray. No man loves to pray, who does not delight in the law of
the Lord.
Our Lord was a man of prayer, and He magnified the Word of God, quoting
often from the Scriptures. Right through His earthly life Jesus observed
Sabbath-keeping, church-going and the reading of the Word of God, and had
prayer intermingled with them all:
"And He came to Nazareth where He had been brought up, and as His custom
was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath Day, and stood up to read."
Here, let it be said, that no two things are more essential to a
spirit-filled life than Bible-reading and secret prayer; no two things more
helpful to growth in grace; to getting the largest joy out of a Christian
life; toward establishing one in the ways of eternal peace. The neglect of
these all-important duties, presages leanness of soul, loss of joy, absence
of peace, dryness of spirit, decay in all that pertains to spiritual life.
Neglecting these things paves the way for apostasy, and gives the Evil One
an advantage such as he is not likely to ignore. Reading God's Word
regularly, and praying habitually in the secret place of the Most High puts
one where he is absolutely safe from the attacks of the enemy of souls, and
guarantees him salvation and final victory, through the overcoming power of
the Lamb.
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