John Wesley said, It seems as if God is limited by our prayer (faith) life. He can do nothing upon the earth unless a man prays. Perhaps the better way of framing the issue might be as follows: does our LACK of prayer (faith-consent) HINDER Gods ability to manifest in the earth. Or, put positively, do our prayers of faith-consent ENABLE God and provide Him GREATER entry and elbow room to manifest deliverances here? Mark 6 indicates that Jesus COULD do NO mighty works in Nazareth because of their individual and corporate unbelief. COULD their prayers of faith-consent have changed that toxic atmosphere to allow Jesus greater access to perform mighty works? The text certainly implies so by saying that Jesus marveled at their unbelief. It was obviously hampering the magnitude His works. Jesus still healed a few sick people there, but that was apparently the extent of His access to manifest His works. He did what he could in other words, but full access was denied Him to manifest His mighty works. Hebrews 2 likewise warns us: How shall we escape if we neglect our so great a salvation? Escape what? Well, obviously the missiles of Satanic destruction aimed at us during this lifetime. How shall we escape the snares and spears of evil if we NEGLECT to pray our faith-consent to the Father? In the Lords Prayer, we are told to pray (in the Greek imperative mood of command and demand) THAT the Lords will is to BE done on earth as it has already been done in heaven. The implication is that our failure TO so pray certainly has adverse consequences. Why would we EVER need to pray at all, if indeed all that subsequently occurred was going to happen anyway in the exact same manner and time frame regardless of our faith-consent. Peter seems to suggest that faith-consent can actually HASTEN the day of the Lord. 2 Peter 3:12. But, if so, then the inverse of this dynamic is also true: our LACK of faith-consent can hinder the days and ways of the Lord. Yea, they turned back and tempted God , and LIMITED the Holy One of Israel. Psalm 78:41. Can our prayer neglect limit God? Well, James says the effectual fervent prayers of a righteous man availeth MUCH. James 5:16. Consider the inverse implication: the ineffectual and non-fervent prayers of the unrighteous (i.e. unbelieving) availeth LITTLE. The more we consider Scripture carefully, the more it appears that E.M. Bounds was right when he said our number one problem is prayerLESSness. I think this is what Wesley was getting at with his quote.
Posted on: Tue, 05 Aug 2014 22:58:05 +0000
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