With circumstances growing dim, many are calling for more prayer. One might wonder if our main concern is getting back to a lifestyle where our creature comforts are restored so we can get on with our self-centered consumerism while watching our retirement funds grow. Often prayer in these kinds of situations sounds more like ordering from a fast-food outlet. We spiel off what we want God to do to fix the situation troubling us.

     In his last discourse with his disciples, Jesus said that he was going to the Father to prepare a place where his followers would have the same relationship with the Father as he has. In this discussion he recasts prayer:

“Truly, truly I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.”

John 14:12-14 (ESV)

     Jesus redefined life for his followers, and part of that redefinition is the nature of prayer.

     First, prayer is a privilege. Only those who come to God through Jesus have access. It is a common myth that prayer is heard from anyone who voices it. Of course God hears everything, but he hears the prayers that come in Jesus’ name as if Jesus is praying them.

     It is always interesting to hear people speak of being disappointed with God when they cried out to him in some dire situation and he didn’t answer the way they expected. Some have spent years in anger toward God. They obviously believed all people have a right to demand from God. Actually we have no rights to his throne. We rebelled against his order and are barred from access. The only person who has a right to approach is Jesus the Son. But this is not some exclusive elitist doctrine. Anyone is invited to come this way. There are no racial, geographical, or gender distinctions. All who will trust Jesus are invited to enter his presence and make requests. People may pray to other gods without coming through Jesus, but the God of the Bible can be approached only through the Son who paid the penalty of man’s rebellion. Trying to approach God apart from faith in Jesus as the mediator is an attempt to pray based on our own merits.

     At this juncture someone usually asks, “what about the Old Testament saints?” The answer is they were trusting the God of mercy. He was giving them shadows of the Son in the sacrificial system. As they sacrificed animals and trusted the priest to intercede for them, they were placing faith in the shadows of the One who would come as the ultimate priest and the final sacrifice. They were coming to God through the Son.

     This privilege is more than access through Jesus’ name. It is the personal communion that is enjoyed in Christian prayer. Trust is essential to life that is to have any meaning. Living without trust is a foretaste of hell where isolation and skepticism are featured. Life without faith is boring. Faith in the Father allows us to enjoy the adventure of bringing the reality of the kingdom to earth. One who lives daily in faith will experience many adventures where only God rescues us. You can’t read the gospels of the New Testament without seeing how the disciples lived in the midst of an adventure that makes Batman look tame.

     Prayer is talking and listening and waiting in the presence of the Father. What could be more satisfying than visiting with the person who knows everything and is essentially good? The more we know him, the more we will love him, and that love is the highest form of life. Prayer then is not primarily a duty. It is the high privilege that sons have because of Jesus’ work.

     Prayer is a partnership. One day the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray. This is interesting because they probably already knew how to go to the temple and pray. They knew the posture and the words, but when they watched Jesus pray, they knew something was different. They wanted to be able to fellowship with the Father like Jesus did. He granted their request with the model prayer.

     “When you pray, say, ‘Our Father who is in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven….’” Jesus was telling them that they would participate in the expression of the kingdom of God, which had come to earth in him.

     Remember, the first man was given partnership with God. Now the last Adam was restoring the dignity destroyed by sin. The followers of Jesus would work with God by praying his kingdom into the earth.

     Several years ago I wrote a book entitled Incense and Thunder. I had been reading the Book of Revelation. It is an apocalyptic treatise. In this kind of literature there is usually a vision and a guide in the vision who explains the symbols. John the apostle had such a vision and saw many symbols needing explanation. One phenomena he saw was incense rising from earth to heaven. The angel of the Lord mixed the smoke with fire from the altar and flung it back to earth as thunder, lightening, and earthquakes. When this was explained to John, he was told that this is what prayer looks like in heaven. The saints send up their incense and God moves aspects of heaven into earth to give instruction, revelation and transformation.

     As we move around trying to manage the garden God has allotted to us, we see things that are contrary to the order of God’s kingdom. Our privilege and responsibility is to pray the kingdom into order. As we see the kingdom of God we pray for it to replace the kingdoms of deception and destruction that currently reign.

     Someone will ask, “Does prayer actually change anything? Is it primarily for our benefit, like good therapy? How can God be sovereign and still give us the assignment to pray for changes to happen?”

     Maybe an illustration from the Old Testament will help. When Moses went up on the mountain to meet with God, the people of Israel began to worship a false god. As Moses met with God about it, God declared that he would wipe them out and start over with Moses. This is what they deserved. It would be justice and God would be totally in the right to destroy them. Moses prayed for God’s higher purpose. He knew the nature of God and prayed that God’s mercy would trump justice. He reminded God of what God already knew—God had purposed to make Israel his people of witness. God answered Moses’ prayer. Did he change his mind? Yes, but he didn’t change his heart. Moses prayed the ultimate order of God, and God answered.

     We don’t ever have to talk God into being better. We can discover what his kingdom looks like, which will always be better than the one we see with our natural eyes, and pray accordingly.

     We have great confidence when we pray according to his will (1 John 5:14). So how do we pray according to his will? We can begin by praying according to the covenant now in effect. We don’t live in the old covenant era. We live under the conditions of the new covenant. Often we are encouraged to pray according to the model found in the dedication of the Solomon’s Temple:

“If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land”

2 Chronicles 7:14 (ESV)

     God is responding to Solomon’s prayer. He tells Solomon he will honor the Temple as a place where he will meet with his people. They are under covenant to him, and if they ignore that covenant they will suffer in the land with natural catastrophes. But if they will respond in humble repentance, he will hear them there and heal their land.

     Some have tried to transpose that promise to other lands. God was not addressing the USA or any other nation. He was addressing Israel at that time. Of course, the transcendent truth of God’s willingness to respond in mercy to his people is always applicable. But if we interpret that promise in light of the cross of Christ and the new covenant he has inaugurated, we will see that the people addressed are followers of Christ, not just Americans, and that the land is the inheritance we have because we are in Christ. The sins we must address are the neglect of the grace found in him and the refusal to embrace the benefits of the new covenant. We are New Testament Christians and our prayers should reflect that.

     Prayer is a priority. Nothing is more important for us than to know God to the fullest degree possible. We have been called to participate in the manifestation of the kingdom of God on earth. God has granted us the privilege of working with him in doing his will. The apostle Paul encouraged believers to “pray without ceasing”. Of course he was not suggesting that they suspend every aspect of life in order to verbally pray all the time. He was emphasizing the need to stay attuned to the realm of ultimate reality so we can pray effectively.

     So how would praying the kingdom to come look?

     For government, we can pray that God will lead the leaders to make clear and simple laws that will protect the citizens from internal and external oppression, and free them to manage their own lives with opportunity to trade with each other. That is the purpose of government in society.

      For the church, we can pray that it will awaken to its societal responsibilities of defining and declaring truth while equipping its members to demonstrate the kingdom of God in every sphere of influence. If it gets distracted from this role, all of society will suffer.

     For the home, we can pray that families will model the family of God with mutual submission and clear division of labor, that the members will be nurtured and empowered to discover their destiny in relation to God’s purpose.

     For individuals, we can pray for unbelievers to have their eyes opened to see the gospel in the face of Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 4:3-5). We can pray for believers to have eyes opened to see their inheritance in Christ and to walk in it. Both have a “seeing” problem we can address in prayer. Remember, when we pray, God sends lightening and thunder. They can see and hear the truth that will set them free.

     This is a day when God is calling his people to take seriously their privilege in prayer. We are partners with him.