“What various hindrances we meet
When coming to the Mercy Seat.”
William Cowper
“The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.”
James 5:16
ASKING: INEFFECTIVE OR EFFECTIVE?
READING: JAMES 1: 5-8; 4: 2-3; 5:16
In one of his discourses on the Sermon on the Mount, John Wesley dealt with the discouragements and frustrations that attend the efforts to live righteously and witness engagingly. After suggesting some ways to respond he said that there “is yet another remedy left; and one that is frequently found effectual when no other method avails … ask and it shall be given you.” We should never be ashamed to state the obvious. To be effective in anything, especially in your asking you first have to be “effectual” by just asking! You only learn to ask by asking.
As we embark on 40 days of asking it would seem a reasonable, not to say advisable, matter to affirm what makes for effective asking, assuming that is what we are hoping our asking will be. I’m going to stand you in front of a hydrant and give you a broad but condensed multipoint presentation of some things that will make for ineffective asking and some that will make for effective asking. Does that sound like a helpful thing to do on the eve of this 40 day commitment to asking?
A qualifying word from James
One of the most commonly cited verses on prayer is James 5:16 “The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.” What is meant by ‘effective’? In our mind, the word implies that something is successful because something is working, but what, and who? Translators have argued and disagreed about the participle of the verb ‘energeo’ (‘energoumene’) used here. Is it to be understood in the middle voice as “is able to do” or in the passive voice, “is enabled to do”? Is the emphasis on what we do to make it effective, or on what we are enabled to do to make it effectual.
There does seem to be a conditioning of the possible effectiveness of asking by the designation of the asker as “righteous.” Unrighteousness does not make for effective asking. What is clear is that whatever the reason for the effectiveness, the end result is a powerful prayer, most likely because a righteous person is operating in the will of God, including of course God’s will that they live a holy life. But even as true as that is, it will not do to read this verse as though effectiveness ultimately had to do with our state of righteousness while we are asking. We know where this can lead, as affirmed by Jesus’ parable of the Publican and Pharisee. The problem is with the word “effective” (NIV, NRSV), particularly as it is commonly used now, having to do with results and getting things done.
The emphasis here is not on what needs to be done according to our asking, but on how it is being done and who is ultimately doing it. For certain, it is not the righteous asker. The translations that use the word “effectual” (AKJV, KJ21) help us to get nearer the meaning, and nearer to the meaning of my message. Though less used now, the word “effectual” is perhaps better, because it suggests a different nuance. It is usually used of inanimate or abstract things that attain a desired result. This puts the emphasis less on what we do to make asking effective, and more on the idea that asking is a means for someone else’s desire to be effected.
Furthermore, the root of the word that James uses is the Greek word ‘energeo’ which explains itself in the key contexts in which it is used. It conveys the idea of something “working in” or to put it another way, something “inwrought”. This is how Paul describes faith (Galatians 5:6), the Word (1Thessalonians 2:13), and grace (Ephesians 3:7) in believers’ lives. They have been “inwrought” and if not by them, by who? What is this “inwrought” power of Ephesians 1:19 but “the working of His inner strength”? Paul makes this clear in another decisive statement about asking: “Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work in us” (Ephesians 3:20). That which is “inwrought” in us when we are asking, the power that is effectual, and that consequently makes our asking effective, is exactly what Paul has just talked about and asked for: “I ask that out of His glorious riches He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being.” So Paul and James are totally agreed. So are the asking saints, like E.M.Bounds, who knew that our ability and our power to ask was “dependent on the measure of the Holy Spirit received by us, dwelling in us and working through us.” There is no effective asking without the “inwrought” working of the Holy Spirit.
Our asking is the evidence, not primarily of our formulations, but of the Spirit’s utterance in and through us. It is not the result of a few prayer techniques that we have mastered in order to be a really effective asker, but of the Spirit’s help and instruction. Our effectiveness has to do with the power that works in us and therefore enables us to ask powerfully, not with our ability to develop a method and means to ask effectively in our own strength and wisdom. In any case, did not James begin his epistle with the need to ask for wisdom from God in order to ask aright for anything?
Why is all this important? Because I am not using the word ‘effective’ this morning in a way that implies that because we do certain things we can guarantee the effectiveness of our asking, and thus make a work out of it, or think we have the means to assure its success. Nothing could be further from the truth. However, I am going to be suggesting in the first part of my message that there are some things that we are responsible for and that we do that can definitely render our asking ineffective.
PART 1: INEFFECTIVE ASKING
Having established that God is a God who hears our asking, scripture presents not just what God chooses to hear, but also what He refuses to hear. This has huge implications for our assumptions about prayer, and our expectations of our asking. It is quite salutary to go through the scriptures and discover how many times God explicitly says He will not listen to what is asked of Him, or He will choose not to hear. Sometimes His choice not to hear is a response to our choice not to listen or heed His word and commands. Just as Jesus said that our refusal to forgive runs interference with our own reception of forgiveness, so God makes clear that there is a divinely reciprocated response in His hearing, to our refusal to hear. After all, is it not true that we cease to speak to someone who has ceased to listen to what we are saying, and cease to listen to someone who repeatedly fails to respond to what we have said? Surely then, before we ask for 40 days, it is worth checking if there are any reasons which might contribute to our asking being in vain, simply because God will choose not to hear. It will feel to us that He has not heard or cannot hear. No, God hears. What he does is refuse to hear for specified reasons; He chooses not to listen.
The following scriptural examples that I am going to give you are important because they affirm that God is a Person and not some cosmic impersonal slot machine where certain input gets certain output; as if we ask and out pops the answer, custom wrapped for our fleshly consumption. We are not heard simply by virtue of our asking. Scripture, including our reading from James, identifies reasons for unanswered asking: asking for wrong things, asking of wrong sources, asking in wrong ways, asking when in the wrong. What follows will be a helpful list to check two things:
1. the possible presumption in our asking;
2. the continuance of those things in our lives that are not consistent with those whose asking is meant to be an expression of their intimate relationship with the Lord.
Some requests may have a reasonable and laudable face value when verbalized, and may even pass theological muster, but the Lord not only hears our words, He sees our heart. While I am asking for and about those things that affect my relationship with my world, God is concerned about what affects my relationship with Him. Here are some of the biblical reasons given for God’s refusal to hear what is asked, so it would be helpful for us to go into these 40 days without bearing any of these hindrances and impediments that will render our asking ineffective.
1. Choosing other lordship: “Give us a king to lead us … you will cry out for relief from the king you have chosen, and the Lord will not answer you in that day” (1 Samuel 8:18). Divine lordship has been abandoned in favor of human leadership. Trusting men has been preferred to trusting God. Human security and protection is more desired than the presence of God. If we serve other lordship God will not hear.
2. Willful disobedience: “The Lord was angry with me and would not listen to me” (Deuteronomy 3:26). God’s anger was because of Moses’ disobedience. Basically, God is saying: “That is enough. Do not speak to me any more about this matter.” Or in other words, “There is no point in asking me again. Do not ask for something that I cannot and will not do.” If there is willful disobedience God will not hear.
4. Living a double life: “Do not plead with me for I will not listen to you” (Jeremiah 7:16). This is God’s response to His people’s private worship of the Queen of Heaven, while paying public lip-service to the temple. They were asking while they were “two-timing” God. “Will you steal and commit adultery and follow other gods and then come and stand before me in my house and say, ‘We’re safe – safe to do all these things’” (vs. 9-11). You can ask for blessing and immunity all you want but God will not bless what you are asking for, because of the conditions of the asking heart. “Has this house, which bears my name, become a den of robbers to you?” This is a chilling passage because it is the same one that Jesus quotes when He casts the money-changers out of the temple and re-establishes it as a house of “asking” (Matthew 21:12-13). It is clear at the end of the chapter that God is responding in kind because He says to Jeremiah, “When you tell them all this, they will not listen to you; when you call to them they will not answer.” They do not answer God about what He is asking of them through the prophet, yet they expect Him to answer what they are asking of Him. When there is the deception and duplicity of a double-life God will not hear.
5. Refusal to be compassionate to others: “Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another … But they refused to pay attention … When I called they did not listen; when they called I would not listen” (Zechariah 7:13). The specific issue is their refusal to heed when the Lord speaks about justice. The chapter begins with God answering something they had asked about (“should I mourn and fast?” v3) with asking of His own (“Was it really for me that you fasted?” v5). The problem is that their asking is utterly self consumed and self-enhancing. It was all about “feasting for themselves” (v6). Despite what God was asking of them, it says “they refused to pay attention … they stopped their ears” (v11). This is what provokes the divine response to “not listen.” When a compassionate response is asked for while with-holding compassion, God will not hear.
6. Disregard for injustice and denial of justice: “If a man shuts his ears to the cry of the poor, he too will cry out and not be answered” (Proverbs 21:13); “On the day of your fasting you exploit all your workers … you cannot fast as you do today and expect your voice to be heard on high” (Isaiah 58:4); “Should you not know justice? They will cry out to the Lord but He will not answer him” (Micah 4:2-4). The deliberate avoidance of the afflictions of those who are the victims of injustice, results in a divine refusal to hear what they ask for. A lack of generosity is also implied here as there is a contradiction between asking more for oneself while denying what another needs. When Paul tells the Philippians that God will supply their needs when they ask, it is clearly because they have already been generous in supplying the needs of others. Effective askers are usually those with generous and giving spirits. Freely we receive in response to our asking, therefore freely we give. If God’s justice is willfully disregarded He will not hear.
7. Appearance without reality: “They seek me out; they seem eager to know my ways as if they were a nation that does what is right … They ask me for just decisions and seem eager for God to come near them” (Isaiah 58:2). They appear to be concerned and desirous but there is a divine “YET!” (v3) What they “seem” is not what they are and it negates their asking. God explains that the answers to their asking are conditional on their choice of what He has chosen, not their self-oriented choices. He clearly spells out what that will require of them (vs.6-7). “THEN … you will call and the Lord will answer, you will cry for help and the Lord will say ‘Here I am’”. Where there is appearance without reality, God will not hear.
8. Unconfessed and unrepented sin: “If I had cherished iniquity in my heart the Lord would not have listened” (Psalm 66:18). The problem here is the expectation that God will be responsive to anything we ask while we persist in ignoring the things that interfere with relationship, and that are an offence to God. “Your sins have hidden His face from you so He will not hear” (Isaiah 59:2). This is referring to a habitual life-style of sin that results in God not listening to what is asked, so there will be no answers. Where the eyes of God are covered, the ears of God are covered too. If iniquity is harbored, God will not hear.
9. Failure to acknowledge and accept God’s wisdom: “Wisdom calls aloud … since you rejected me when I called … since you ignored all my advice … and would not accept my rebuke … they will call to me but I will not answer” (Proverbs 1: 20-28). You have to listen in order to be listened to. Fools will not be given a wise answer. “Answer a fool according to his folly” (Proverbs 26:5). The answer to the fool’s asking is silence. Those addressed did not choose the fear of the Lord, and they would not accept the advice of wisdom. In the New Testament, the book of James is like a commentary on Proverbs and it makes clear (James 1:5) that if we are humble and admit our need of God’s wisdom, then an amazing invitation is extended: “let him ask of God who gives generously.” Submission to the wisdom of God attracts a generous and a gracious response to our asking. Where there is a failure to submit to God’s wisdom, God will not hear.
10. Deliberate rejection of God’s law: “If anyone turns a deaf ear to the law even his prayers are detestable” (Proverbs 28:9). Again, here is an example of God’s refusal to respond to what is asked for by someone who insists on shutting their ears to the holiness and justice of God, rejecting truth and disdaining God’s laws. In such a case, God will not hear.
11. Pride: “If my people … will humble themselves and ask … then will I hear from heaven” (2 Chronicles 7:14). Humility opens the ears of God. Pride therefore closes them to our asking. “I will break down your stubborn pride and make the sky above you like iron” (Leviticus 26:19). There is no responsiveness from heaven to the prideful, because God will not hear.
12. Idolatry: “These men have set up idols in their hearts and put wicked stumbling blocks before their faces. Should I let them ask of me at all?” (Ezekiel 14:3). “You continue to defile yourselves with all your idols … Am I to let you inquire of me? ... I will not let you inquire of me!” (Ezekiel 20:31) The only answer the Lord says He will give is to separate Himself from anyone who separates themselves from Him by their indulgence in idolatrous thinking and living. That separation is a break-down of communication which means no possibility for asking, so God will not hear.
13. Ritualistic repetition: “Do not keep on babbling like the pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words” (Matthew 6:7). Vain, superstitious verbosity and volubility is not the way to ask if you want to be heard. God will not hear it.
13. Ritualistic repetition: “Do not keep on babbling like the pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words” (Matthew 6:7). Vain, superstitious verbosity and volubility is not the way to ask if you want to be heard. God will not hear it.
14. Unforgiveness: “If you do not forgive men their sins, your father will not forgive your sins” (Matthew 6:15). Our asking for forgiveness will go unheeded if we bear unforgiveness in our hearts. There may be many things that are maintaining the unforgiveness, like bitterness, unhealed pain, continuing strife, the vindictive desire for punishment, or the ongoing wishing of ill upon the offender. If we willfully retain unforgiveness in our hearts, God will not hear.
15. Disunity: “If two of you agree about anything you ask for it will be done” (Matthew 18:19). If unity is a condition for asking effectively, then lack of agreement and dissension will invalidate our asking. Disunity, irreconciliation and disagreement render our asking null and void. God will not hear.
16. Enmity: Jesus addresses the consequences of anger and enmity in His teaching, and points out that the posture of worship, whether we are giving or asking, is rendered ineffective, unless we first “go and be reconciled to your brother” (Matthew 5:23-24). Wesley taught that if asking was “to have its full weight with God” then it was imperative that we be living “in charity with all men” 5 or God will not hear.
17. Hypocrisy: “They love to pray … to be seen by men … I thank you I’m not like other men … God have mercy on me … this man rather than the other went home justified before God” (Luke 18: 9-14). The Pharisee in Jesus’ parable did not leave justified like the asking Publican, but left just the same. The Pharisee was not heard. Insincerity was not heeded. Where there is hypocrisy, God will not hear.
18. Double-mindedness: “When he asks he must believe and not doubt … That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord” (James 1:6-7). Where there is double-mindedness and doubt there will be no authority in asking. Equally, there will be no capacity to receive, even if answered. Jesus was so clear that the one who asked for a mountain to be moved should have “no doubt in his heart.” Although some of the things we ask for are staggering, we are exhorted to heed Abraham’s example who “staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith giving glory to God” (Romans 4:20). Where doubt persists, asking eventually ceases. As Calvin remarked, “If you doubt you do not pray.” Where there is double-mindedness there will be no authority in asking and God will not hear.
19. Broken marital relationships: “Husbands … be considerate as you live with your wives … treat them with respect … so that nothing will hinder your prayers” (1 Peter 3:7). Inappropriate, un-Christlike behavior and sins against spouses run interference with our asking. Trading presumptuously on a sense of intimacy with God, when marital intimacy is not being cherished or protected, is inviting a hindrance to our asking. If we are sinning against our spouse God will not hear.
20. Condemnation: “If our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from Him anything we ask” (1 John 3:21). Where there is condemnation there is a block both on the freedom to ask with assurance, and on the reception of what we ask for. If our hearts condemn us, God will not hear.
21. Not asking according to His will: “If we ask anything according to His will He hears us” (1 Jn. 5:14). God cannot be asked to act against His own character or purpose. If we do not ask according to His will, God will not hear.
22. Asking with wrong motives: “”You do not receive because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend it on your pleasures” (James 4:3). When asking is fueled by wrong motives rooted in the lust and covetousness, fighting and warring that James refers to, there will be no answers. It is clear that the motive for asking is utterly self-serving and good things can be requested for bad reasons. Simon Magus asked for the Holy Spirit, a good thing, but with godless motives (Acts 8:18-19). If the motivation for the request is not to delight oneself in the Lord, then the asked-for desire is unlikely to be given (Psalm 37:4). The Lord searches the heart and discerns the motivation behind our asking. The litmus test for our motives in asking is simple but direct: is what we ask for to gratify ourselves or to glorify God? If wrong motives are present, God will not hear.
23. Asking wrong sources: “My people ask counsel of their stocks, and are answered by a stick of wood” (Hosea 4:12). Asking of wrong sources, from God’s perspective, is “a spirit of prostitution”. When they do have a need to ask, “they will not find Him” (Hosea 5:6). The divine pain is explicit whenever Israel appointed prophets, priests and kings of their own making, and ceased to inquire of the Lord. “They have not asked at my mouth” (Isaiah 30:2). “They didn’t ask, ‘Where is the Lord?’” (Jeremiah 2:6) They carried out their own plans, asking counsel of unholy consultants and forming alliances other than relationship with God. When Saul chose to ask of the witch of Endor instead of the Lord, he lost his kingdom (1 Samuel 28:7). When Ahaziah sent messengers to consult BaalZebub, the god of Ekron, God told Elijah to ask these emissaries, “Is it because there is no God in Israel? ...You will surely die!” (2 Kings 1:3). When wrong sources offer themselves, the need to ask of God is imperative. “When men tell you to consult mediums and spiritists, who whisper and mutter, should not a people inquire of the Lord?” (Isaiah 8:19) Getting direction from others displaces asking of God. The consequences are dangerous and disastrous. God will not hear.
24. Asking for wrong things: “They put God to the test by demanding the things they craved” (Psalm 78:18). This is rooted in the same lust that James speaks about. When Solomon asked for wisdom, the difference between asking for right and wrong things is made clear. “The Lord was pleased that Solomon had asked for this … and not for long life or wealth for yourself … I will do what you have asked” (1Kings 3:10-11). If we ask for wrong things God will not hear.
25. Asking that is really accusing: The prophet Isaiah foresaw Jesus as a lamb that was dumb before its shearers: “so He did not open His mouth” (Isaiah 53:7). There was plenty of asking going on, and in any other context they would have been good questions to ask. “Are you the one who was to come?” (Luke 7:20) when asked of Jesus by John the Baptist, is very different to: “Are you the Christ?” (Mark 14:61) when asked by Caiaphas. As with all these points, it is not that God is deaf. He chooses not to hear. The silence of Jesus, as if he did not hear, is the divine response to that which is asked in anger and contempt, in mockery and accusation. It is not genuinely interrogative but deliberately derogatory. How much asking is addressed to God from the place of bitter cynicism, or challenging defiance, or personal enmity? Asking that is accusing will not be heard.
26. Failure to ask: “You have not because you ask not” (James 4:2-3). It is important to state the obvious. God cannot and will not hear what is not spoken. God presents Himself, time and time again in scripture, as the God who wants to be addressed, wants to be asked. “Ask of me!” (Psalm 2:8) Go to God and “take words with you” pleads Hosea (14:2). If we will not ask, God will not hear, because He has nothing to hear! It has been said that the greatest tragedy of life is not unanswered prayer but unoffered prayer.
It would be easy to be disheartened by all this and limit our asking to the question: what hope? But that would be to completely miss the point. God is not trying to make Himself less approachable but more so. If we are going to ask rightly and effectively, it makes sense that we know as much as possible about wrong kinds of asking. God has a vested interest that nothing hinders our asking, because He wants to relate to us. Thus the practice of asking is such an invitation of grace to live in a manner that is worthy of our confession of Christ. Not to ask God is actually not to ask some crucial questions of ourselves. The neglect of asking turns out to be a neglect of personal spiritual health.
PART II: EFFECTIVE ASKING
We began this message by noting many scriptural reasons for why God chooses not to listen to what we ask, or chooses to refuse to hear what we ask, as unwelcome as this feels. It follows then that to ask effectively we should ensure that we are heard and that none of those exclusions or hindrances that were mentioned apply to us. If they do, you can deal with these this morning at this altar rail and walk out of here ready to begin these 40 days as an asker who can be confident that God hears you. All recovered asking begins with the asking for forgiveness. But just as there are so many possible impediments and interferences to asking, so there are also many godly factors that help our asking to be more effective.
If you want to get more effective at something, you have to begin by engaging it. Just start doing it. You can read all the books you like about tennis but you will never have an effective volley if you never get onto the court and get to the net. All the books in the world about prayer may be encouraging, but if you are not asking personally they are ineffective. So what makes for effective asking? Beginning to ask and then keeping on asking. Isn’t that how Jesus put it?
The next 40 days, if you choose to participate, will be like a 40 day discipleship course, a 40 day personal spiritual renewal experience. Haven’t we just seen how convicting, cleansing and sanctifying it can be by just dealing with those things that hinder our asking being heard? Why will these 40 days be like this? Because asking, by its very nature, activates the context in which so much is matured and changed in our lives, precisely because it relates us to God, and in that relationship we are confronted and convicted, nurtured and nourished, taught and touched. Asking forces us to stop and think about what we really want for life and godliness, and thus purifies our future asking. Yes, it convinces us how much we need, and how far we are from asking effectively, but that revelation in itself is a tremendously effective first-fruits of asking. Just asking becomes a bondage-breaker: breaking the silence in our communication with God, breaking the fear about asking specifically, breaking the lies of the enemy about why it’s no use for us to ask, breaking the deception that we can get by without it, breaking the pride of our independence. As Forsyth put it, just the act of asking serves to “relax the tension of our self-inflation.” Asking is a holy end in itself, before it is ever about answers. So if you just start asking, you are on your way to effective asking.
However, there are some considerations, and perhaps conditioning factors, that we should be aware of when we come to ask of God. When we pay heed to these, we will find that our need and desire to ask becomes what I have just suggested, a huge contribution to our sanctification, to our maturing godliness, to our maturing discipleship. Asking is what disciples of Jesus do, and as we ask the Father, because it is such a means of grace, we will find ourselves in the classroom of the Holy Spirit, learning of Christ, and we will continue to receive the blessing of something that Paul asked for disciples: “I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know Him better.” (Ephesians 1:17) Is that not the learning (to know him better) that discipleship is all about? We will continue to note that all three persons of the Godhead are actively involved every time we ask. We ask of the Father, through the mediation of the Son by the power of the Holy Spirit. How can we feel short of help? What follows now on the power-points are some scriptural encouragements for your engagement in effectual asking.
1. Knowing Jesus as personal Lord and Savior
“Believe me when I say that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me … I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing … And I will do whatever you ask in my name.” (John14:11-13) The invitation to ask and the promise to respond is made especially to those who put their faith in Jesus. We are confident in our asking, because our confidence is in Jesus Christ. Because we have acknowledged Jesus as our Savior, as the one who bore the penalty of our sins, then we who were once separated from God and incommunicado, can now draw near and ask, not as strangers, but as sons and daughters of His Father, because as an earlier verse in John’s gospel says, “all who received Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God.” (John 1:12) Knowing Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior conditions our asking.
2. Knowing God’s acceptance
“… so that you may know that you have eternal life. This is the confidence we have in approaching God … that if we ask” (1John 5:13). We have been forgiven and cleansed by the blood of Christ, which gives assurance about our acceptance and therefore our access and our asking. Our asking is accepted because we have been made acceptable to the Father through Christ. “We know that we are children of God” (1John 5:19). Where there is acceptance there is assurance. Where there is assurance there is access. Where there is access, there is asking. Knowing we are accepted and acceptable conditions our asking.
3. Confessing sin
We have seen that “iniquity in my heart” (Psalm 66:18) is a barrier to asking, thus choosing to live a life that keeps short accounts with God makes for effective asking. We have just seen that James 5:16 is explicit that the asking of a “righteous” man is effectual. The debris of unconfessed sin blocks the spiritual arteries, and silences asking. It is the confession of sin that restarts asking by first asking for forgiveness. Confession conditions our asking.
4. Humility
Asking, that is a true confession of need, requires humility. If people will “humble themselves” then God says that He “will forgive their sins” (2 Chronicles 7:14). “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God have mercy on me a sinner … this man went home justified.” (Luke18:13-14) The pride of the Pharisee at prayer, and the prideful asking of Herod before Jesus, are met with silence. “Stubborn pride” encounters heaven that is “like iron” (Leviticus 26:19). Asking will not be answered. G. Campbell Morgan used to say that “all God’s thrones are reached by going downstairs.” “He hears the cry of the humble” (Psalm 10:17). Humility asks and pride does not. Humility conditions our asking.
5. Believing
“Whatever you ask for, believe that you have received it” (Mark 11:24). “If you believe you will receive whatever you ask for” (Matthew 21:22). “He who believes in Me, the works that I do shall he do also … Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do” (John 14:12-14). “When he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord.” (James 1:6) William Carey, the father of modern mission, said: “Believing prayer lies at the root of all personal godliness.” Believing conditions our asking.
6. Faith
“According to your faith be it unto you … If you have faith as small as a mustard seed … if you have faith and do not doubt … Have faith in God … whatever you ask … Increase our faith …” (Matthew 9:29; 17:20; 21:21; Mark 11:22; Luke 17:5) Our personal faith is not in our asking, but in the one we ask. Our discipleship is about our fitness to ask and the faith to ask. “The best thing in prayer is faith!” commented Luther. At the end of the day, it is our asking that is perhaps the clearest way that our faith expresses itself. Forsyth put it like this: “Petition is the form your faith takes … Faith is what turns need into request. It is what moves your need to need God.” Little faith, little asking. We may be tempted to stand in fear before our needs, but faith gathers those needs from the basement of helplessness, and instead of allowing them to fester and decompose the soul, presents them to God in our asking about them all. “Let us draw near to God … in full assurance of faith” (Hebrews 10:22). Fear is the antithesis of faith and will silence asking. Faith conditions our asking.
7. Abiding in Him
“I am the vine, you are the branches … If you abide in me … ask what you wish” (John 15:5-7) This proves that asking is all about relationship. The invitation to ask is not unconditional here. It is not about anything you want, any way you want it, any time that works for you. It is conditionally premised. Asking is the fruit of abiding, the manifestation of our union with Christ. Abiding results in asking. We ask of those we are intimate with. Does this not make sense of your experience? Is it not when spiritual intimacy with the Lord wanes that asking evaporates? Where abiding is shallow, so is asking. At the moment we think our asking is our invitation to God to move, to get involved, to do what we want or need, we find that it is His invitation to us to a deeper, more faithful, pleasing, expectant, intimate, abiding relationship with Him. It is His invitation to be changed into His likeness, before it is about our need for our circumstances or needs to do the changing. The changes effected by our asking will always be secondary to the changes effected in us. Abiding conditions our asking.
8. Forgiving
“And when you stand, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him …” (Mark 11:25) Why were they standing? That was the posture for prayer. Jesus is speaking directly about what needs to be taken care of before we ask about anything. Usually, we find this first requires us to ask forgiveness for ourselves, given the delay in forgiving others, or for the contrary attitudes and feelings that have hardened in our hearts. Forgiving conditions our asking.
9. Knowing He hears
“And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have what we asked of Him.” (1John 5:15) We have acknowledged that sometimes there are reasons that God refuses to listen, but that does not mean he does not or cannot hear. Questioning His hearing is often a cover for questioning ourselves. When we are waiting for an answer, God’s silence is not an inability to hear. John’s argument is simple and clear. To know He hears is to know that everything consequent to our asking is in His hands, because it is in His ears. If we are not sure that He hears, then everything is unsettled and uncertain. Knowing that God hears conditions our asking.
10. Knowing His Word
“Preserve my life according to your Word … Strengthen me according to your Word … May your unfailing love come to me according to your promise … Be gracious to me according to your promise … Direct my footsteps according to your Word … May my cry come before you O Lord; give me understanding according to your Word” (Psalm 119: 25, 28, 41, 58, 133, 169) “If …my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish …” (John 15:7) The psalmists’ asking is totally Word-based. The precepts, the promises, the proclamations and the prayers of the Word are the premise for all asking. The Word tutors our asking, giving us the matters to ask for, and giving us the very words to use. Knowing His Word conditions our asking.
11. Waiting and listening
“Those who wait on the Lord will renew their strength.” (Isa. 40:31) This is perhaps the best-known verse about waiting but it is addressed to people who are tempted to give up asking and waiting for an answer. “My cause is disregarded by God.” (40:27) The idea here is of someone bringing their case to be heard but having it continually dismissed. It is the end of their asking. But then God asks them over twenty questions. In a strange way, these divine questions are God’s answer. He is not asking in order to add to their despair, but as the God of hope, He asks them to think about what He has done until they recover their lost faith in who He is. Just like us, when we need our answer now, all these people can see are the problems that demand an answer, but as they wait, they are told to see something else. “See, the sovereign Lord comes in power … See, His reward is with Him … Lift your eyes and look to the heavens” (40:10, 26). All the people can hear are the sounds of war and the cries of helplessness, but they are told to listen to something else: “A voice of one calling … the glory of the Lord will be revealed … Say to the towns of Judah, ‘Here is your God’ … Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God” (40: 3-4, 9, 21, 28). 40 days helps establish a waiting posture.
By the way, was not Jesus’ last word to the disciples before His ascension, “Wait…” (Acts 1:4)? And was not that waiting a time of asking? “They all joined together constantly in asking” (1:14). Waiting on the God of hope and listening to what He says to us while we are waiting will strengthen us to keep on asking. “I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear me.” (Micah 7:7) Waiting and listening conditions our asking.
12. Asking in Jesus’ Name
Get a copy of my booklet for this time (downstairs) but suffice it to say by way of summary that asking in Jesus’ name is an expression of assurance. We have been given His name so we are accepted by Him. We have been appointed as his name-bearing representative to ask the Father. We have been fully authorized by that name and given all the rights of access and claim that he has. Again, no wonder we can be bold and expectant. Asking in Jesus’ Name conditions our asking.
13. Not depending on our own understanding
To ask is to acknowledge that we do not have it all together. Asking ensures that we do not “lean on our own understanding” (Proverbs 3:5) It is precisely our lack of understanding that should provoke us to ask: “If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously…” (James 1:5) As long as we are asking we are not claiming that we have the measure of everything. By spending 40 days post-resurrection opening the disciples’ minds to “understand the scriptures” (Luke 24:45) Jesus laid the foundation for their asking. Our asking is “in the Spirit” so whenever we ask, we are engaging the “Spirit of wisdom and understanding” (Isaiah 11:2; Ephesians 1:17) Asking for understanding was one of Paul’s major concerns: “We have not stopped praying and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through spiritual wisdom and understanding … I pray … so that you will have a full understanding of everything good” (Colossians 1:9; Philemon v6). Daniel’s experience illustrates all the moving parts. It was because he “understood from the scriptures” that he was moved to “plead with Him in prayer and petition”. The outcome was the understanding that he needed: “I have come to give you insight and understanding.” (9:2-3, 23) Not leaning on our own understanding conditions our asking.
14. Fasting
“When you pray … When you fast” (Matthew 6:5, 16). Jesus teaches asking and fasting as related subjects. Scripture describes them as a combined action, both in the Old Testament (Ezra 8:23) and in the New, as practiced by the early church (Acts 14:23). In scripture, turning from food was always representative of turning to the Lord, and asking of Him. Asking with fasting is one of God’s means to encourage us:
• To be heavenward: “He answers him from His holy heaven” (Psalm 20:6). There is such a focus and consciousness of heavenly presence and purposes, and a deliverance from earthly distractions (Nehemiah 9:6). The asking-fast called in Joel (1:14; 2:15) brought a revelation of God on His “holy hill” (3:17) and what was going to take place in the heavens (2:29-30).
• To be holy: “They stood and confessed their sins” (Nehemiah 9:1-3). The sense of heavenly presence brings conviction of sin: “Our sins are higher than our heads and our guilt has reached to the heavens” (Ezra 9:6). As a result of a “chosen” asking-fast “your righteousness will go before you” (Isaiah 58:8).
• To be humbled: “I humbled my soul by fasting” (Psalm 69:10). “I proclaimed a fast ... that we might humble ourselves before our God” (Ezra 8:21). It is the clothing of humility that acknowledges that there is no other ground for sustenance other than asking for intimacy with God.
• To be heard: “So we fasted and petitioned our God about this, and He answered our prayer” (Ezra 8:23). “They declared a fast … He had compassion and did not bring upon them the destruction He had threatened” (Jonah 3:5-10). “Declare a holy fast … Let them say ‘Spare your people’ … The Lord will reply to them” (Joel 2:17-19). Empty barrels ring loudest!
• To hear: Daniel pleads with God: “In prayer and petition, in fasting” (9:3). He asks to be heard: “Hear the petitions of your servant … Give ear O God … O Lord listen” (9:17-19). But while he was asking he heard an answer. “As soon as you began to ask an answer was given, which I have come to tell you …” (9:23). Kierkegaard articulated the need here: “The true relation of prayer is not when God hears what is prayed for, but when the person praying continues to pray until he is the one who hears, who hears what God wills.” Asking with fasting is not just in order to be heard by God, but in order to hear what God is saying.
• To be helped: The loss of natural energy through fasting is a picture of the desperate need for the Lord’s help to supply what is needed, as human resource has failed. In response to asking-fasting God said, “You will call and I will answer” (Isaiah 58:9) and this is affirmed by the avalanche of active verbs that describe his response: “I am sending … I will drive out … I will repay … I will pour out … I will gather … your light will break forth … the Lord will guide … He will satisfy … you will be like … you will be called … you will find … I will cause you to” (Joel 2-3, Isaiah 58)
• To be healed: In some circumstances there seems to be a necessary relationship between the bodily discipline of fasting and the physical experience of healing, as well as the spiritual experience of deliverance. “Your healing will quickly appear … This kind only comes out with prayer and fasting” (isaiah 58:8; Mark 9:29) Fasting conditions our asking.
15. Desiring
“May He give you the desire of your heart … May the Lord grant all your requests” (Psalm 20:4-5). “Whatsoever things you desire, when you ask …” (Mark 11:24). “My heart’s desire and prayer to God …” (Romans 10:1) There is a relationship between desire and asking, affirmed by David, Paul and Jesus Himself. Notice that in every case, the expression of asking is preceded by the experience of desire. All the logistics of asking (when we ask, why we ask, what we ask for) are evidence of the longings of the heart, most particularly, the desire for God. Catherine of Siena taught that effective asking was “not attained by the use of many words but through the affection of desire.” Augustine understood that “God wishes our desire to be exercised in prayer.” So if we are not asking much for spiritual things, then it is evidence that we do not desire much. Murray confirmed this: “Desire is the soul of prayer, and the cause of insufficient and unsuccessful prayer is very much to be found in the lack or feebleness of desire.” Desire conditions our asking.
16. Seeking and submitting to His will
“If we ask anything according to His will He hears us.” (1John 5:13) This is best exemplified by Jesus in Gethsemane, at the moment of His greatest need to have God answer what He asked for: the cup of judgment to be taken from Him. He was not answered according to His need but according to God’s will. How effective was this? The outcome was not that He was personally saved from the cup of judgment but the whole world would be offered the taste of the cup of His blessing. Seeking and submitting are two constituents within a single response. “Your will be done” (Matthew 6:10) “He listens to the godly man who does His will.” (John 9:31) Seeking and submitting to his will conditions our asking.
17. Loving the believers
“If our hearts do not condemn us we have confidence before God and receive from Him anything we ask because we do His commands … and this is His command ...to love one another as He commanded.” (1John 3:21-23) John’s memory of Jesus’ last words was clear. Jesus, after giving the disciples the new command, that they love one another (John 13:34), goes on to talk about asking in His name. Not to live with love for other believers runs interference with our asking. Love is an effective incentive to ask with others and for others Is the size of a prayer meeting the true indicator of the level of love in the community? Loving the believers conditions our asking.
18. Unity in agreement:
In John 17 Jesus asks His Father “by the power of Your name – the name You gave Me – so that they may be one as we are one.” (17:11) It is the unity of the Father and Son, of whom we ask, that calls for the unity of those who ask of them. “If two of you on earth agree for anything that you ask for, it will be done for you by My Father in heaven.” (Matthew 18:19-20) We are asking together of the Father, in the unity of sons and daughters, consequently now brothers and sisters, agreed about each other’s request but also about who the Father is. It is interesting to note that the two or three who are gathered are not praying for unity. The key to that experience of unity was the asking. Paul knew the power of this united agreement of brothers: “I urge you, brothers … to join me in my struggle by praying to God for me” (Romans15:30). Agreement and unity condition our asking.
19. Boldness
“We may approach God with freedom and confidence” (Ephesians 3:12). “And this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask …” (1 John 5:14-15). “Having therefore boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus” (Hebrews 10:19). Charles Wesley understood it: “Bold I approach the eternal throne!” The Greek word used for ‘bold’, ‘parrhesia’, was the word used to describe how Jesus talked about His Father (John 16:25) and how He walked about the country (John 11:54), so much so that on one occasion Peter tried to “rebuke” Him for it and tone Him down (Mark 8:32). Not surprisingly, it is the word that describes the early church in its preaching (Acts 2:29; 13;46) and in its praying (1 John 5:14). Is it surprising that this was something they asked for (Acts 4:29) and received (Acts 4:31)? The word describes confident asking of God that originally had political usage, describing the freedom of speech of those who were citizens and did not need to fear when they shared their convictions. It is the word used to describe how we approach God when we ask (Hebrews 4:16, 10.19; 1 John 5:14) When we ask we are never speaking out of turn so we need not be self conscious in His presence, but bold. The scepter has been extended to us in the throne room, so we can come with a firm tread, not mistaking humility for servility (Esther 5:2).
John Newton wrote:
My soul, ask what thou wilt
Thou canst not be too bold
Since His own blood for thee he spilt
What else can he withhold?
Boldness conditions our asking.
20. Knowing God as our Friend
Jesus’ parable of the ‘Friend at Midnight’ tells us that God’s fatherhood is a reason for our boldness (Luke 11: 2-13) But He speaks of God’s friendship as well. “Suppose one of you has a friend, and he goes to him at midnight ...” For anyone who thinks that a father has to give to his asking child because that is what he is obliged to do, Jesus affirms that our Father is also our Friend, assuring us that His response is not reluctantly paternalistic but freely and kindly altruistic. Friendship gives a boldness to asking, with its assurance of being loved and cared for, and with its expectation of a responsiveness that does not require argument and persuasion. Knowing God as Friend conditions our asking.
21. Expectation
“Ask and it shall be given you.” (Matthew 7:7) It is Jesus’ teaching and His invitation to ask that is the foundation for our expectation. Again and again, He invites His followers to ask with the expectation that what they lack they will receive, that what is lost to them they will find, that what is closed to them will be opened. This same expectation is taught by Paul. “To Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine” (Ephesians 3:20). Melanchthon wrote about Martin Luther that he insisted on the promises in the Psalms “as if he was sure his petitions would be granted.” Is that how we ask? According to E.M.Bounds: “The reason why we obtain no more … is because we expect no more.” Our expectation conditions our asking.
22. Experience of the Holy Spirit:
“According to His power that is at work within us …” (Ephesians 3:20) All asking is both ‘in’ and ‘with’ the Holy Spirit, thus it follows that in order to ask effectively, we need the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Without that reception, asking will be just a recitation. Our asking cannot be a spiritual work unless it is energized by the Holy Spirit. “Would we pray efficiently and mightily?” asks E.M.Bounds. “Then the Holy Spirit must work in us efficiently and mightily… Would you pray with mighty results? Seek the mighty workings of the Holy Spirit in your own spirit.” The measure we receive will be evident in the manner in which we then ask. The relationship between the Holy Spirit and prayer is inviolable. We ask for the Spirit and then we ask in the Spirit. So when it comes to asking “according to His power” let us ask for the Holy Spirit. When it comes to praying in the Holy Spirit, let the Spirit ask through us. Any which way … ASK! Our experience of the Holy Spirit conditions our asking.
23. Pleasing him with uncondemned hearts:
“I will do the very thing you have asked because I am pleased with you” (Exodus 33:17); “If our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him” (1John 3:22). Where there is no condemnation, John says that our hearts will be “at rest in His presence.” Condemnation, like a dripping tap, erodes our sense of being qualified to ask. It sidelines us and we feel spiritually benched, excluded from the huddle that asks about life on the field of play. Its nagging accusation subverts assurance and therefore boldness. Freedom from condemnation is basic to our confidence in asking boldly and effectively. An uncondemned heart conditions our asking.
24. Importunity
“Ask and keep on asking … knock and the door will be opened … to show them that they should always pray and not give up…” (Matthew 7:7; Luke 18:1) According to Jesus, the only possible alternative to persistent asking would be to quit altogether, to “give up”. Jesus encouraged persistence in His teaching (Luke18) and in His practice (Luke 22). This is about asking that is consistent, insistent and persistent.
The willingness to see how far we can go in our pursuit of God’s will is vital, but it will feel uncomfortable, as it did for Abraham, who asked again and again for Sodom against ridiculous odds. This is the kind of asking that goes all the way. He says, “Now that I have been so bold as to speak …” (Genesis 18:27) Is this precocious, or presumptuous? It is not treated by God as such.
We are submissive in heart but not necessarily in tone. But it is our ignorance that persists in pursuing His knowledge about the matter; our continuing hopelessness that persists in pursuing His help; our continuing pains that persist in asking for His poultices of healing and deliverance. The persistence has its own rewards other than that which is sought after, as importunity purifies our own nature, provoking sanctifying changes in us that bring us to a place of preparedness where the answer is now possible. Persistence conditions our asking.
25. Unceasing
“Give him no rest” (Isaiah 61:2). “Pray without ceasing … Prayer was made without ceasing” (1Thessalonians 5:17; Acts12:5). The asking that is needed to be instant (Romans 12:12) may also have to be constant (Romans 1:9). Our persistence is serial – there is a time component. Our persistence needs to be unceasing. Forsyth called unceasing prayer “the bent of the soul.” The gap between our asking and God’s answering is more asking. This is neither filling time (as if life stops until we are answered on our terms) nor doing time (as if the waiting was an imposed limit on our freedom). The Greek word for asking (ektenes) that describes the early church’s praying, means extended, really stretched out. Asking is literally a stretch, in two senses: in that it requires extended time and effort, but also in that it seems to be beyond our capacities and capabilities, and a stretch for us to do. But this is the same word that is used to describe Jesus’ asking in Gethsemane (Luke 22:44). He was stretched to the limit of comprehensible tautness of spirit and intensity of emotion. No wonder we need the Holy Spirit as our helper when we ask, not only to get us to the place of asking but also to help us to stay there. Unceasing asking is also necessary for those situations in which we can no longer continue to act, having engaged them at one time. Paul planted the church in Thessalonica but he could not stay there to grow it. Instead, he continued to nurture it by watering it with his unceasing asking “night and day asking exceedingly for you” (1Thessalonians 3:10) Incessant constancy conditions our asking.
26. Personal holiness
We cannot ask God for his name to be hallowed if there is no place for holiness in our lives. Asking (as in the Lord’s prayer) is a frisk test for discipleship. Asking fails “when the desire and effort for personal holiness fails.” There is a symbiotic relationship between asking and holiness. Not only does unholiness hinder and impede our asking but Wesley noted that the neglect of asking “is a … grand hindrance to holiness.” Pere la Combe, the Spiritual Director of Madame Guyon, was attributed with this maxim: “He who has a pure heart will never cease to pray, and he who will be constant in prayer shall know what it is to have a pure heart.” Personal holiness conditions our asking.
27. Being specific
“What do you want me to do for you?” (Luke 18:41) Our specific asking is what Jesus asks of us. Though his blindness was obvious to all, Jesus wanted the blind man to acknowledge his personal and particular need, and confess his desire for Jesus to answer Him. There is often an evasion, even a dishonesty, possibly a cover-up in our vague and generalized prayers. As the old saying goes, ‘We aim at nothing in particular and hit it every time!’ We confess sin in general but do not ask for forgiveness for anything in particular. We pray for everyone in general but no one by name and need. We ask God to bless the world but do not engage the nations. Hedging and fudging are what we do best. This may be an indication that we are not as zealous for God’s work, or as desperate for ourselves and others as we should be. “It is most proper in prayer, to aim at great distinctness of supplication.” Spurgeon went on to talk about all the prayers that are uttered that contain “a great deal of very excellent doctrinal and experimental matter uttered, but little real petitioning, and that little in a nebulous kind of state, chaotic and unformed. But it seems to me that prayer should be distinct, the asking for something definitely and distinctly because the mind has realized its distinct need of such a thing, and therefore must plead for it. It is well not to beat round the bush in prayer, but to come directly to the point.” If you are hungry you will ask specifically for food! Nothing else will do. Our asking must be definite and explicit. Spurgeon always emphasized this: “We greatly need to be more definite in our supplications than we usually are. We pray for everything in such a way that we practically pray for nothing. It is good to know what we want”. Asking brings the facts as they are, fearful or challenging as they are, into the presence of God. When you ask in broad brush strokes, it is no wonder that you are skeptical about the answers some people get that are the finest of bristles: the exact answer needed, at the exact time. One reason that specific asking begins to decline is simply because busyness has overtaken our time to meditate, to reflect, to consider, to inquire about what is going on, and specifically needs to be asked about. A sound-byte world reduces our asking to the same shallowness. If we are ignorant of God’s will, if we are distanced from God’s heart, it is unlikely that we will be specific, especially about what God himself specifically cares about. We can and should ask ‘straight-out’ and ‘allout’. If our assurance about asking is wavering, we will be less sure and less direct in our asking, and because there will be a lack of boldness, assurance will give way to ambiguity and uncertainty. According to John Rice, “Where there is no definiteness in prayer … there is no burden, no urgency, no heart desire.” Spurgeon taught against what he called “indistinct generalizing prayer” which “fails for lack of precision. It is as if a regiment of soldiers should all fire off their guns anywhere. Possibly some-body would be killed, but the majority of the enemy would be missed.” Nor is Murray: “Our prayers must be a distinct expression of definite need, not a vague appeal to his mercy or an in-definite cry for his blessing.” Being specific conditions our asking.
Hopefully it is clear that every conditioning factor mentioned, at the end of the day, conditions the specificity of our asking and its effectiveness. You could do no worse than take each of the above points and begin by making them your asking-list. Ask for each of these characteristics to be distinctive in your asking.