Prayers God Loves to Answer

Ephesians 3:14-21
September 4, 2005
Rev. Curtis J. Young

Ephesians 3:14-21 - 14For this reason I kneel before the Father, 15from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. 16I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.  20Now to him who is able to do mmeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, 21to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

When I began my inductive Bible study on prayer in the spring, one question especially was on my mind: How does God answer prayer? 

As I progressed, I discovered -- as I shared with you some weeks ago -- that the most persistent lesson on prayer in Scripture, was summed up by James when he wrote, “The fervent, effectual prayer of the righteous man accomplishes much.” This left me asking all the more, how does God do it? How does He answer prayer?

I expected that eventually I would derive a framework, even a flow chart, to describe the various courses God follows in answering prayer. 

Many Christian theologians have answered the question this way. They teach that God answers prayer in one of two ways, naturally or supernaturally. In other words, He either answers providentially through circumstances, relationships, people and things over which He has free and complete reign, or He answers by direct and miraculous intervention.

But honestly, if Scripture teaches us to think primarily about prayer in these terms, I didn’t find it. Granted, in the abstract it seems very reasonable to distinguish acts or events as natural or supernatural. But the works God has done don’t often fit neatly in one category or the other.

When the waters of the Red Sea were parted by a strong east wind that blew all night long, was that merely a natural occurrence perfectly timed with Moses’ outstretched hand, or was that supernatural? 

When the earth split apart and swallowed up Korah and his rebels in the wilderness, was that due to an earthquake, some natural geological pressures suddenly giving way, or was it supernatural? I could go on with many other examples including incidents from Jesus’ ministry.

What I found Scripture does teach about how God acts in response to prayer thrills me. His response to prayer begins within Himself. As we saw in my last sermon, He does not answer our prayers except that they first make an impression on Him. We personally offer them, He personally receives them.

We looked in particular at prayers for forgiveness. These are explicitly directed to the heart of God. And we saw in Revelation that unanswered prayers are portrayed as incense. They are not lost to Him, either forgotten or discarded. They remain before Him as a sweet aroma. It is the prayers of the saints that will fuel the consummation when both God’s justice and mercy are fully revealed.

Because our prayers do make an impression on God, Scripture speaks, then, of His answering them. Here I did find a twofold distinction in how He does so, but it wasn’t in terms of natural versus supernatural answers.

Rather, depending on the nature of our request, He may speak in response to His creation. He may send forth His word. The Old Testament is explicit in teaching this.

For example, Psalm 33 celebrates that just as the Lord created all things by His Word going forth, so He foils the plans of the nations by His Word.

In Psalm 107, we read of the Children of Israel, “Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he saved them from their distress. He sent forth his word and healed them; he rescued them from the grave.” (19-20) 

Later in the same psalm we read, “For he spoke and stirred up a tempest that lifted high the waves…Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and he brought them out of their distress. He stilled the storm to a whisper; the waves of the sea were hushed.” (vss. 25, 28-29, c.f. Psalm 147:15)

However it becomes manifest, naturally or supernaturally, God speaks in answer to our prayers, and all creation obeys His Word, even the hapless unwitting atheist. 

Psalm 107 may well have been in disciples’ minds when Jesus calmed the sea. Certainly the Gospel writers, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, recorded their accounts in a way that recalls the Psalm.

Jesus was asleep in the stern of a boat when a furious squall descended on the Sea of Galilee. His disciples, who were with him, were terrified and woke Him up. They cried out, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?” 
“He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, ‘Quiet! Be still.’ Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.” (Mk. 4:39) The disciples were even more terrified and asked each other, ‘Who is this? He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him.’" (Luke 8:25)
God answers prayer. He speaks, and all nature obeys. Parsing the result into categories of natural or supernatural is beside the point of God’s sovereign power. That should make us confident no matter where we are or what we face. Life includes many storms and threats to terrify us beside squalls on the water. God’s word is greater than them all.

But there is another way He answers prayer as well, and that is by His Spirit, quite directly influencing us.

Search the Bible and you will find many prayers prayed for protection, for deliverance, for provision (for the day as well as daily bread), for healing, for open doors and opportunities – we’ve been talking about how God answers these kinds of prayers by His word.

But there are also, so very many prayers in Scripture for what only the Holy Spirit can impart to us directly by the communion we have with Him – for courage and fearlessness; knowledge and understanding; wisdom and discernment; comfort and assurance; perseverance and maturity (Col. 4:12); to abound in love; for Christ to glorify Himself in us; for peace.

It is in response to this sort of praying that God does His most extravagant work, characterized as beyond comprehension by Paul in Ephesians, as greater than we could imagine. He does it directly by His Spirit.

I understand that people would prefer to see God light up the sky with a column of fire or throw down fire from heaven. Frankly, these are entertaining and require nothing of us. I want God to thrill and entertain me. I feel my flesh lusting for it. 

But what makes God’s works so great isn’t whether they dazzle me with special effects or satisfy the cravings of my ego. His greatest work was in becoming flesh and blood and going to the cross to die for my sin and then rising to assure me that in Him there is eternal life. 

And He works greatly to this hour through His Spirit regenerating and sanctifying people for eternity. This is where the power of God’s Kingdom is most readily to be seen and felt.

When people complain that God is not answering their prayers, honestly I wonder what they are praying for. When was the last time they asked for wisdom? “If any man lacks wisdom, let him ask of God who gives to all generously and without finding fault.” 
When was the last time they personally prayed the five petitions that Jesus taught us to prayer? “Father, magnify yourself, your name, in my heart.” “Give me the will to do your will and seek your Kingdom.” “Help me this day so that at its end, I will know you have been my strength and my provider.” “Lord, forgive me and restore me to yourself.” “Father, make me love knowing you more than I love the pleasures of sin. Don’t let evil ruin me.”

There is no question that these are prayers that God loves to answer as we offer them for ourselves and for others. 

I’m talking about prayers born of our desire for Him, prayers in which we seek to draw nearer to Him and have Him draw nearer to us, prayers to the end that we and others grow in fellowship with Him, to know eternal life through His Spirit. 

Let me put it this way. God most loves to answer prayers for our greatest good.

In Colossians and Ephesians, when Paul wrote of God’s might in his own life or in the church, He was not referring to great signs that he or other believers had witnessed, but to the Spirit’s work within them, in answer to prayer. (c.f. Col. 1:11, 29; Eph. 1:19) 

This brings us to the text I read and to Paul’s prayer for the church. Here is the greatest concentration of terms for God’s power in the New Testament, and they all have to do with His work in you:

For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. 

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

What does this prayer have to say to us about our own prayers? I would press home two answers.

The first and greatest use of prayer is to seek Him rather than seeking things from Him, to know Him rather than experience other things, to yield our hearts to Him rather than have things yield to us, to glorify Him rather than achieve some distinction for ourselves.

The petitions of the Lord’s Prayer certainly confirm this as they begin, “Hallowed be Thy Name”, “Thy Kingdom come”, and “Thy will be done.”

This is what prayers for courage, comfort, persistence; assurance and maturity -- prayers for the Spirit’s inner work -- are about. The Lord answers them with such bounty you can virtually feel His pleasure at being asked.

It is here in the growing knowledge of our Lord that we find everything we need. “Seek me,” the Lord says, “and live.” (Amos 5:4) “The lions may grow weak and hungry, but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.” (Psalm 34:10) 

No wonder David wrote, “My heart says of you, ‘Seek His face!" Your face, LORD, I will seek.” (Psalm 27:8)
 
I would offer a second answer as well. The Lord has far more for us to know of His strength and love than you or I have tasted. And he gives us every reason and encouragement to shape our life of prayer to seek them, so our life on earth is truly preparation for heaven, and we might stand before Him unashamed.

“You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart,” God assured Jeremiah (29:13). To this our Savior adds, “Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete.” (John 16:24)
 
By His word of command to His creation, by His Spirit at work within us, how wonderfully God answers prayer! Yes, and how He loves to answer prayers for what is best – the knowledge of Him!