J. Oswald Sanders
Moving Men Through God
Why could not we? (Matt 17:19, KJV)
In an earlier lessons intercession was defined, and now we shall consider the subject in greater detail.
It is not irreverent to recognize as a fact that there are perplexing problems involved in the ministry of intercession. All Christian workers, and especially those engaged in pastoral or missionary work, frequently find themselves in situations in which the minds and hearts of men must be moved if the objectives the Christians have in view are to be achieved. In other words, we are involved in the complex problems of personality.
We may be confronted with a crisis that threatens the disintegration of our work. Or we have to meet strong opposition in a work we believe is in God’s will. Or we are unable to secure unanimity in our group on important matters requiring decision. Or we face an impossible situation to which there seems to be no solution that would not cause serious misunderstanding or hurt someone else.
MOVING MEN THROUGH GOD
In circumstances like these, what are we to do? Can we expect to move men through God by our prayers?
Men are difficult objects to move. Prayer for material things is much less complex and demanding than that which involves the intricacies of the human heart. But God has placed in our hands a key with three words that will open this complicated lock — Ask! Seek! Knock! (Matt 7:7-8).
These words are often treated as though they were synonyms, alternative words for the one prayer. But it would seem that they refer to progressive acts of prayer, each more intense and demanding than the last. They represent an ascending climax, stages of increasing peristence.
Someone has seen in it the pictures of a needy and importunate man who first asks the aid of a friend in some public place. On being rebuffed, he seeks his friend out at his home and renews the plea with increasing urgency. When the door is shut in his face, he refuses to go away, but keeps on knocking and demanding help until he receives it.
This is of course a parable of contrast that enforces a primary lesson. God desires us to be earnest to the point of persistency, of refusal to be denied, and He assures that he will grant the answer to such praying: “It shall be given to you — you shall find — it shall be opened” (italics added). We are thus encouraged to bring our insoluble problems to Him and are assured of answers.
But it is just here that we come face to face with the problem of human free will. Scripture makes it clear that God has endowed man with the godlike quality of self-determination and free will. That this subject is mysterious and open to varying views is admitted, but it is the view of many evangelical Christians that man possesses the awesome power of saying no to God as well as yes.
INTERCESSION AND FREE WILL
This poses a very real problem in intercession. Will God violate the free will of one person in order to answer the prayers of another? If by our prayers we can affect the conduct of a fellow man, does that not involve trespassing on his free will? And yet if our prayers cannot so influence him, what is the point in praying?
In our search for a solution, we must bear in mind certain factors.
- Intercession is a divine ordinance, and whatever the problems encountered, believers must render obedience. We are exhorted to make “entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings … on behalf of all men” (1 Tim 2:1).
- In all God’s actions He is consistent with Himself. He cannot deny or contradict Himself. If He has bound Himself by a promise to answer the prayer of faith. He will undoubtedly do so, but not in a manner that is contrary to His divine nature. He will fulfill all He has undertaken to do, but in a way that is consistent with His own nature and attributes. It is axiomatic that no word or action of God will contradict any other word or action.
It could be contended that whereas our supplications do not change God’s mind, they often produce such a change in us as to make it right and consistent for God to grant a favorable answer to the supplicant.
God obviously finds no inconsistency or conflict between prayer and the exercise of free will. When He exhorts us to pray for earthly rulers, there is implicit in the command the assurance that our prayers will make a difference; that they can move these men and significantly influence the course of national and international events. Otherwise, why pray?
INTERCESSION AND PREDESTINATION
Another question naturally arises as we face the problems involved in intercession. How can we reconcile intercessory prayer with the doctrine of predestination? The crux of the problem probably lies in our wrong or inadequate understanding of that doctrine. But the question is sometimes put, “If God has already predetermined all that is going to happen, how can our praying make any real difference? Would not a later arrangement of events involve God in inconsistency or contradiction?”
This is a knotty problem that has exercised the minds of praying men in all ages, and different men have arrived at different conclusions. The most one can hope to do is to offer a suggestion that may at least give a little help. Since God has commanded us to pray, prayer must form part of His overall purpose. Since He has pledged Himself to answer these prayers, is it not reasonable to assume that in His scheme of things He has made full allowance for all the implications of prayer? Could it not be that our prayers form part of His plan and purpose, and indeed by the very factor that would bring that purpose about? If the foreordination of God is a valid objection to intercession, could it not also be contended that it is a valid objection to every other form of human activity?
In prayer we deal directly with God, and with men only in a secondary sense. The goal of prayer is the ear of God. It is not our prayer that moves men, but the God to whom we pray. Prayer influences men by moving God to influence them. If a scheming Jacob could be entrusted with power with God and men (Gen 32:28), may we not, despite our failures, be entrusted with a similar ministry?
When Ezra returned to Jerusalem, he faced a situation typical of that experienced so often by Christian workers. He found his people in a tragically backslidden condition, He could not preach to them. How could he influence them to dissolve forbidden partnerships, to divorce forbidden wives and husbands, and to put right a hundred other irregularities? He could influence God to influence them!
So he gave himself to prayer and the confession of sins to which he had not been party. He pled with fasting for God’s mercy on His people. No placid and pallid praying this! Weeping, he prostrated himself before God.
Before long “a very large assembly, men, women, and children, gathered to him from Israel; for the people wept bitterly” (Ezra 10:1). Intense and prevailing prayer moved men through God and achieved its end.
PRAYER
May God the Father and the Eternal High Priest, Jesus Christ, build us up in faith and truth and chastity, and grant to us our portion among the saints with all those who believe on our Lord Jesus Christ. We pray for all saints; for kings and rulers; for our persecutors and for enemies of the Cross; and for ourselves we pray that our fruit may abound and we may be made perfect in Christ Jesus our Lord. POLYCARP
QUESTIONS
- How can God, in order to answer prayer, interfere with the fixed and unchangeable laws that reign in the universe?
- How can the foreknowledge of God be an encouragement in prayer?
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