2. Do Our Prayers Change the Future?

3. Do Our Prayers Change the Future?
Why do we pray?
1. Commanded – I Thess. 5:17
2. Dependence – Mt. 6:11, 12
3. Comfort – I Pet. 5:7
4. Encourage – Eph. 1:15, 16
But do some things happen because of
our prayers? (Food, Safety, Health)

4. Do Our Prayers Change the Future?
Question #1: Can our prayers change the future?
Possibility #1: Determinism
Nothing occurs which was not the fore-ordained will
of God (blueprint)
Implications:
The future cannot change!
If the future did change, prayer did not do it!
Possibility #2: Free Will
Man has the ability to make genuine choices.

5. Bible confirms Free Will
Deuteronomy 30:19
19 I call heaven and earth to record this day
against you, that I have set before you life and
death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose
life, that both thou and thy seed may live:
Joshua 24:15
15 And if it seem evil unto you to serve the
LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve;
whether the gods which your fathers served that
were on the other side of the flood, or the gods
of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as
for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.

6. The Bible has examples of future-changing prayer
Genesis 25:21
21 And Isaac intreated the LORD for his wife, because she was barren: and the LORD
was intreated of him, and Rebekah his wife conceived.
Exodus chapter 32
1 And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the
people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him, Up, make us
gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out
of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him.
2 Kings 20:5-6
5 Turn again, and tell Hezekiah the captain of my people, Thus saith the LORD, the God
of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will heal
thee: on the third day thou shalt go up unto the house of the LORD.
6 And I will add unto thy days fifteen years; and I will deliver thee and this city out of
the hand of the king of Assyria; and I will defend this city for mine own sake, and for
my servant David's sake.
James 5:17-18
17 Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it
might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six
months.
18 And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her
fruit.

7. The Bible teaches that we should pray to change the future
Matthew 7:7-8
7 Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be
opened unto you:
8 For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to
him that knocketh it shall be opened.
1 John 3:21-22
21 Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God.
22 And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his
commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight.
Acts 8:20-22
20 But Peter said unto him, Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast
thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money.
21 Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter: for thy heart is not right in the
sight of God.
22 Repent therefore of this thy wickedness, and pray God, if perhaps the
thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee.
It is possible for human prayer to shape the future!
(Better hope so… prayer for repentance)

8. Do Our Prayers Change the Future?
Question #2: How can our prayers change the future?
Possibility #1: The future is unknown even to God.
Clark Pinnock – “Instead of perceiving the entire course of
human existence in one timeless moment, God comes to
know events as they take place.” (God is surprised by
events)
Greg Sanders – “Only if God does not yet know the outcome
of my journey can a prayer for safe travel be coherent within
the model of foreknowledge.” (Must be the case if praying is
valid)
But there is a problem! The scriptures!

9. The Bible presents God as knowing the future perfectly!
Isaiah 42:9
9 Behold, the former things are come to
pass, and new things do I declare: before
they spring forth I tell you of them.
(prophecies)
John 13:19
19 Now I tell you before it come, that,
when it is come to pass, ye may believe
that I am He.

10. The Bible presents God as even know my future prayers!
Psalm 139:4
4 For there is not a word in my tongue,
but, lo, O LORD, thou knowest it
altogether.
Matthew 6:8
8 Be not ye therefore like unto them: for
your Father knoweth what things ye have
need of, before ye ask him.

11. Do Our Prayers Change the Future?
Question #2: How can our prayers change the future?
Possibility #2: God not only knows the future completely
but even knows what we are going to prayer before we
pray it.
God is separate from time and “inhabits eternity (Isa.
57:15)”

12. God and Eternity
God and Eternity
Time

13. Do Our Prayers Change the Future?
Question #2: How can our prayers change the future?
Possibility #2: God not only knows the future completely
but even knows what we are going to prayer before we pray it.
God is separate from time and “inhabits eternity (Isa. 57:15)”
God has known my prayers even before creation (not 1
second before or 1 day before but from the beginning)
God has known from all eternity what I will pray tomorrow
and how He will respond to that prayer.
Keep in mind knowing something will happen and causing
something to happen is two different things.
(I know what Karen will do if I offer her a sandwich with mayonnaise)
Our prayers change the future from our perspective but not God’s
(God knows the future but I do not)

14. Do Our Prayers Change the Future?
Question #3: Do our prayers change the future?
James 5:16-18
16 Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye
may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth
much.
17 Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed
earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of
three years and six months.
18 And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought
forth her fruit.
Elijah’s prayers were not answered because he was a prophet or because
the Spirit of God was upon him; no, James stresses our common
nature.
Guy N. Woods – “If one of like passions with us (possessed of the same
human nature) as Elijah could accomplish so much in prayer, then we
should not deny its efficacy today.”

15. Do Our Prayers Change the Future?
Question #3: Do our prayers change the future?
When they are consistent with God’s will!
Jesus in Gethsemane
Paul’s “thorn in the flesh”
But these were in conflict with God’s will, therefore, no changing
of the future.

16. Do Our Prayers Change the Future?
PRAYER and GOD’S WILL
1. God’s ultimate will – What will absolutely happen (Jn. 10:27-29)
This will not change!
2. God’s intentional will – What would ideally occur (II Pet. 3:9) What
God will do if possible.
3. God’s circumstantial will – What God allows given the existing
circumstances (Rev. 20:15) Freewill!
Our prayers can affect the circumstantial will of God and change
the future!