Prayer Bible Study. Murray. Chapters 13 through 18

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Murray, With Christ in the School of Prayer
Lessons 13-18
John R. Wible, Editor
Lesson13 Prayer and Fasting.
Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not drive it out?” 20 And He
aid to them, “Because of the littleness of your faith; for truly I say to you, if you have faith the
size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will
move; and nothing will be impossible to you. 21 [But this kind does not go out except by prayer
and fasting.”]
Jesus descended from the Mount of Transfiguration to find the disciples in a quandary about
why they had failed to cast out a demon. Jesus told them simply that their faith was too small.
That is, in fact, the answer to all spiritual failure, too small a faith. Then he adds that "this kind
[of demon] comes out only by prayer and fasting."
Faith needs prayer to grow and prayer needs faith to work. They are symbiotic. Murray points
out that prayer needs not just faith, but a "life of faith" to grow. This is a life wholly dedicated
to God. In Matthew 9:20, Jesus observes, "be it unto you according to your faith." Likewise, my
old choir director and mentor, Curtis Brewer was wont to pray a prayer taught to him by his
mentor at Mississippi College, Dr. Jack Lyle, "Lord, bless us according to our preparation." Is
that a benediction that we can easily withstand?
What is a "life of faith? Murray states that it is a life lived "in the Word" and in prayer. Bluntly, it
is only to the extent that we live a life of faith that we will have power in prayer. Likewise, to
the extent we "live in the Word" and in prayer will we have a "life of faith." Many Christians do
not see the need for many hours spent in prayer and in the Word. Those are the ones who do
not live the life of faith and consequently, do not live the life of faith.
There is a second [art of this passage - fasting. [I must confess that I am not in the habit of
fasting.] Murray tells us that while it is through prayer that we grasp the invisible, it is through
fasting that we let go of the visible. [Perhaps here that is what the Lord means - not so much
that the disciples need to withdraw from eating bread for a period of time, but rather that they
need to let go of the earth and the things of it.]
[This is a hard saying, but casting out demons is likewise a hard thing. The demon in the story
was very real, but perhaps he was more real and in a different way than the disciples imagined.
He was, in addition to his demonic presence, a metaphor for those things in the spiritual world
over which we, in our own strength, have no power. It was not so much that the disciples had
been eating bread that was the real spiritual problem, it was that they had not yet learn to let
go their attachment to this life.]

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That brings us full circle back to Murray's first point. If you want power in prayer, you must live
the life of faith and if you want to live the life of faith, you must spend hours in prayer and in
the Word. There is simply no other way, no substitute, no "plan "B." At this point, we may be
stuck and defeated feeling that all is lost because we simply aren't going to do those things.
Especially, we might think, we are not going to let go of the things of the world. Yet, there is
hope.
In his book, Spiritual Lives of the Great Composers, Patrick Kavanaugh tells the story of how
George Friedrich Handel came to write his masterpiece, Messiah. Amazingly, says Kavanaugh,
“Messiah” came at a time in his life (1741) when, holed up in London, the 56-year-old Handel
was facing bankruptcy and complete failure. He had serious health problems and some Church
of England authorities were apparently critical of him and his work. He seemed all washed up—
with his future behind him. But writing “Messiah” proved to be the positive turning point in his
life.
A Dublin charity commissioned him to write a work for a performance of theirs. Messiah was
the result. As he began to write, the music, perhaps the Holy Spirit, overtook him to the point
that Handel barely ate during the 24 days it took him to write “Messiah.” It is said that at one
point, Handel emerged from his writing room with tears in his eyes. He is said to have cried out
to his servant, “I did think I did see all Heaven before me, and the great God Himself!” He had
just finished writing the “Hallelujah” Chorus.
We see then that as Handel dedicated himself to the music, he entered the world of the Spirit.
In so doing, the things of this world (food) just didn't mean very much. So it is when we turn
ourselves over to the Spirit's world, fasting from the things of this world won't be a task, it will
be the natural outflow of the Spirit's possession of us.
Lesson14 Prayer and Love
Whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father
who is in heaven will also forgive you your transgressions. 26 [But if you do not forgive, neither
will your Father who is in heaven forgive your transgressions.”] Mark 11:25-26.
Jesus' words here immediately follow the great promise passage of vv. 24-25 about which we
wrote in Lesson 11. One statement we can find with that great promise is that there must be
faith and belief for it to be effective. Jesus here gives us the greater context. In addition to faith
and belief, there must also be love. Faith and belief speak to our relationship with God. Love
speaks of our relationship to God, but also to man.

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Jesus had taught in the Sermon on the Mount that if one was to bring an offering to God, if he
had anything against his brother, he must, if need be, lay the offering down beside the altar and
go make things right with his brother. Then and only then could he return and present an
acceptable sacrifice to God. See Mathew 5:23-24.
Then in the "Lord's Prayer," he tells the disciples that they will be forgiven to the extent they
have forgiven others. Likewise in the story of the fig tree, the Lord "abruptly" interjects the
same thought that when one is praying, he should forgive any trespass made against him so
that God can forgive him. Again, the Divine forgiveness appears to be contingent upon our
human forgiveness.
Murray tells us that just as the ability to pray is a reflection of our love for people, so our daily
life is the reflection of our prayer life. Where one or the other is weak, they both are weak.
[They are the two great wings that bear up our life in soaring with the Father. An Eagle with a
broken wing cannot fly. Where our love life is broken whether with God or man, we likewise
cannot fly.]
We have quoted James 4:3 earlier for the proposition that when our prayers aren't answered it
is because we "pray amiss." Well, we "pray amiss" when we approach God with intention to ask
for forgiveness and have not forgiven our brother. Arguably, one could take this even further.
There is a positive side of this as well as the negative. If we don't affirmatively love our
neighbor, we commit a trespass against him. It is not only in the refraining from doing evil, but
love requires the affirmative action of doing good.
To further extend the "Eagle's wings analogy," one could say that the love of God and the love
of man are each a wing that is required to allow us to fly. Jesus, when asked which the greatest
commandment was, quoted the Shema. He said that we must love God and love man. But, if we
do this, all the other things of life fall into place. [This echoes what has become one of my
hoped for watchwords, Matthew 6:33, “But seek ye first His kingdom and His righteousness,
and all these things shall be added unto you.
Leigh Hunt's poem, Abou Ben Adhem illustrates the relationship artistically.
Abou Ben Adhem (May his tribe increase!)
Awoke one night from a deep dream of peace,
And saw, within the moonlight in his room,
Making it rich, and like a lily in bloom,
An angel writing in a book of gold:—
Exceeding peace had made Ben Adhem bold,
And to the presence in the room he said,
"What writest thou?"—The vision raised its head,
And with a look made of all sweet accord,
Answered, "The names of those who love the Lord."

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"And is mine one?" said Abou. "Nay, not so,"
Replied the angel. Abou spoke more low,
But cheerly still; and said, "I pray thee, then,
Write me as one that loves his fellow men."
The angel wrote, and vanished. The next night
It came again with a great wakening light,
And showed the names whom love of God had blest,
And lo! Ben Adhem's name led all the rest.
The Apostle James would say to us voicing the Father, "Don't tell me you love me, show me."
James 2:14, et seq. The "works' of which James speaks are pure demonstrations of love for
fellow man.
Lastly, Jesus tells of this two-winged love in the extended passage of the separation of the
sheep and goat. He tells His listeners that it is it not enough to "love" God (if one actually can
love God without brotherly love, rather "Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto
you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me." Matthew 25:45.
Lesson15. The Power of UnitedPrayer
“Again I say to you, that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall
be done for them by My Father who is in heaven." Matthew 18:19-20.
Jesus spent His first lessons teaching the disciples how to pray alone as this is the first place
from which we must start. Now, the Lord introduces the concept of united or "synergistic
prayer." This builds upon the basis of the previous lesson in that the concept of our relationship
to man being a part of our relationship to God is seen.
There are several elements of united prayer. There must be more than one; they must meet in
Jesus' name, they must truly agree on the object; and the prayer must be in spirit and in truth.
Where these coalesce, "It shall be done for them of My Father," said the Lord.
Murray gives a number of Pauline examples where the great Apostle seeks for and revels in the
united prayer of his fellow laborers throughout the Roman world. It is quite clear that Paul
expected that such prayer would take place and that God would answer because of it.
Murray points in his 19th Century writing that it had become a sad thing that there were so
many prayer meetings but so little prayer. May I submit, that the trend has not reversed?
United prayer today is too many times standard, uniform, perfunctory, rote, unimaginative and
weak a dishwater just by the results.

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We can and should do better. We all know based upon God's Word that if we got together and
started to pray for His mighty will to be done, we would see miraculous things. It is to our
shame that we cannot say that we truly value these things. Such prayer takes time. Time is the
thing with which we are most miserly toward our all-loving, all-giving Father. May God help us
to do better!
Lesson16. The Power of Persevering Prayer.
Now He was telling them a parable to show that at all times they ought to pray and not to lose
heart, 2 saying, “In a certain city there was a judge who did not fear God and did not respect
man. 3 There was a widow in that city, and she kept coming to him, saying, ‘Give me legal
protection from my opponent.’ 4 For a while he was unwilling; but afterward he said to himself,
‘Even though I do not fear God nor respect man, 5 yet because this widow bothers me, I will give
her legal protection, otherwise by continually coming she will wear me out.’” 6 And the Lord
said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge *said; 7 now, will not God bring about justice for His
elect who cry to Him day and night, and will He delay long over them? 8 I tell you that He will
bring about justice for them quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith
on the earth?” Luke 18:1-8.
It seems odd that though the Father wants to give to us in prayer that we should need to
persevere in our prayer. Assuming that we do pray for an extended time about a thing, there
comes a time in most of our lives, sooner or later, even the most faithful, that we just give up
prayer about an object. Murray says that we can cover this giving up with many pious words
about "yielding to God's will" & etc., but frequently it's just plain spiritual laziness.
Murray suggests a cure. We should keep on praying in "quiet patience" and joyful confidence.
The instant passage gives us two characteristics of the Father that will help us. He, Himself is
long suffering (patient) and he will avenge our enemy. If we look at the matter logically, we
must question that if God is able to the thing, it is within His will and plan, He is more than
anxious to actually do it, why then does He make us wait?
One reason is that the blessing must "ripen." In other words, the surrounding conditions about
which we are totally unaware must align. Murray uses the metaphor of the crop in the field
needing time to be ready for harvest. So must our blessing frequently needs time to harvest.
One difference between our blessing and the crop is that while the outcome of the crop is
always in doubt, given bad weather or pests, the harvest of our blessing is never in doubt. Once
the conditions on our part have been completely fulfilled, it is done in Heaven. All that remains
is the earthly ripening.
The second reason is that we need time to ripen. God wants to give us the blessing, but more
so, He wants to develop us into the men and women of faith He has set out. We could consider
the persistence of prayer as a time of learning in school. While in school we learn many facts

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that are helpful to us, perhaps the most valuable thing we learn is maturity and persistence.
These only come with time spent in working toward it. And, how sweet is the sound of Pomp
and Circumstance played as we march up the aisle wearing our gown and mortar board to
receive our diploma. How we look back over that time again and again remembering the times
spent.
The great temptation is to pick the fruit before it is ripe. If we do that, we may have the fruit,
but it may be hard and bitter. Further and more importantly, we will have deprived ourselves of
the fellowship with our Heavenly Father required to wait for the blessing. The Apostle Paul tells
us in Galatians 6:9, "Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do
not grow weary." [I would add that the most valuable blessing is not the thing prayed for, but
the time spent with the Father seeking it.]
Barclay says in the Daily Bible Study Series, Commentary on Luke that the story Jesus told of the
unjust judge happened frequently in His time is Palestine. Under Roman control, the people
were judged in the law courts frequently not by Jewish judges but by outsiders hired by the
Romans. These judges, unlike the historical judges of Israel, were notoriously subject to bribery
and influence. Barclay observes that Jesus is not comparing the Father to one of these judges,
rather He is contrasting Him. "If an unjust judge will give what you ask, how much more will
your Heavenly Father give you?"
Barclay's final point, however is a bit at variance with that of Murray. While Murray stresses the
certainty of the gift, Barclay observes that all our prayer and perhaps especially persistent pray
should end with Jesus' closing in Gethsemane, "never the less, not my will but Thine be done."
Murray adds a note. The necessity for persevering prayer would seem to be at variance with
the kind of faith that believes that it has what it needs. See Mark 11:24. He observes that one of
the great divine mysteries is the contrast between the sudden and complete fulfillment and the
slow, imperfect appropriation. “Here,” he says, “persevering prayer appears to be in the school
in which the soul is strengthened.” Since the Holy Spirit operates differently in different people,
some people’s faith is built up by the slow, persistent, and methodical operation of the Spirit
upon the person’s spirit while others are strengthened in their faith by a different method. That
method involves the “triumphant thanksgiving” of the gift soon.
All is within God’s sovereignty and His complete insight into that which each of us as an
individual needs to grow faith. [In modern terms, there are some people of OCD spirit while
there are others of an ADHD spiritual nature. Neither is right or wrong, just different.]
Lesson17 Prayer inHarmony with God.
So they removed the stone. Then Jesus raised His eyes, and said, “Father, I thank You that You
have heard Me. 42 I knew that You always hear Me; but because of the people standing around I
said it, so that they may believe that You sent Me. John 11:41-42.

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“I will surely tell of the decree of the LORD: He said to Me, ‘You are My Son,
Today I have begotten You. 8 ‘Ask of Me, and I will surely give the nations as Your inheritance,
And the very ends of the earth as Your possession. Psalm2:7-8.
There is a difference between faith and knowledge, though both are gifts of the Spirit. 1
Corinthians 12:8-9. Like a little child or a new Christian, there may be much faith but little
knowledge. Child-like faith accepts easily without much need of reason. In its way, this is a good
thing. Jesus said that those who would come to Him must do so with such child-like faith. "But
Jesus called for them, saying, “[Suffer] Permit the children to come to Me, and do not hinder
them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these." Luke 18:16, Mark 10:14.
The little child worships out of emotion but the mature person combines with emotion -
reason. God desires that we worship Him in emotion and in reason. We can only grow in our
faith and ability to worship using our mind and reason as we gain knowledge. Both have their
place. The emotional faith is a quick-burning ember that lights fast, but it can only be sustained
by the slower developing spirit that grows so over time and through experience into greater
knowledge and ultimately into wisdom.
[An army functions on this dualistic principle. The army needs the quick-hearted strength of the
emotional 18 year old private to rush headlong into the enemy's guns, yet it also needs the
time-seasoned knowledge of the senior officers, the battle planners. Without either, the battle
will be lost. With both, the battle can be won.]
Prayer is a perfect picture of the harmony of these two principles, child-like faith and reasoned
knowledge. The more we learn to work out with the Father answers to our questions, the more
we learn Him. True, we learn about Him, but in the process of spending time with Him, we learn
Him. As our knowledge of Him grows, our spiritual wisdom grows.
[It is interesting and perhaps unique to our Heavenly Father that both through novice
emotional worship and time seasoned knowledge, we learn the greatness of the Father. In the
former, we realize that we are so out of our depth that we can do nothing but bow our head
and worship. Paradoxically, in the latter, the more we learn of God, the more we likewise
realize that we never knew just how out of our depth we really were - leading to the same
result - bowing out head in awestruck worship.
One of the difficulties of prayer is the nature of God. God is completely sovereign. He cannot be
influenced by anything outside Himself. Yet, our prayer does seems to make this happen.
Murray asks a series of questions about this paradox. Isn't God's promise of an answer to our
prayer a mere "condescension" to our human weakness? If this is so, do we "influence" God?
Or is it better put that prayer is the bending of our will to His? Is the real blessing the thing we
obtain or our becoming more like Him by taking part in the process?

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Murray points out that this series of questions takes us back to the nature [and necessity] of
the Holy Trinity. If God were unitary as our Muslim brothers assert, He could never know
relationship thus, we could never have relationship with Him. We would always be mere
subjects of the Great King of the Universe. But since God is triune by nature, He knows perfectly
what relationship is as the Father, Son and Holy Spirit fellowship with each other. Murray tells
us that this opens the way for our relationship with this Trinity and our prayer to Him.
Murray observes that on Earth just as in Heaven, the Father-Son relationship is one of giving
and taking, asking and answering.
If the taking is to just as self-determined and voluntary as the giving, the son must ask and
receive." See Psalm2:7-8. "The Father gave the Son the place and the power to influence Him. .
. The Father had determined that He would not be alone in His counsels. Their fulfillment would
depend on the Son's asking and receiving. Thus asking was in the very being and life of God.
Prayer on Earth was to be the reflection and outflow of this.
Jesus' Earthly prayers were merely a continuation of this relationship. Murray continues.
God's decrees are not made without reference to the Son, [either] His petition or a petition
sent up through Him. . . As the representative of all creation, He always has a voice in the
Father's decisions. In the decrees of the eternal purpose, room was always left for the liberty of
the Son and Mediator and Intercessor.
If this seems at variance with the sovereign and unchanging nature of God, remember that
"God doesn't leave a past as man does, to which He is irrevocably bound." Since God is not
bound by time - as we know God simply "IS," there is no disharmony between God's
unchanging nature and His ability to do what He wills as influenced by the Son's prayers and
those of us who come to the Father in the Son's name, He being our entree into Heaven. Thus,
the prayers of God's people really do have an influence on God. Murray holds that God's will is
unchanging yet it is influenced by our prayers in Jesus' Name and is not, in Murray's words, "an
iron framework."
[Perhaps, the points of this admittedly difficult theological exercise are as follows.
 Prayer is only possible because God is a relational being made up of three parts.
 Because of this relationship found in Heaven since eternity past, asking for and
answering, and giving and receiving have always taken place.
 God purposed that the Heavenly relationship should be mirrored in the Earthly
relationship.
 Since God, the Son has been given [but always had?] access to God the Father to make
requests, the will of God the Father is subject to the granting of those requests.
 Since God the Son, Jesus, is our mediator and advocate before God the Father, our
prayers so offered are listened to and may affect God the Father.
 Never the less, God's will, like His nature, is unchanging.

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Thus it can be said that the notion that whether by the mechanism that Murray proposes, or by
some other, the prayers we offer are not in vain and can be granted by God the Father without
any change whatsoever to His Will or nature.]
[May I submit that Murray's statement above is an example of what J.I. Packer labels as an
"antinomy-" two dipolar opposite conclusions of the same event, both being equally true and
rational? This is a statement with which I must study more to understand.]
[The following is additional information compiled by the Editor]
Pastor Ray Stedman in Authentic Christianity (1968) reaches the same outcome as Murray, IE,
God actually does hear and answer prayer, but Stedman arrives at it by a different means. He
takes as his text Genesis 18, the story of the Angels visiting Abraham and informing him that
God was about to empty the Earth of the trash of Sodom and Gomorrah. In the story, after
being so informed, Abraham begins to bargain with the Angels or with God, Himself, concerning
saving the cities if a certain number of righteous people could be found. God is seen as agreeing
with Abraham's bargaining and the Angels go off to the cities to find, like the U.S. Marines, a
"few good men."
Stedman makes a startling suggestion. Prayer is never initiated by man but rather by God. In
the story of Genesis 18, it is God who first says what He is going to do. Abraham then begins to
pray, appearing to change God's mind.
Stedman observes the following.
Prayer never begins with man; it begins with God! True prayer is never a man's plans which he
brings to God for him to bless. God is always the one who proposes. Prayer enters in when God
then enlists the partnership of man in carrying out his program. In other words, unless we base
our prayers on a promise, or a warning, or a conviction of God's will, we have no right to pray.
We have already clearly established that it is the "prayer of faith," not just the prayer [of
presumption,] that will be answered. Stedman distinguishes between the two.
The difference is simply this: The prayer of faith is acting on a previous knowledge of what God
wants. It is always founded upon a promise. It begins with a proposal which God makes, or a
conviction he gives, or a warning he utters. On the other hand, the prayer of presumption is
discovering something we would like to do, and then asking God to bless it. That kind of thing is
doomed at the outset.
In the Abraham story, God lets Abraham know what He is proposing because Abraham is a man
of favored position with God. We know that Abraham was called the "Friend of God." James
2:23. Stedman suggests a direct parallel between the position of Abraham and the position of
us New Testament Christians.

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Every believer in Jesus Christ stands in exactly the same relationship with God. We have been
given, by grace (not on our own merits), a favored position before God. We have been called
into the family of God and made sons of the living God by faith in Jesus Christ. Furthermore, we
are being taught by grace how to walk righteously before him, and, as we learn that lesson, we
become the people to whom God tells his secrets.
The story sounds like Abraham has "backed God into a corner." When the Angels left for
Sodom, Abraham began to pray. His prayer was heard. The final number of "good men" agreed
upon was ten. Interestingly, ten is the Hebrew number for divine law as in the Ten
Commandments. Why didn't Abraham bargain on down from Ten? The answer is that God
ended the discussion there. Just as a soldier never walks out on his superior officer until
dismissed, man never walks out on God unbidden.
Stedman's point then is that Abraham never changed God's mind. God had always purposed to
leave the number at ten and he allowed Abraham to enjoy His divine presence until the
outcome was reached and then God said, "Enough." "And the Lord went his way, when he had
finished speaking to Abraham; and Abraham returned to his place." Genesis 18:33.
How does this, then apply to New Testament Christians? Stedman observes the following.
This agrees fully with what we read in the New Testament about prayer. In Romans Paul says,
"For we do not know how to pray as we ought," (Romans 8:26b RSV). Do you know what to
pray for about yourself or about anyone else? No, you do not. But, he says, "The Holy Spirit
himself intercedes for us with groanings which we cannot express, but which are nevertheless
there in the heart." (Romans 8:26c-27). True prayer, therefore, is never man talking to God,
but God talking to God through man. It is God who is causing Abraham to feel his own
compassion and to reflect his own desire for an opportunity to show mercy. This is the reason
for prayer. (Emphasis added.)
How is prayer in Harmony with God? Stedman offers the following.
 Prayer makes possible, first of all, the joy of partnership.
 Prayer also enables us to appropriate the character of God.
 Prayer focuses the power of God on an individual place or person. [Stedman admits that
he does not fully understand this.
In closing his piece, Stedman gives us a summary and concluding statement.
The last principle here is that prayer affects the timing of God. Now this is a mysterious
thing, but I am sure it is true. Certainly prayer does not change, nor alter, the will or
purpose of God. Prayer is not a way to make God change his mind. When he announces
something, he will do it. When he declares he will move in a certain direction, he always

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moves in that direction and no amount of prayer will ever change it. However, prayer
can defer judgment, and prayer can also speed up blessing. It affects the timing.
Have you ever noticed that time is one ingredient that God reserves for his own control?
He tells us plainly, "It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has fixed
by his own authority," (Acts 1:7 RSV). [Examples of God's control of the timing follow.
See Jonah 3:4 and Isaiah 38:1, and 5.]
I, your Editor, might observe on the issue of timing that just as Stedman says, prayer does not
change God's will, but it can affect His timing. The reason for this may be that time is purely a
created concept needed for the finite minds of we mortals. God, Himself knows no time.
Remember, we said "God IS."
May I add hereto the words of the venerable J. I. Packer upon the subject? A caveat, I believe
that Dr. Packer is speaking of "believing prayer" and not some lesser prayer which deserves no
answer at all. Addressing the question of whether God's answer to prayer is ever "no," Packer
states the following in Knowing Christianity.
While God has not bound himself to hear unbelievers’ prayers, his promises to answer
the [believing] prayers of his own children are categorical and inclusive. It must then be
wrong to think that a flat "no" is ever the whole of his response to reverent petitions
from Christians who seek his glory and others’ welfare.
The truth must be this: God always acts positively when a believer lays a situation of
need before him, but he does not always act in the way or at the speed asked for. In
meeting the need, he does what he knows to be best when he knows it is best to do it.
The parable of the unjust judge shows that God’s word to his elect concerning the
vindication for which they plead is “wait” (Lk 18:1-8), and he may say “wait” to other
petitions as well. Christ’s word to Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is
made perfect in weakness,” when Paul had sought healing for his thorn in the flesh (2
Cor 12:7-9), meant no, but not simply no. Though it was not what Paul had expected, it
was a promise of something better than the healing he had sought.
We too may ask God to change situations and find that what he does instead is to give
us strength to bear them unchanged. But this is not a simple no; it is a very positive
answer to our prayer.
I remember a scene from my childhood. As my eleventh birthday approached I let my
parents know by broad hints that I wanted a full-size bicycle. They thought it was too
soon for that and therefore gave me a typewriter, which was in fact the best present
and became the most treasured possession of my boyhood. Was not that good
parenthood and a very positive answer to my request for a bicycle? God too allows
himself to improve on our requests when what we ask for is not the best.

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Lesson18. Prayer inHarmony with the Destiny of Man
And He *said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” Matthew 22:20.
Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them
rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all
the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” Genesis 1:26.
Man was created in in the image of God, [As Pastor Alan likes to say, "In Imagio Deo."] We bear
His likeness and imprint. God created man to act as His representative on Earth to "subdue and
rule over" it. Genesis 1:28. The make history was man's destiny, clearly given to him by God.
We know that sin entered in and man got himself off track. Through Abraham, God chose a
people through whom ultimately, man would be returned to his destiny. Abraham, among
other things, was a great man of prayer. Murray offers that nowhere is it found the Abraham
prayed for himself, always for others, whether it be Lot and his family or the citizens of Sodom
and Gomorrah. Through his prayers, Murray states that God gave Abraham the power to
control the history around him.
The power to control history is quite an undertaking for such sinful creatures as man. Yet, God
created man, as we said earlier, in imagio Deo. There is a connection between God and man
that enables man to have an inner fitness to rule the world by being the mediator between not
God and man, that is Jesus' place, but between God and the Earth.
Although sin "frustrated" God's plan, prayer remains what it was always intended to be, the
vehicle for executing the making of history. Murray tells us that those who truly abide in Christ
have the power to obtain and dispense the powers of Heaven on Earth.
We believers are commanded to fulfill the destiny of man by the exercise of the vehicle God has
given, prayer. Proper utilization, then of prayer brings about the destiny of man and history
bows before it.