What "In Jesus' Name" Actually Means

Not a password we add at the end . . . it is the ground we have been standing on the whole time.

---

A note on the Scripture in this study: every verse is printed WHOLE. The words set in ordinary type are the ones this lesson leans on and emphasizes . . . the words in italics are the rest of the verse, printed so that nothing is ever handed to you as a fragment with the remainder missing.

Nearly every prayer any of us has ever prayed out loud ended the same way. In Jesus' name, amen.

And I would guess that most of us have never really stopped to ask what this actually means... It has become the way we signal that we are finished – sort of like hanging up the phone.

But the Lord did not give us those words as a sign-off… He gave them as the whole ground of the asking . . . and if a man gets this one right – then it will CHANGE the way he comes to God for the rest of his life.

WHERE THE PROMISE COMES FROM

He said it in the upper room – the night before He died – and He said it more than once:

John 14:13 — “And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.”

John 14:14 — “If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it.”

John 16:23 — “And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you.”

John 16:24 — “Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.”

Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name. Understand what He is telling them . . . those men had been praying their WHOLE lives – they were Jews – they knew the psalms – they prayed at set hours and had ever since they were old enough to know what prayer was… And Jesus says – up to right now – you have never asked anything IN MY NAME...

So – something new was about to open up... Something was about to open up – that was not available to Moses or David or any prophet who ever lived . . . and it opened AT THE CROSS...

FIRST — WHAT IT IS NOT

Let us clear the road – because there is a bad use of this concept – that has hurt a lot of people.

Praying in Jesus’ name – is not “a formula”. Those words are not a code that unlocks the vault . . . if they were – then the promise would be running on the words themselves – and a man could get anything he wanted by remembering to say the magic at the end . . . nobody who has prayed for ten years believes that . . . because we have all said the words over things we did not get.

And it is not a blank check. Whatsoever ye shall ask does SOUND like a blank check – right up until you read the rest of the sentence that He put it in – and we are going to do exactly that when we get to Part Seven . . . because that is going to be the whole subject in that part…

And notice – what we see in John 14:13 – He tells us what the asking IS FOR – that the Father may be glorified in the Son… That is not a blank check . . . that is a check with a purpose written on the memo line.

SECOND — WHAT A NAME MEANT

In the Bible – a name is not a label . . . a name is the man – it referred to his character – his authority – everything he is – and everything he is good for.

So – to arrive ‘in a man's name’ – is to come to that place with HIS standing instead of your own . . . a deputy comes in the name of the county . . . a boy sent to the store in his daddy's name – can charge it to his daddy's account – and the store is not looking at the boy at all… The store is looking at whose name is on the account.

And that is exactly what we are talking about… The name signed on the check decides ‘which account’ it draws on.

Now think about what that means when we pray… I am not asking God to look at me and decide whether I have been good enough this week… I am asking on another Man's account . . . and that account has never been overdrawn… Not I my own name -but in Jesus’ name I pray…

✍️ AUTHOR'S NOTE

This concept is actually an EYE OPENER… The idea is that if we sign a check for everything we buy – it is not going to be very long – before we run out of money and have to start doing without until we work for some more… but if a rich man signs the check – we will never run out of money – we will never have to do without… The idea here about prayer – is that when we get past the mistaken notion – that our prayers depend upon US – and finally realize that God is the rich man signing the check – it is then that we can stop trying to work and earn more ‘prayer credits’ – and simply depend upon Jesus… — C.T.

THIRD — THIS IS WHY WE CAN COME AT ALL

Now put it together with what the writer of Hebrews says – because he is talking about the same thing from the other side.

Hebrews 4:14 — “Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession.”

Hebrews 4:15 — “For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.”

Hebrews 4:16 — “Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.”

Let us therefore come boldly. Therefore – on account of the High Priest just named . . . the boldness is not ours and it never was . . . it is borrowed, and it is borrowed from Him.

And He is not a High Priest who cannot understand... BUT He was tempted in all points like we are… He knows what it is to be tired . . . He knows what is like to be hungry… He knows what is like to be lied about… He knows what it is like to have His friends go to sleep on Him – the one night He needed them to stay awake.

Now here is the part that ought to steady a man when he does not feel like praying:

Hebrews 7:25 — “Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.”

Romans 8:34 — “Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.”

He ever liveth to make intercession. Right now, while you are reading this, He is praying . . . that is what He is doing . . . and when we pray in His name – we are not starting something up – we are joining something that has been going on without a break since He sat down.

And Paul settles the traffic pattern in one verse:

1 Timothy 2:5 — “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;”

There is ONE. Not one among several . . . BUT one mediator – and this ONE MEDIATOR has a name – and that is the name in which we come to God in prayer...

📖 FROM THE PULPIT

I am sorry sir – I can’t let you in the room – only family can visit… but I am his pastor – and I am allowed to enter – not because I am a good person – but because of who I represent… As an Engineer – I worked at many factories – and I always had a badge which allowed me to get into the plant… When I walked up to the gate – it was not my education that allowed me to enter – it was the badge…

Likewise – when I offer a prayer to God – He does not hear that prayer because of how good I am – or because of how long I have been saved – or because I am a preacher – the only reason He hears it – is because of whose name it is attached to…

In the name of Jesus – says that I am depending upon a Man who raised HIMSELF from the dead – literally the sinless Son of God – who took my place in death… We pray in the name of a Man – who died over 2000 years ago – but that same Man claimed victory over death – and those who believe IN HIM – will one day experience that same victory over death… — C.T.

SO WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO PRAY IN HIS NAME?

Three things . . . and not one of them has to do with the last four words we say before amen.

One . . . it means I am not asking God to look at ME.

He is not going back over my week to see whether I did good enough to deserve an answer… If that were the deal – not a single one of us would ever get a thing... I am asking on somebody else's good name . . . and His name has never one time been turned down.

Two . . . it means I have to ask for the kind of thing HE would ask for.

Suppose a mother sends her son to the store and tells him – you tell the man at the store that your mother sent you for a loaf of bread... And when the boy gets to the store – he asks for a candy bar instead of a loaf of bread . . . and says that his mother has sent him.

Now he DID use her name . . . but he did not use it for what she sent him after... That is not asking in his mother's name – that is using his mother's name to get what HE wanted.

Three . . . it means I quit trying to get in some other way.

There is one door, and Jesus said so Himself:

John 10:9 — “I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.”

A man does not need a second door – when the first one is standing wide open.

Simple truth: In Jesus' name is not how a prayer ends . . . it is WHY a prayer gets heard to begin with...

NOW LET ME GUARD THIS

I am not saying that we should quit saying the words . . . we SHOULD say them… They are a good thing to say out loud every time – and they remind us who we are counting on.

What I am saying is this – do not lean on the saying of them.

Think about it this way. Two men pray.

The first man never says the words at the end . . . but the whole time he is praying – he knows ‘good and well’ that he has no business being there at all – except that Jesus died for him.

The second man says the words just right . . . but down underneath – he is really figuring that God ought to hear him – because he has been pretty good lately.

The first man prayed in Jesus' name. The second man did not . . . and saying the words did not make it so.

The name – is not a stamp that we put on the bottom of the letter . . . it is the ground we were standing on the whole time we were talking.

BEFORE YOU LEAVE

Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name . . . that door had never been open before, and it cost Him His life to open it.

So - when you arrive tonight in prayer – at God’s throne of grace… come boldly – not because of anything about you – but because there is a Man at the right hand of God who ever liveth to make intercession – and He told you to use His name.

The mail is in the box, the rope is on the rock, and the name on the account is His.

TRY IT THIS WEEK

Say “in the name of Jesus” at the front of our prayer this week instead of the end...

Start our prayer with it – Father, I am coming to you in the name of Jesus Christ – and then ask _____. . . see if putting Jesus’ name first might change what we find ourselves asking for.

And when we ask for something, hold it up beside that name for a second and see whether it fits . . . that is not a test to make us scared to ask . . . it is the very question which Part Seven that comes next is built on.

---

NEXT — Part Seven: Asking According to His Will. He said ask what ye will. John said if we ask according to his will . . . those two verses have troubled more praying people than any other pair in the Bible . . . and they belong together.

Lord, Teach Us to Pray

They watched Him pray and asked for lessons . . . so the pattern He gave them is where a praying life starts.

---

A note on the Scripture in this study: every verse is printed WHOLE. The words set in ordinary type are the ones this lesson leans on and emphasizes . . . the words in italics are the rest of the verse, printed so that nothing is ever handed to you as a fragment with the remainder missing.

Of all the things those men COULD have asked Him for – look at what they DID ask for.

They had watched Him still a storm... They had watched Him feed five thousand men out of a boy's lunch… They had watched Him open blind eyes – and raise the dead . . . and not ONE TIME does the record say – they asked Him to teach them to preach – or to teach them to heal – or to teach them how to do ANY of these things.

Luke 11:1 — “And it came to pass, that, as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased (when the prayer ended) one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.”

Lord, TEACH US to pray. They asked for the one thing they had seen Him do more than anything else . . . and the one thing they knew they could not do.

And notice when they asked it. As he was praying – when he ceased… They waited for Him to finish – and then they asked . . . something about watching that Man pray made every one of them KNOW that they had never “really” done it.

So He taught them . . . and what He gave them is the most familiar passage in the Bible as well as one of the passages that is the least used of all…

FIRST — WHAT HE SAID NOT TO DO

Before He gives THE PATTERN – He clears two things out of the road.

Matthew 6:5 — “And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.”

They have their reward. That is a terrible sentence when you think about it… They wanted to be heard by men – and they WERE – which means that they got exactly what they were after – and that was ONLY thing they did get.

Matthew 6:7 — “But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.”

Prayer is NOT about much speaking – it is NOT about performing… So He has ruled out praying to be admired – and He has ruled out praying by the gallon (long prayers) – and between those two – He has cut out most of what passes for public praying.

And THEN He says something that ought to stop the question before we ever ask it…

Matthew 6:8 — “Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.”

He knows before we ask . . . so the asking was never about informing God . . . and we already settled in Part Two what it IS about… He appointed it (prayer is by God’s design)...

A PATTERN, NOT A SCRIPT

Now He says, after this manner therefore pray ye. After this manner . . . not in these words – but in this shape.

There is a difference between a recipe and a photograph of a cake . . . a photograph shows you one cake . . . a recipe lets you make a thousand of them – and none of them have to LOOK the same.

When Jesus showed them the MODEL prayer – He handed them a recipe… And I am not against saying the words – I have said them and I will say them again – but a man who only ever says the words – has framed the photograph – and has never turned on the oven.

WALKING IT THROUGH

Our Father which art in heaven

Matthew 6:9 — “After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.”

We find two things in four words – and they pull in opposite directions on purpose.

Father – refers to nearness . . . like a child walking into a room without knocking... Which art in heaven – refers to 1) distance and 2) majesty – and the fact that He is not one of us.

Get either one WITHOUT the other and our prayers go wrong… One way would be “All Father and no heaven”- which would mean we get too familiar and start treating God like a friend we can kid around with . . . “all heaven and no Father” – would mean that we get formal – and cold – and quit coming to God in prayer at all.

And then we see hallowed be thy name – which is the first request in the prayer – and it is not a request about us at all... Before a single word is said about bread or debts or anything we need – the first thing asked for – is that His NAME be held holy.

This order is not an accident . . . but most of OUR praying starts with the GIVE US bread…

Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done

Matthew 6:10 — “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.”

This is STILL not about us… This is the second request – and this request is that God's rule and God's will would run down here – the same way that it ALREADY runs up there.

And as it is in heaven is “the standard” ... In heaven – nothing argues . . . there is no delay – no negotiating – no half-obedience . . . that is what we are asking for down here – starting – I would think – in the man who was doing the praying.

Part Seven of this series – is going to take up that phrase all by itself – because thy will be done is the most misunderstood sentence in this prayer . . . most people think it is what you say – when you have given up – but it turns out – that this is the exact opposite of what it really means...

Give us this day our daily bread

Matthew 6:11 — “Give us this day our daily bread.”

Now finally – we get to a request that is about US – And look at how SMALL the request is.

Not give us this year's bread . . . not give us a barn full... BUT This day . . . daily . . . and it is bread – not cake… He taught us to ask for enough – today.

That is manna… God fed a nation for forty years and never ONCE let them stock up for later – gather today – and come back tomorrow… God was not being stingy – He was keeping them coming.

And notice it is our and us – not my and me… Every pronoun in this prayer is plural . . . there is not a single I in it… A man cannot pray this prayer honestly – and stay wrapped up in HIMSELF...

And forgive us our debts

Matthew 6:12 — “And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.”

Bread – and then pardon… Body – and then soul . . . and the Lord hangs a hard little hinge on it – as we forgive our debtors – and then – out of the whole prayer – that is the one line that He goes back and explains:

Matthew 6:14 — “For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you:”

Matthew 6:15 — “But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”

He did not go back and explain the bread – BUT He did go back and explain this… Which tells me – it is the piece He knew we would try to skip.

And this is not about a man losing his salvation . . . this is about a man's line to God – the same kinked hose we looked at in Part One – and the one we will see later in Part Eight – that is taken up whole . . . and how a man who is carrying a grudge is trying to draw on a mercy he will not pass along.

And lead us not into temptation

Matthew 6:13 — “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.”

Forgiveness looks backward . . . BUT this one looks forward – it is saying – Clean up what I have done – and then keep me out of the next one.

And it ends where it started – thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory. The model prayer - OPENED with His name – CLOSES with His glory… and our needs are in the middle right where they belong.

✍️ AUTHOR'S NOTE

When I compare my personal life with the pattern shown to us in this prayer – the one spot that has cost me the most – is the part about “But if ye forgive not men their trespasses (then) neither will your Father forgive (you of) your trespasses”… This is the part that I have struggled with the most… The greatest sin in my life has ALWAYS been pride – as I viewed myself just a little higher than those around me – and for years – my attitude toward those who had wronged me – was that I would put their name in a “ledger” – I would turn the page – but I refused to tear the page out… I would forgive – but I would not forget… I would be ready to find that old page that contained their debt – and open the ledger up to it again… and then I realized what forgiveness really meant – and I did not want God to keep a ledger on MY sins against Him – so that meant I could not keep a ledger on others sins against me… — C.T.

WHAT THE SHAPE ITSELF TEACHES

Stand back and look at the whole thing at once.

This model prayer is about sixty words . . . a man can say it in only twenty seconds or so . . . and in that little space of time – the Lord put His name – His kingdom – His will – our food – our sin and our safety – in that order – every time.

Now I want us to compare that to the way that MOST OF US actually pray – which is TYPICALLY... here is what I need – here is what I want – amen . . . if our praying were laid beside His pattern – the shape of our prayer would not match the shape of His prayer . . . not because we asked for wrong things – but because we started in the WRONG PLACE and never got around to the first half.

And that is the value of a pattern . . . it does not tell a man what to say . . . it shows him what he has been leaving out.

📖 FROM THE PULPIT

When I showed Haley and Sarah HOW TO DRIVE – I showed them a pattern to follow – when you stop at an intersection – always look both ways before pulling out – when you pass a slow poke – look over your shoulder because someone may already be passing you both… I taught THE PATTERN – which means that when they drove – they did not follow the exact same road that I used to teach them… they chose a different road – a different direction – a different time… but they followed the same pattern that I had taught them… They used the pattern I taught them to build a safe driving habit… likewise we can use the same pattern that Jesus taught us – to build a safe and effective praying habit… — C.T.

BEFORE YOU LEAVE

The disciples asked for lessons on how to pray – and Jesus did not hand them a speech to memorize – but Jesus handed them a shape to build in.

And there is not one hard word in it – No person in this church has to be taught what bread is – what a debt is…, or what a father is… In this model prayer – Jesus gave the DEEPEST thing in the Christian life – in words simple enough for a child carry.

Lord, teach us to pray. That is still the right prayer – and the answer to it is STILL sitting in Matthew 6.

TRY IT THIS WEEK

Do not say the prayer this week. Build with it.

Take the six pieces in order and pray your own words into each one – 1) His name. 2) His kingdom and 3) His will. 4) Today's bread. 5) Today's sin – and 6) anybody you are holding something against . . . and keep me out of it tomorrow.

Do that once a day for a week, and you will find out which piece you have been skipping.

---

NEXT — Part Six: What "In Jesus' Name" Actually Means. Most of us end every prayer with those words. They are not a password we tack on at the end . . . and understanding them changes everything about how a man comes.

When the Answer Is No

The hardest question in this whole study . . . and the Bible does not flinch from it.

---

A note on the Scripture in this study: every verse is printed WHOLE. The words set in ordinary type are the ones this lesson leans on and emphasizes . . . the words in italics are the rest of the verse, printed so that nothing is ever handed to you as a fragment with the remainder missing.

I made a promise about this one from the pulpit back in September, and I have been turning it over ever since . . . because this IS NOT a study question . . . somebody reading this has a chair in the house that nobody sits in any more.

So we are not going to be tidy about it. We are going to go get the Book and see what it says about the prayer that was prayed and prayed . . . and the answer was NO.

THE BIBLE DOES NOT FLINCH

Here is the first thing worth noticing, before we look at one verse . . . it would have been the EASIEST THING in this world for the Bible to hand us nothing but prayers that got a yes . . . and it does not do that.

It hands us four men who asked and did not get it . . . and one of them is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.

PAUL — a NO with the reason attached

2 Corinthians 12:7 — “And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure.”

Now look at one word in that verse before we go on. The thorn was GIVEN to him. Paul does not say the thorn happened to him . . . he does not say the thorn slipped past God while He was looking somewhere else . . . it was GIVEN.

2 Corinthians 12:8–9 — “For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”

Three times . . . this is a man who had raised the dead and been caught up into the third heaven, and he asked three times for one thing to be taken away . . . and God told him NO, and then God did something we ought to notice — He told him WHY.

Paul never did get the thing he asked for . . . what he got instead was God . . . and by the end of the chapter he is saying he would rather have it THIS way. Whatever that thorn was, Paul went to his grave glad about the answer.

DAVID — a NO with a grave at the end of it

This one is harder, because a child dies in it.

2 Samuel 12:16 — “David therefore besought God for the child; and David fasted, and went in, and lay all night upon the earth.”

Seven days he stayed down there on the ground . . . and on the seventh day the child died . . . and now watch the servants, because they tell us something about how a man is expected to take a NO:

2 Samuel 12:18 — “And it came to pass on the seventh day, that the child died. And the servants of David feared to tell him that the child was dead: for they said, Behold, while the child was yet alive, we spake unto him, and he would not hearken unto our voice: how will he then vex himself, if we tell him that the child is dead?”

They were AFRAID to tell him . . . they fully expected the man to come apart . . . and here is what he did instead:

2 Samuel 12:20 — “Then David arose from the earth, and washed, and anointed himself, and changed his apparel, and came into the house of the LORD, and worshipped: then he came to his own house; and when he required, they set bread before him, and he did eat.”

He got up . . . he washed his face . . . and he went to the house of the LORD and he WORSHIPPED. And when they asked him how in the world he could do that, he gave them the plainest answer in the Book:

2 Samuel 12:22–23 — “And he said, While the child was yet alive, I fasted and wept: for I said, Who can tell whether GOD will be gracious to me, that the child may live? But now he is dead, wherefore should I fast? can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me.”

Two things in there and both of them will hold a man up. One — he prayed as long as there was any hope at all, and when the answer came he did not stand there and argue with God about it. Two — “I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me.” That is not a man giving up . . . that is hope with an ADDRESS on it. David knew where that baby was, and he knew he was going there himself.

THE LORD HIMSELF — the prayer that was refused

And now the one that settles it for good.

Matthew 26:39 — “And he went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.”

“If it be possible.” It was NOT possible . . . and the cup did NOT pass. The Son of God asked His Father for something in the garden and the answer was no.

Now put this verse beside it, because it is one of the most important verses in this whole study:

Hebrews 5:7 — “Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared;”

And was HEARD. He was heard . . . and the answer was STILL no. So let nobody ever tell you again – that a prayer which did not get what it asked for – was a prayer that God did not hear.

LAZARUS — the NO that was a “not yet”

There is one more, and it is the tenderest of the four . . . two sisters send word to the Lord about their brother – and John gives us three verses in a row that ought to be read together:

John 11:3–6 — “Therefore his sisters sent unto him, saying, Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick. When Jesus heard that, he said, This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby. Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus. When he had heard therefore that he was sick, he abode two days still in the same place where he was.”

Read those in order and do not soften it. He LOVED them . . . and He WAITED. John put those two facts in the same breath on purpose – because he knew we would need them in the same breath.

And when the Lord FINALLY got there, Martha met Him with the sentence every one of us would have spoken – if we had been in Martha’s shoes…

John 11:21 — “Then said Martha unto Jesus, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died.”

He did not scold her for saying it. He did not correct her . . . and a few verses later - standing at a grave He was about to open – the Bible says the shortest and heaviest thing it ever says:

John 11:35 — “Jesus wept.”

He knew EXACTLY what He was fixing to do . . . and He cried anyway . . . so whatever else we learn about a NO; we can settle this much – it does not come from a God who is unmoved by what it costs us.

THREE THINGS A “NO” IS NOT

One — it is NOT PROOF He did not hear. Hebrews 5:7 already settled that one. He was heard, and the cup did not pass.

Two — it is NOT PUNISHMENT. Paul's thorn was given to keep him from being lifted up in pride, and not to pay him back for anything. A NO is not God settling an account with us.

Three — and hear this one carefully — it is NOT a failure of our faith . . . nobody in the history of this world has ever prayed with more faith than the Lord Jesus in that garden . . . and the answer was still no… So when somebody tells a grieving mother that her baby would have lived if she had believed a little harder – that person is handling the Book wrong – and he is laying a load on a back that is already carrying more than it can hold... Do not let anybody EVER do that to you – and do not ever do it to anybody else.

WHAT WE ARE GIVEN INSTEAD OF THE REASON

Now here is where I have to be honest with you . . . most of the time we are not told why. Paul got told – we usually DO NOT...

Deuteronomy 29:29 — “The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.”

There are TWO PILES in that verse, and we have to learn to live with the size of them – The SECRET things are His . . . & the REVEALED things are ours . . . and a great deal of what we most want to know about a NO is sitting over in His pile.

Isaiah 55:8–9 — “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

And then there is the verse everybody quotes at a funeral, and it is a good verse — but it is worth reading slowly – because most of us hear it wrong:

Romans 8:28 — “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”

It does not say that everything IS good . . . it says all things WORK TOGETHER FOR good . . . and there is a world of difference between these two.

Illustration — What Is On The Counter. Set out what goes into a cake before IT IS a cake – Raw flour – A raw egg – Baking soda – A spoon of bitter vanilla… Not one of those things is any good BY ITSELF and a couple of them will turn your stomach . . . but they are not FINISHED yet, and they are not meant to be eaten off the counter one at a time . . . they are meant to go in the oven TOGETHER – Romans 8:28 does not ask us to call the raw egg good . . . it tells us Who is doing the mixing.

FROM THE PULPIT

We could look at that prayer for good health — that prayer to never hear the word CANCER. I have been really — really sick — literally to the point of death . . . and I will tell you the honest truth. You can say what you want . . . you can say you love God . . . you can say that you depend upon God — but until you see that SINGLE set of footprints in the sands of life – realizing that Jesus did not desert you in your hour of need – but that He in fact CARRIED you in your hour of need — your relationship with Him will be less than it would be otherwise.

So is sickness a good thing? All by itself the answer is no – it is not a good thing — but then neither is a raw egg a good thing all by itself... Sickness may not be a good thing . . . but what sickness teaches us is priceless – and what sickness does to our relationship with God is not a thing that can be bought or purchased any other way… Good health every day of our life would be a fine thing to experience — but there are things that sickness taught me – about leaning on God that good health never would have.

And here is where I want us to think about ETERNITY – because this is the part most of us never consider... Paul says there are things waiting for us that we cannot even imagine…

1 Corinthians 2:9 — “But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.”

Read WHO those things are prepared for — “them that LOVE him.” Now put that beside what Paul says two chapters later about the day our work is tried by fire:

1 Corinthians 3:12–15 — “Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.”

Every one of us who is saved gets THERE — that is settled – and nothing in this life can undo it… But not every one of us gets there having built with the same material . . . one man's work stands and he receives a reward, and another man's work burns and he suffers loss . . . YES – he IS saved – but he stands there with empty hands.

That is what I mean about eternity – If we never learn to love Him — and hard things are one of the ways He teaches us TO love Him — then we will get to heaven and MISS OUT on things we could have received – Not lose our salvation – But miss a reward. There will be things prepared for them that love Him – that we simply will not have, because we NEVER let Him build that love into us down here.

So “a no” on this earth may be God trading us wood and hay for gold… To work together for our good does not mean that every step on the road of our life WILL BE GOOD.

SO WHAT DO WE DO WITH A NO?

One — keep praying while there is anything to pray about… David fasted and wept as long as that child was alive – and he was right to . . . “who can tell whether GOD will be gracious to me.” We are not told the outcome ahead of time, and we are not supposed to pray as if we KNEW the outcome…

Two — then get up and go worship . . . that is the hardest sentence in this whole part – and I am not going to pretend otherwise… But David washed his face and went to the house of the LORD . . . and the man who does that is going to “make it” – or continue to live IN FAITH – BUT the man who lies on the ground in anger or bitterness – he will be man who will not continue living in faith...

Three — quit demanding the reason. The secret things belong to Him – We can ask . . . but we cannot make the asking A CONDITION of our trust, because that is not trust at all — that is a trade.

Four — take the grace that IS being offered. God did not give Paul the thing he asked for… He gave him something – and He named it… “my grace is sufficient for thee.”

That grace is on the table for us too . . . and a man can starve to death with food right in front of him – if he refuses to eat it because it is NOT the meal he ordered.

Five — do not let it TURN to bitterness . . . this is the one I worry about the most . . . when the answer is no – we will either believe that God is good and we could not see the whole of it . . . OR we will get bitter — and bitterness will walk a man right out of the faith and take his family with him.

Job 13:15 — “Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him: but I will maintain mine own ways before him.”

BEFORE YOU LEAVE

A NO from God – is NOT a failure of prayer . . . and it is NOT the silence of a God who was not listening . . . it is an ANSWER — given by a Father who loves us – out of a wisdom that is as far above ours as the heavens are above this earth – and we are simply not able to read it yet from where we are standing.

Paul got his answer explained to him… David did not – and he worshipped anyway… Martha got hers explained four days late – at a graveside . . . and the Lord Jesus got a NO in the garden – so that we could have a YES that lasts forever.

Simple truth: God has NEVER one time told a child of His no – out of anything except love . . . and one day we will have the WHOLE of it explained – and when that time comes - there is not going to be a one of us – who would wish He had answered differently.

TRY IT THIS WEEK

If you are carrying a NO right now – do the David thing . . . and do it in this order... Wash your face – Go to the house of the LORD – Worship BEFORE you understand.

And if you are NOT carrying “a no” this week — then find somebody who is – and go sit with them . . . you do not have to explain anything to them – Job's friends did fine for seven days – right up until they opened their mouths.

---

NEXT — Part Five: Lord, Teach Us to Pray. The disciples watched Him pray every day for three years, and what they finally asked Him for was lessons. So He gave them a pattern . . . and it is not the chant most people have made of it.

Do I Change God's Mind?

The Bible says God does not repent . . . and then it also says that God repented . . . both are true, and here is how.

---

A note on the Scripture in this study: every verse is printed WHOLE. The words set in ordinary type are the ones this lesson leans on and emphasizes . . . the words in italics are the rest of the verse, printed so that nothing is ever handed to you as a fragment with the remainder missing.

Part Two said that God APPOINTED the asking . . . and the minute a man believes that, a hard question walks in right behind it.

If my asking makes a difference . . . then did I move God? Did I talk Him into something? And if I did – what kind of God is it that can be talked into things?

Now this is not a made-up problem . . . it comes straight out of the Bible, because the Bible says both of these things and does not apologize for either one.

Numbers 23:19 — “God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?”

Exodus 32:14 — “And the LORD repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people.”

God does not repent & then God did repent. Same Bible, and both of them written by Moses.

So we have got to work this out, and we are going to work it out the way we work anything out – by letting the Bible define its own word.

FIRST — THE WORD ITSELF

The word behind repented in our Old Testament is NACHAM. And it does not mean what our word repent means when we use it about ourselves.

When we say a man repented, we mean he was wrong and he turned around . . . that is not what nacham says. Nacham means to be moved deeply . . . to sigh . . . to grieve . . . and out of that (because of that), to turn from a course...

It is a word about feeling and about turning . . . it is NOT a word about being mistaken.

And that matters, because every time somebody uses Exodus 32 to argue that God got it wrong and had to be corrected, they are reading our English word back into a Hebrew word that never carried it.

SECOND — LOOK AT WHERE IT NEVER MOVES

Now let us put down the things that DO NOT CHANGE, because they are the fixed points and everything else has to fit around them.

Malachi 3:6 — “For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.”

James 1:17 — “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.”

1 Samuel 15:29 — “And also the Strength of Israel will not lie nor repent: for he is not a man, that he should repent.”

No variableness. Neither shadow of turning. God's CHARACTER does not move. His purpose does not move. His promises do not move . . . and notice the mercy hidden in Malachi – it is BECAUSE He does not change that we are not consumed. If God could change His mind about us, none of us would be safe for an hour.

THIRD — THEN WHAT DID MOVE?

So go back to Exodus 32 and read the whole thing, because the answer is sitting right there in the text and most of us have never slowed down enough to see it.

Israel is at the foot of the mountain with a golden calf. God speaks to Moses:

Exodus 32:10 — “Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them: and I will make of thee a great nation.”

Let me alone. Now stop right there . . . why would God say that? A man does not say let me alone to somebody who is not holding onto him. God is telling Moses to turn loose – which is the same as telling him that he is holding on, and that the holding on matters.

That is not the language of a mind ALREADY SHUT . . . that is an invitation, dressed up as a warning.

And Moses does not turn loose. He argues – and look at what he argues with:

Exodus 32:13 — “Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, thy servants, to whom thou swarest by thine own self, and saidst unto them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken of will I give unto your seed, and they shall inherit it for ever.”

Moses does not say the people deserve better. He knows better than that – he is the one who came down the mountain and saw the calf. Moses pleads God's own promise back to God.

And then:

Exodus 32:14 — “And the LORD repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people.”

So what moved? Not God's character . . . not God's purpose . . . and certainly not God's promise, since the promise is the very thing Moses stood on. What moved was the standing of the people – and it moved because God had appointed a man to stand in the gap, and the man stood there.

✍️ AUTHOR'S NOTE

I once pastored a dying church – I labored – I prayed – I witnessed – but to no avail… The community would simply not move… finally the church died – the members dispersed – the building was sold… and now nothing remains. I cannot explain with a WHY… In regard to our next example – the rope was real – the rock was real – but the boat never moved… — C.T.

THE BOAT AND THE ROCK

Here is the picture that finally settled this one for me.

A man in a rowboat throws a rope around a big rock on the bank and pulls . . . the boat comes in to the rock. Now – did the rock move?

Of course it didn’t . . . the rock never budged an inch . . . but everything about that man's position changed, and it changed because HE PULLED.

And here is the part that matters the most: who put the rock there, and who gave him the rope? God did. God set the rock, God gave the rope, and God told him to pull . . . so when the boat comes in, nobody says the rock was moved . . . and nobody says the pulling did not matter, either.

God is the rock. Prayer is the rope . . . and when we pray, we do not drag God over to where we are . . . we come to where He has been standing the whole time.

Simple truth: God does not move . . . the boat moves . . . and God appointed the rope.

FOURTH — GOD TOLD US THIS IS HOW HE WORKS

And this is not something we figured out and set on top of the text. God laid the rule down Himself, in Jeremiah, and once you see it - you will see it everywhere:

Jeremiah 18:7 — “At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it;”

Jeremiah 18:8 — “If that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them.”

There it is in writing, ahead of time. God says that when He pronounces judgment on a nation, and that nation turns – He turns too. That is not God changing His mind . . . that is God keeping a rule He published in advance.

A warning is not A FORECAST . . . a warning is a door.

Nineveh is the test case

Jonah walks through the city and preaches eight words:

Jonah 3:4 — “And Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.”

Forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown. Flat. No conditions attached…

Jonah 3:10 — “And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.”

And Jonah was angry about it, and we know exactly why. He had preached destruction and it did not come – and he was afraid he would look like a fool. But God had never been anything other than consistent. He does what Jeremiah 18 says He does, EVERY TIME...

And Hezekiah

Same thing with a man instead of a city. Isaiah walks in and hands a king a death sentence:

Isaiah 38:1 — “In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came unto him, and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Set thine house in order: for thou shalt die, and not live.”

Thou shalt die, and not live. And Hezekiah turns his face to the wall and prays and weeps – and before Isaiah has gotten out of the middle court, God sends him back with this:

Isaiah 38:5 — “Go, and say to Hezekiah, Thus saith the LORD, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will add unto thy days fifteen years.”

I have heard thy prayer. I have seen thy tears. God did not say Isaiah misheard Me. God said I heard YOU.

📖 FROM THE PULPIT

Well – I suppose that every preacher who has been called to a church in answer to prayer – and then a few years later – is burdened in his heart to leave that church which before had been an answer to his prayers - experiences a sort of “reversal” – or a change in a direction that he had been praying to be secure… But as a servant – God does not promise to keep us in our comfort zone – He promises to strengthen us in times of trial – when we are led to step OUT of that comfort zone… Nothing about service to God – is one and done – but EVERYTHING about service to God is a daily sacrifice… — C.T.

NOW LET ME GUARD THIS

Two things to be careful of, and I want to name them both.

Do not go away thinking you can talk God into anything. You cannot. God is not weighing our arguments to see if we make a good case. Moses did not win because his reasoning was clever – Moses won because he stood on a promise God had ALREADY made . . . there is no leverage on God anywhere except the things God has already said.

And do not go away thinking your praying is pointless because God does not change. That is the OTHER ditch, and it is the one most of our people are actually in. God said let me alone. God said I have heard thy prayer. God published the rule in Jeremiah 18 so we would know how He works. He has gone out of His way to tell us that the pulling matters.

BEFORE YOU LEAVE

So - do I change God's mind? No. And thank God for that – because a God who could be talked out of His promises could be talked out of the ones He made to us.

But does my praying CHANGE anything? It surely does . . . it changes where the boat is sitting . . . and God is the one who tied the rope to it.

God is not a man that He should repent. And He appointed men to stand in the gap . . . both of those are His doing.

TRY IT THIS WEEK

Pray Moses' prayer this week – and by that I mean pray a promise back to God.

Find something God has said in His word about the thing you are carrying . . . then take that verse to Him and say it back . . . not to remind Him – He has not forgotten. Say it back because that is the only ground there has ever been to stand on . . . and it is ground He put there Himself.

For example – God has promised to NEVER leave us nor to forsake us… So – when you are in a valley – when you are tempted to believe that God may have forsaken you – pray that He will give you the wisdom to see the lies that Satan is placing before you – and the understanding to realize that a single set of footprints in the sand does not mean what it looks like – He has not forsaken you – but He is carrying you…

---

NEXT — Part Four: When the Answer Is No. Paul asked three times and God said no three times . . . this is the hardest part in the study and the one most of us need worst, and it is not answered with a tidy verse.

How Prayer Works — The Appointed Means

If He has already made up His mind what He is going to do . . . then what is my praying actually doing?

---

A note on the Scripture in this study: every verse is printed WHOLE. The words set in ordinary type are the ones this lesson leans on and emphasizes . . . the words in italics are the rest of the verse, printed so that nothing is ever handed to you as a fragment with the remainder missing.

Part One settled that prayer works . . . this part has to answer the question that comes right behind it . . . and it is the honest question, the one a thinking man asks on the way home.

If God already knows what I need before I ask . . . and if He has already settled what He intends to do . . . then what on earth is my asking adding to it?

I have heard that question put a dozen ways. Sometimes it comes out as a complaint. More often it comes out as a quiet EXCUSE for not praying much – because if the thing was going to happen anyway, then a man can sleep in.

And the Bible does not dodge it. God answers it Himself, out of His own mouth, in one verse in Ezekiel . . . and it is not the answer most people expect.

GOD SAYS IT IN HIS OWN WORDS

Now to get the weight of this verse - we have to see what God had just finished promising . . . read the six verses that come before it – because God is not making a small promise here. He is promising to gather a scattered nation, wash them clean, take out the stony heart, put His own Spirit inside them, and settle them in their land as His own people:

Ezekiel 36:24 — “For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land.”

Ezekiel 36:25 — “Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.”

Ezekiel 36:26 — “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.”

Ezekiel 36:27 — “And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.”

Ezekiel 36:28 — “And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God.”

I will. I will. I will. Seven times over in those verses . . . there is not one thing in that list that a man could do for himself, and not one thing in it that hangs on anybody being good enough . . . it is settled . . . it is promised . . . and it is God doing every bit of it.

And then comes the verse this whole lesson is built on:

Ezekiel 36:37 — “Thus saith the Lord GOD; I will yet for this be enquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them; I will increase them with men like a flock.”

Read that slow. I will yet for this be enquired of. God has just promised the thing – and then He says that He will be ASKED for it before He does it.

That is the whole answer, and it came out of God's own mouth . . . the asking is not something we tack onto God's plan from the outside . . . the asking is IN the plan. God appointed the end . . . and God appointed the road that gets there . . . and praying is a piece of the road.

✍️ AUTHOR'S NOTE

Prayer does not change God’s plan – the idea is that Prayer IS God’s plan… Prayer does not change God – but prayer DOES change what happens… For example consider God announcing JUDGEMENT against Sodom and Gomorrah…

Genesis 18:23 — “And Abraham drew near, and said, Wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked?”

Genesis 18:24 — “Peradventure there be fifty righteous within the city: wilt thou also destroy and not spare the place for the fifty righteous that are therein?”

Genesis 18:25 — “That be far from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked: and that the righteous should be as the wicked, that be far from thee: Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?”

Genesis 18:26 — “And the LORD said, If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare all the place for their sakes.”

The idea here is that – God had already pronounced judgement – He did the same thing to the city of Nineveh in the days of Jonah… Nineveh was spared – Sodom and Gomorrah was not… So – what was the difference – Nineveh REPENTED – Sodom and Gomorrah DID NOT repent… Prayer for mercy was tied directly to the repentance of Nineveh… and when God “repented” of the evil He intended to do unto them – God did not change His definition of right and wrong – but what God DID do – as a direct result of Nineveh’s prayer of repentance - was to choose mercy instead of judgement. So – the path to MERCY – was through the prayer of repentance… while the path to JUDGEMENT was through a refusal to pray a prayer of repentance… Now if all of this was “set in stone” before hand – then what this teaches us is three things 1) that prayer does not change God – but it can change WHAT HAPPENS and 2) Prayer is part of God’s PLAN 3) we see by example the purpose that prayer serves… Prayer is the natural result of repentance – and repentance is the natural result of FAITH – and without faith we cannot please God… So – to please God is for us to experience mercy instead of judgment… Sodom and Gomorrah refused to repent – refused to pray – had no faith and as a result they experienced judgment which COULD have been changed to mercy. Nineveh on the other hand chose to repent – chose to pray – put FAITH in God and as a result they experienced MERCY when they could have experienced judgment… — C.T.

THIS IS NOT STRANGE — GOD DOES EVERYTHING THIS WAY

Now somebody will say that sounds like a game . . . it is not a game, and it is not even unusual . . . because God has run this world that way from the beginning, and we live inside that arrangement every single day without thinking twice about it.

God feeds every man on this earth. And He does it through a plow, and a seed, and a rain, and a harvest, and a man who gets up and goes to work. God ordained that you would eat . . . and He ordained the field you would eat out of.

God gives a man his health – and He gives it through sleep and food and a doctor. God saves souls – and He does it through a preacher and a Bible and somebody's witness. Paul asked the question flat out: how shall they “hear” without a preacher?

Nobody stands in the field and says, well, if God intends for me to have a crop then I do not need to plant . . . we understand it perfectly out there in the field . . . but we only get confused about it when we come inside and start talking about “prayer”...

God ordains the end. God also ordains the means . . . and the praying is the means which brings about THE END which God had determined…

The clearest picture of it in the Bible

Elijah is the best example there is, and James already handed him to us back in Part One . . . so let us go read the account itself, because the order of it is the lesson.

Three and a half years of drought, and then God speaks:

1 Kings 18:1 — “And it came to pass after many days, that the word of the LORD came to Elijah in the third year, saying, Go, shew thyself unto Ahab; and I will send rain upon the earth.”

So - the rain is settled. God said it. Elijah has it straight from the mouth of God, BEFORE one drop ever falls – and I will send rain upon the earth. Now watch what the man does with a promise he already has in his hand:

1 Kings 18:42 — “So Ahab went up to eat and to drink. And Elijah went up to the top of Carmel; and he cast himself down upon the earth, and put his face between his knees,”

He goes up on the mountain and puts his face between his knees. He already had the promise . . . and he prayed anyway . . . not because he doubted it – he prayed BECAUSE of the promise. The promise is what gave him something to ask for.

1 Kings 18:43 — “And said to his servant, Go up now, look toward the sea. And he went up, and looked, and said, There is nothing. And he said, Go again seven times.”

Six times that boy came back with nothing. And Elijah sent him again.

1 Kings 18:44 — “And it came to pass at the seventh time, that he said, Behold, there ariseth a little cloud out of the sea, like a man's hand. And he said, Go up, say unto Ahab, Prepare thy chariot, and get thee down, that the rain stop thee not.”

A cloud the size of a man's hand . . . that is the first thing God gave him after seven trips up that hill . . . and Elijah knew exactly what he was looking at, because he sent word to Ahab to hitch up before the sky had even darkened.

Now here is what I want us to see. The rain was promised, and the rain was prayed for, and both of those are in the same chapter. Elijah did not treat God's promise as a reason to quit praying. He treated it as the reason to start PRAYING.

📖 FROM THE PULPIT

As a young man – while still in high-school – I prayed for God to call me to preach… I understand that The Bible says – “This is a true saying, If a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work” (I Timothy 3:1) teaching us – that God puts ‘the desire’ in a man’s heart… but my point here is that THE DESIRE was present a long time before THE CALL… I knew that I wanted to be a preacher before I graduated high-school – I knew I wanted to be a preacher before I became an engineer – I knew I wanted to be a preacher before I married… but the call came several years AFTER I recognized the desire… Like Elijah – I knew what God had promised (to rain His blessings upon my life) – but that promise is what gave reason to keep going to Him in prayer – that promise is what motivated me to keep watching that cloud… — C.T.

AND THE OTHER SIDE OF IT — WHAT NOT ASKING COSTS

If the asking is the appointed means, then leaving the asking out has a cost. And James says it in the most straight forward sentence in the New Testament on this subject:

James 4:2 — “Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not.”

Ye have not, because ye ask not. Not because God is stingy . . . not because the thing was not His will . . . not because they were not good enough. They have not, because they ask not.

And look at what they were doing instead. Lusting. Fighting. Warring. Scheming to get it some other kind of way . . . that is a picture of a man working himself half to death going AROUND the front door . . . when the door was standing there unlocked the whole time.

The Lord put the same thing the other way around, in a more positive way:

Matthew 7:7 — “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:”

Matthew 7:8 — “For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.”

Every one of those is a command with a promise hung on the back of it. And every one of them starts with something WE do.

THE MAIL IN THE PO BOX

Here is the way I understand it best.

Down at the post office there is a box with your name on it, and the mail in that box is yours . . . it was addressed to you, it was paid for, and it was delivered. Nobody is going to take it back . . . but it will sit in that box until somebody walks down there and OPENS it.

The mail being yours is not the same thing as the mail being in your hand.

That is prayer. God has purposed the blessing – it is addressed, it is paid for, and it is already in the box . . . and then He says, I will yet for this be enquired of. Come get it.

And it does not shame a man to go get his own mail . . . the going does not earn the letter . . . but the letter stays in the box until he decides to go...

Simple truth: God appointed the blessing . . . and God appointed the asking . . . and He did not appoint one of them WITHOUT the other.

NOW LET ME GUARD THIS

Two ditches here, and both of them will wreck a man.

The first ditch is thinking my praying MAKES God “do something”. It does not. God is not moved off His purpose by anything I say – and Part Three is going to take that up all by itself, because it deserves the room… My praying does not add power to God… My praying is God's appointed way of handing me what He already purposed to give.

The second ditch is thinking my praying does not matter. And that one is just as wrong, and a good deal MORE COMMON – because it sounds humble . . . it is not humble. God said He would be enquired of. To decide that the asking makes no difference is to argue with a verse where God is telling us how He “does business”...

So we hold both. God is sovereign, and He appointed the asking . . . those two have never once been in a fight, except in our heads.

BEFORE YOU LEAVE

The question we started with was, if God has ALREADY made up His mind, what is my praying doing? And the answer is that praying is not something we do to change God's mind . . . it is something God appointed as the way His mind gets carried out.

A man who understands that will pray more, not less . . . because now the praying is not a long shot – it is the road. And God is the one who built the road.

Ye have not, because ye ask not. That is the saddest sentence in the whole study, and it is the easiest one to fix.

TRY IT THIS WEEK

One thing this week, and it is a small thing...

Take something God has already plainly promised in His word – not something you are hoping for, something He has already SAID. Wisdom, if any man lack it. Forgiveness, if we confess. Strength in the day of trouble… you get the idea…

Then ask Him for it anyway, by name, out loud . . . not because you doubt the promise . . . but because Elijah had the promise too, and he still put his face between his knees and prayed…

---

NEXT — Part Three: Do I Change God's Mind? The Bible says God is not a man that he should repent . . . and then it turns around and says that the LORD repented of the evil which he thought to do. Both of those are in the same book . . . we are going to take that apart word by word.

Does Prayer Really Work? — Three Honest Questions About Prayer

Dardanelle Missionary Baptist Church — Dardanelle, Arkansas

Pastor Chuck Trusty — Wednesday evening service, September 9, 2026 Prayer · James 5:16-18 · Ezekiel 36:37 · James 4:2-3 · Numbers 23:19 · Jonah 3:10 · Isaiah 38:5 · Psalm 66:18

► Watch this lesson on video (50:50)

---

Now I gave you a little bit of a teaser this past Sunday. The written part of this - the transcript, however we want to look at it - is already on the church website, and there are twelve more lessons behind it, scheduled one a week. The printed part is coming out first . . . the preaching, I think, is due to start sometime after Thanksgiving. So tonight is kind of a teaser for what those lessons are about - does prayer really work? We are going to talk about three honest questions about prayer, and what the Bible tells us.

Every one of us that has ever knelt down and offered a prayer - if you are like me - has surely wondered these three things. First of all, preacher, does prayer REALLY work? And secondly, well, if prayer does work . . . HOW does it work? And thirdly - and I had to think about this one - when I pray for something to change, do we really change God’s MIND?

Now these are not questions that mean we are weak in the faith. They are the questions of people who actually PRAY . . . and there is no reason to shy away from a single one of them.

The one point of our lesson tonight is this - and how many times am I going to say it? Three times. And what is the significance of saying a thing three times? Well, back in Bible days, when a teacher said something three times it meant the thing was PERMANENT . . . you could write it in stone. So here it is the first time:

God has put the blessing on the other side of the asking . . . and the blessing has to be unwrapped.

Question One - Does Prayer Really Work?

“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. 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. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.” - James 5:16-18 (KJV)

Elias, it says - that is the New Testament spelling for Elijah. Now notice what James did NOT say. The Bible does not tell us that prayer helps. The Bible does not say that prayer comforts. The Bible says that prayer AVAILETH MUCH (accomplishes much - has real force) . . . Elijah prayed, and the sky shut down for three and a half years - he prayed again, and the rain came back. Three and a half years of a whole nation’s weather hung on one man’s bent knees in prayer.

Now I want us to notice WHO James picked to talk about prayer. It says Elijah was a man subject to like passions as we are . . . and the idea there is that Elijah was not some spiritual giant, and that is not why God heard him. Elijah was just like you and I. The same Elijah who out-prayed the weather is the same man who ran from a woman named Jezebel and asked God to just kill him - went and sat down under that juniper tree and said, “What is my life worth? Just take me on, Lord.” You can read about that in First Kings 19, verses 4 and 5.

And there is one more thing in this verse - and it is something we quote right on past. James did not say the effectual fervent prayer of ANYBODY availeth much. He said the effectual fervent prayer of a RIGHTEOUS MAN availeth much. Now I am not going to open that up tonight - it will not fit - but Part One of the written series takes those four words apart, and I think it will surprise you what is there.

A church that prayed. We have talked about a man who prayed . . . now let us look at a church who prayed. And bear this in mind - this was not some giant of a church that already had one foot in heaven, and that is why God answered them. This church was extremely NORMAL. By normal I mean they probably resembled you and I a great deal.

“Peter therefore was kept in prison: but prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him.” - Acts 12:5 (KJV)

Peter was in prison, scheduled - I think - to be executed the next morning, with a handful of soldiers in there with him to keep him from escaping . . . and the chains fell off of Peter that same night. Now here is the interesting part. The prayer meeting that had gathered to pray for Peter was so surprised that it left Peter standing out in the street knocking on the door.

“And as Peter knocked at the door of the gate, a damsel came to hearken, named Rhoda. And when she knew Peter’s voice, she opened not the gate for gladness, but ran in, and told how Peter stood before the gate. And they said unto her, Thou art mad. But she constantly affirmed that it was even so. Then said they, It is his angel. But Peter continued knocking: and when they had opened the door, and saw him, they were astonished.” - Acts 12:13-16 (KJV)

“You are mad - you are losing your mind” . . . and Peter just kept on knocking. Now do not overlook the sequence Luke wrote down here. The church prayed - and THEN the angel came to lead Peter out of the prison.

Another church that prayed - Antioch, when they sent Paul and Barnabas out on the missionary trip.

“As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them. And when they had fasted and prayed, and laid their hands on them, they sent them away.” - Acts 13:2-3 (KJV)

This church at Antioch was in the process of WORSHIPING - not planning what to do next - and the call came during their prayers. And twice in these two verses they fasted. Now I am going to gloss over fasting really quickly and then leave it, because I deal with it directly in a later lesson - lesson eleven of the thirteen, I think. But fasting is not a hunger strike against heaven - “God, I am going to quit eating until You answer my prayer.” That is not what fasting is at all. God’s mercy and God’s patience cannot be bought with good works, and they cannot be bought with skipped meals either. Briefly, fasting is simply the appetite set aside so that prayer can have the whole plate. We sat down to eat - oh, that looks good - and instead we set the plate aside, and instead of spending that time satisfying our appetite we spend the meal time praying, because we are that concerned about whatever the issue happens to be. It is the body being told to WAIT while the soul does business between our heart and God. And notice Jesus said WHEN ye fast . . . He did not say IF ye fast - Matthew 6:16. We will not go there tonight, but sometime in November it will show up on the website, covered thoroughly.

So back to our first question - does prayer actually work? We have seen three prayers tonight that did work. A prophet’s prayer for the weather . . . a prisoner’s chains dropped off . . . a church sent out missionaries. And the Bible’s answer is not “well, prayer works SOMETIMES.” The Bible’s answer is that the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. So yes - prayer really does work.

Now if prayer availeth that much - accomplishes that much - what does it say about you and I when we reach for prayer pretty much as a LAST resort? We jump in there and try to take care of business ourselves . . . “well, this is not working - I guess I can always pray about it.”

Question Two - How Does Prayer Work?

This is where most of us get tangled up. If God already knows what we need - and He does - and if God has already decided what He is going to do - and He has - then what is my praying actually going to DO?

The plainest answer in the Bible comes out of what God tells us in Ezekiel 36. God had just finished promising Israel a new heart and a restored land. It was decreed. It was settled. It was certain - it was going to happen. But then look at verse 37:

“Thus saith the Lord GOD; I will yet for this be enquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them; I will increase them with men like a flock.” - Ezekiel 36:37 (KJV)

God had ALREADY promised the blessing . . . and He still required the asking. So the prayer was never going to change His plan - it turns out the prayer WAS His plan. Prayer was the appointed pipeline, if you will, that the promised blessing would travel through.

Think about a well. We have used a well and a bucket in several of our last few lessons. The water is down under the ground the whole time . . . but the BUCKET is what brings the water up. No bucket, no water. If we do not ask, there will be no blessing. That is how prayer works without changing God one bit - God ordains the ends, and He ordains the means to get there . . . and praying is the means God set in motion.

There are blessings that God has purposed to give ONLY through the asking. And those blessings sit undelivered over an un-prayed people - like mail sitting in a PO box down at the post office that nobody ever comes to pick up. The mail has the proper postage on it. The rent on the box has been paid. It is sitting in that box tonight, waiting on us to use the prayer KEY. I have a key I use to unlock my PO box down at the post office - well, that blessing is in there waiting on us to use the prayer key, unlock the box, and get the mail that already has our name on it.

“Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not. Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.” - James 4:2-3 (KJV)

Ye have not, because ye ask not. Now everybody remembers that Elijah prayed for rain - that is what pops into our mind. But almost nobody looks at what came FIRST, before his prayer was ever offered.

“And it came to pass after many days, that the word of the LORD came to Elijah in the third year, saying, Go, shew thyself unto Ahab; and I will send rain upon the earth.” - 1 Kings 18:1 (KJV)

Elijah had not prayed for rain yet . . . and God says, “Go tell Ahab it is going to rain.” The rain was PROMISED before the prayer was ever prayed. The mail was already in the PO box. And even so, Elijah climbed Mount Carmel, put his face between his knees, and prayed seven times until a cloud like a little hand rose up out of the sea. The promise AND the praying were both God’s plan . . . the rain came THROUGH the prayer.

Now in the original Greek, “effectual fervent” is not two words but one - energoumene, and our English word energy comes right out of it. It means IN-WORKING . . . prayer that is operating, prayer that is engaged, prayer that is energized. There are religions where prayer is a chant recited over and over - this is not a prayer that is chanted, and it is not a prayer that is recited. This is prayer that is ENGAGED . . . when our whole self, everything we are, leans into the asking.

Just a brief touch of that fasting idea again. If I am watching TV with a burden on my heart - “oh, I will pray when a commercial comes on” - then I must not be very concerned, if I am putting the appetite of my flesh to watch that show ahead of taking my burden to God. Satisfy self-first and give God the leftovers . . . that is not our whole self-leaning into the asking. We will talk a great deal more about that in the fasting lesson.

So here is something to slow down and ask - and wait on the answer. What has God set aside for us, His church, this week . . . that is still sitting in the PO box because we have not taken out the prayer key yet? Ye have not, because ye ask not.

And that is the one point of our lesson, the second time: God has put the blessing on the other side of the asking . . . and the blessing has to be unwrapped.

Question Three - Do I Change God’s Mind When I Pray?

Now this one is a little more difficult, and I am not going to dodge it - I am going to hit it head on. When I pray for a sick child . . . when I pray for a wandering son, a wandering church member . . . when I pray for a job, or for a good diagnosis from the doctor - am I talking God into something He was not going to do anyway?

Well, let us take the Bible and use two hands. Figuratively, pick it up in two hands . . . I say that because the Bible says two different things here, and BOTH of them are true. First of all, the Bible plainly says that God does not change:

“God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?” - Numbers 23:19 (KJV)

God does not have better ideas at nine o’clock than He had at eight o’clock. That is not the way it works. Now the same Bible also says the Lord REPENTED:

“And the LORD repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people.” - Exodus 32:14 (KJV)

That is the golden calf. Moses stood in the gap - he interceded, he prayed - and God relented. And here is another one:

“And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.” - Jonah 3:10 (KJV)

So which is it? Does God not change . . . or does He sometimes repent? Well, actually, it is both - and here is the key that opens both of them. The Hebrew word translated repented is nacham (to relent - to be moved with pity). It does not mean God changed His mind about what is right and what is wrong. It means He RELENTED in terms of judgment . . . He turned away from the thing He announced. Why? Because He was moved with pity.

Now think about this, preacher. When I was lost, I was under the condemnation of God - headed straight for hell. That judgment had been pronounced against me. It was decreed, it was sure, it was a done deal. But when I accepted Jesus as my personal Savior, what happened? That judgment went AWAY. God repented, if you will, of the judgment He had pronounced on me as a lost man. Why? Because I put my faith in Jesus Christ. So God did not change - He did not change His idea of right and wrong one bit. He relented . . . He extended mercy because of how this preacher repented and put his faith in Jesus Christ.

Picture a man in a small boat out on the water. He throws a rope around a big rock on the bank, and he pulls on that rope. Now watch what actually MOVES. Depending on where we are sitting, it looks for all the world like the rock is coming toward the boat . . . but the rock does not move an inch. The rock is God. The BOAT is what moves. Judgment is pronounced, repentance is practiced, and that judgment is put off.

In Jonah 3, Nineveh is the boat. “Forty days and you are going to perish” - God announced judgment on a wicked city, and that city turned in sackcloth from the king all the way down to the cattle in the field. God did not change. NINEVEH is what changed - and God’s unchanging character met that city right where they stood. He met them AFTER repentance had taken place . . . He did not meet them in the middle of their rebellion. Nineveh cast the rope of repentance around the Rock of Ages and began to pull, and the Rock of Ages did not move an inch - it was the repenting city that moved, and every pull on that rope brought them closer to the Rock. When we repent - when we lasso that big rock on the shore and begin to pull - our repentance moves US closer and closer to the Rock of our salvation. The Rock is not what changes. We are what changes . . . and the consequence of that change is that judgment is set aside. That is not God changing His mind. That is God being CONSISTENT with His love and with His character.

And notice this. If God had kept His plans for judgment a secret, Nineveh would have had no motive at all to repent. If God kept His judgment against the sin in our life a secret, what motive would we ever have to repent - to change, to throw that rope around the Rock of Ages and pull ourselves closer to Him? And if God had spared an UNREPENTANT Nineveh, THAT would have been God changing His definition of right and wrong. But God did not change. He was simply being consistent with His character, with His love, and with His desire to show mercy and forgiveness.

Hezekiah. A thought came to me while I was working on this - King Hezekiah. You remember Hezekiah was told flat out, no bones about it - set thine house in order, for thou shalt die and not live. And the Bible says Hezekiah turned his face to the wall, and he wept, and he prayed . . . and God sent the prophet back.

“Go, and say to Hezekiah, Thus saith the LORD, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will add unto thy days fifteen years.” - Isaiah 38:5 (KJV)

Now this is not symbolic. These are fifteen REAL years - a real answer to a real prayer. But listen to this, and it will help us understand that God does not change - the rock is not what moves, it is always the boat. The God who gave those fifteen years knew about that prayer, and knew about those tears, before Hezekiah was ever born. I have heard men preach on the radio who did not believe that . . . but God knows the end from the very beginning. He knows how many hairs are on my head and on yours. He knows what my attitude is going to be tomorrow, and the next day, and the day after that. Hezekiah’s prayer did not AMBUSH God - it did not catch Him off guard. The prayer was the road those fifteen extra years traveled on.

And do not miss the tenderness in it - “I have heard thy prayer; I have SEEN THY TEARS.” God is not some unfeeling force off somewhere in the heavens. God is a Father who, in every sense of the word, literally LOVES His children. God has tied real outcomes to real asking . . . which means our prayers do not carry pretend weight. Our prayers carry REAL weight.

Now the effectual fervent prayer - the energized prayer, the engaged prayer - availeth much IF it is prayed by a righteous man. Well, are we righteous? The Bible says there is none righteous, no, not one - and we will touch more on that later - but we ARE righteous if we are hiding behind the righteous blood of Jesus Christ. So the idea is not “if you misbehave, preacher, your prayers will not be answered.” We will go into depth on what hinders prayer in later lessons . . . but it is not my behavior that hinders my prayer. It is my ATTITUDE - it is pride - “I am depending on my own righteousness and not God’s.” That is just a little tease for what is coming.

What About When the Answer Is No?

Now somebody is already asking the next question - and it really is a question we have all asked. Preacher, what about when the answer is NO? What about the prayer that was prayed and prayed, and the little child died anyway? What about the prayer that was prayed and prayed, and the son or the daughter never did come home?

I have a lesson dedicated specifically to that question, and I am not going to handle it in two minutes at the end of a lesson - it deserves a great deal more than the time we have left. But let me say this much tonight, and I will make you a promise. When the answer is no, it does not mean that “nature” out-muscled God. Nature answers to God just like you and I do. It means that a Father - a heavenly Father, “I have seen thy tears” - a Father who loves us said no to a good thing for a BETTER reason . . . a reason we just cannot see from where we are standing.

When we get to First, Second, and Third John - and I have lessons prepared for that - you will find that John talks in spirals. It is like a spiral staircase inside a lighthouse. Down on the first floor there is a window, and I look out of it - no big deal, I see what I see. Go around the staircase and I am looking in the SAME direction, only a little bit higher, and I can see a little bit more. Well, that is the idea when God says no. He says it for a reason we cannot see down here on the first floor . . . which, if we were up on the third or fourth floor, we would be able to see plainly. But once again - our responsibility to God is not to understand. It is simply to OBEY. And if we have faith in God we really will not need to know why . . . the why will be “because God loves me.” He never has and He never will do one thing that will harm me - everything God ever has done or ever will do is for my betterment. And if we really believe that, then God’s grace (the influence of God on our heart - that is what grace is) will hold us up when the answer is no. Now if we do not believe it, we get bitter, and we get angry . . . and you know what anger and bitterness do? They move a person right out of the faith.

So having said all of that - do we change God’s mind when we pray? No. We do not change God’s mind. And if we think about it, we really would not WANT to . . . because a God I could talk into something is a God Brother Kenneth could talk right back out of it - or somebody more eloquent than Ken and me put together. What we change is not God. What we change, by God’s own appointment, is what HAPPENS. And remember, there is one Lord, one faith, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all - just ONE truth. If God is light, if God is truth, if God is love . . . then if we could change God’s mind, what would happen to the truth? It just would not work.

How Do We Pray This Week?

Three things.

One - ask God. Ask by name, on purpose - out loud, and when I say out loud, I mean in your mind if need be. You know, unclaimed mail is a sad thing to think about - like a tax refund sitting in a PO box. “That three-thousand-dollar check has been in that mailbox forever . . . I wish I had known - I would have gone and gotten it.”

Two - ask according to His will. Ye have not because ye ask not . . . ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts. “I want that three thousand dollars to buy a boat” - that is desiring it to consume it on our own lusts. “I would like to have that three thousand dollars because I have got a neighbor who needs some help” - you see the difference?

“And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us:” - 1 John 5:14 (KJV)

“Oh, all I have to do is ask for that new Cadillac and it will happen.” That is not what this means - no more than the man in the moon. Even Jesus in the garden, before He was crucified, prayed, “If it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt.” I really do not want to do this . . . nevertheless, not what I will, but what You will. That is not weakness. That is actually the STRONGEST kind of prayer there is - giving up our desire so that God’s will can take the place of it.

Three - keep the line clear.

“If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me:” - Psalm 66:18 (KJV)

Now this is something else I learned here. That does not mean if I say “doggone” when I stump my toe Saturday night, my prayers are hindered on Sunday. To regard iniquity means to CHERISH it - to long for it, to have a sweet spot for unconfessed sin. “I treasure this sin . . . I value this sin . . . I cherish this sin.” That is regarding iniquity in the heart. That is not stumbling, and it is not a mistake. It is “I am not going to go steady with the truth, because I have got a secret love affair over here with an error I just cannot let go of.”

The water is still on at the faucet. “Hey, I thought the water was on!” Well, it is . . . it is just not coming out. Why? The hose is KINKED. The faucet is still on, but the blessing never arrives, because we kinked the hose. Settle the debt in our heart now - confess it - and do not let things pile up and block the hose. That attitude is what keeps the line clear. And once again, let me be very clear - it is not a mistake, it is not a doggone, it is not “well, I tripped and fell.” It is a cherished attitude toward something God has forbidden . . . and THAT will hinder our prayers just like that.

Where Do We Go From Here?

Tonight was just one lesson, and one lesson is not enough to cover the whole subject of prayer. We have talked about questions tonight that I did not finish - and I did not finish them on PURPOSE. On our preaching schedule we have the Route 66 series, we have the Give Thanks lessons, all lined up straight through to Thanksgiving. But the written series on prayer - BEHIND THE ASKING, thirteen parts - has already started. Part One went up this past Sunday, and some of you have already read it. A new part is scheduled every Sunday morning at seven o’clock, straight through the end of November . . . and when we get to the end of November, I will take those written lessons and turn them into sermons, and we will do it like this. It is on the Bookshelf on the website - the link says PRAYER.

So tonight is not the end of a lesson on prayer. Tonight is the front door. The PO box is FULL of mail. “I will yet for this be enquired of . . . to do it for them.” There are things God has purposed for this church and for every one of us - things that, if we were honest, are sitting in the PO box tonight waiting for the prayer key to open the door and get the mail.

Elijah prayed, and the heavens gave rain. The church prayed for Peter, and the chains fell off of him in the prison. Hezekiah prayed, and God said, “I have seen thy tears.” And not a single one of those prayers changed God’s mind. Every one of them received what God had put on the other side of the asking.

Now, for the third time - what was the one point of our lesson tonight? God has put the blessing on the other side of the asking . . . and the blessing has to be unwrapped.

“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.” - James 5:16 (KJV)

So let us go home and ASK. Whatever the desire on our heart is - use the prayer key. Open the PO box. Why? Because the mail is already in there, and it already has our name on it. All we have to do is ask. And do not ask for a Cadillac - that is not what it is talking about. Ask for God’s will to be done . . . and ninety-nine percent of the time God’s will is not the same as His preacher’s will. “I want stuff, I want this, I want that” - when we pray with that attitude we are not praying according to God’s will. We are praying according to our own.

Scripture Used

James 5:16-18 · 1 Kings 19:4-5 · Acts 12:5, 13-16 · Acts 13:2-3 · Matthew 6:16 · Ezekiel 36:37 · James 4:2-3 · 1 Kings 18:1 · Numbers 23:19 · Exodus 32:14 · Jonah 3:10 · Isaiah 38:1-5 · Ephesians 4:5-6 · 1 John 5:14 · Matthew 26:39 · Psalm 66:18 (all KJV)

---

Every lesson is kept on the Lessons page.