If Ye Shall Ask…[First Edition]

By Oswald Chambers

Originally published as If Ye Shall Ask, this small book on prayer comprises lectures Chambers gave at the Bible Training College in London where he focused on all aspects of prayer, from prayer’s simplicity to intercessory prayer for others. He believed that prayer changes the one praying as much as prayer moves the hand of God. The foreword introduces readers to a simple man of keen insight who, regardless of who he was with or what they were doing, without warning would say, Off with your hats, it is good to pray everywhere, followed by a brief prayer. Chambers was a spiritual realist who believed prayer enabled God to perform His order through those who pray, even though he didn’t consider prayer a natural function of the worldly minded. However, he knew prayer was a way of getting to know God that would develop the life of God in those who prayed. This powerful book on prayer, filled with wisdom and keen perception, is one to savor slowly and return to time and time again. Written by a devout man of God who shows us what we are missing when we don’t have the life of God in us. There aren’t enough stars to value its worth, whether five, ten, fifty or a hundred. Cited from review by Gail Welborn, Seattle Christian Book Review Examiner.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Papamoa Press
• Release date: Sep 3, 2018
• ISBN: 9781789122176

Oswald Chambers

Oswald Chambers (24 July 1874 - 15 November 1917) was an early 20th century Scottish Baptist and Holiness Movement evangelist and teacher, best known for the daily devotional, My Utmost for His Highest, which compiled his Christian preaching to students and soldiers. Born to devout parents in Aberdeen, Scotland, he first moved with his family to Stoke-on-Trent, then to Perth, Scotland, and finally to London in 1889 when his father was appointed Traveling Secretary of the Baptist Total Abstinence Association. At 16 Chambers was baptized and became a member of Rye Lane Baptist Chapel. From 1893-1895 he studied at the National Art Training School (now the Royal College of Art). Whilst continuing his studies at the University of Edinburgh, he felt called to ministry and left for Dunoon College, a small theological training school near Glasgow. He soon taught classes and took over much of the administration. Richard Reader Harris, KC, a prominent barrister and founder of the Pentecostal League of Prayer, introduced Chambers as “a new speaker of exceptional power” in 1905. Through the League, Chambers also met Juji Nakada, a Holiness evangelist from Japan, who stimulated Chambers’ growing interest in world evangelism. In 1906, Nakada and Chambers sailed for Japan via the U.S. In 1911 Chambers founded and was principal of the Bible Training College in Clapham Common, Greater London. During WWI, in 1915, he suspended the operation of the school and was accepted as a YMCA chaplain. He was assigned to Zeitoun, Cairo, Egypt, where he ministered to Australian and New Zealand troops, who later participated in the Battle of Gallipoli. Chambers suffered appendicitis on 17 October 1917, but resisted going to a hospital on the grounds beds would be needed by men wounded in the Third Battle of Gaza. On 29 October, he received an emergency appendectomy, but died two weeks later, aged 43. He was buried in Cairo with full military honors.

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Text originally published in 1937 under the same title.

© Muriwai Books 2018, all rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted by any means, electrical, mechanical or otherwise without the written permission of the copyright holder.

Publisher’s Note

Although in most cases we have retained the Author’s original spelling and grammar to authentically reproduce the work of the Author and the original intent of such material, some additional notes and clarifications have been added for the modern reader’s benefit.

We have also made every effort to include all maps and illustrations of the original edition the limitations of formatting do not allow of including larger maps, we will upload as many of these maps as possible.

If ye shall ask...

by

OSWALD CHAMBERS

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Contents

TABLE OF CONTENTS XVI

FOREWORD XVII

Chapter I — WHAT’S THE GOOD OF PRAYER? XVIII

Chapter II — THE SECRET OF THE SACRED SIMPLICITY OF PRAYER XXIII

Chapter III — THE SECRET OF THE SACRED STRUGGLE FOR PRAYER XXIX

Chapter IV — THE CURRICULUM OF INTERCESSION XXXIII

Chapter V — AFTER GOD’S SILENCE—WHAT? XXXVIII

Chapter VI — NOW THIS EXPLAINS IT XLII

Chapter VII — PRAYING IN THE HOLY GHOST XLV

Chapter VIII — ST. PAUL’S INTERCESSION FOR INSTANTANEOUS INSISTENT SANCTIFICATION XLIX

Chapter IX — THIS DAY IS THAT DAY LV

Chapter X — INTERCESSION LVIII

Chapter XI — THE KEY TO SERVICE LXIII

Chapter XII — THE UNREALISED LOGIC OF PRAYER LXVII

REQUEST FROM THE PUBLISHER LXXII

FOREWORD

IT is with real misgiving as to any ability to worthily express my gratitude to Almighty God for bringing me into contact with His servant Oswald Chambers, that I respond to the request that I should write a foreword to this book.

Mr. Chambers was the close personal friend of my mature manhood, with whom the most intimate confidences were shared. Under God, I owe to his friendship not only the opening out of a fuller apprehension of the Redemption of our Lord Jesus Christ, but also the acquirement of the mental development necessary to enable me, in some measure, to state intelligibly to others the results of the knowledge imparted to myself.

Among the many axiomatic statements that fell from his lips, the following was particularly enlightening, Always distinguish clearly the difference between God’s order and God’s permissive will. And in this book he shows so concisely and simply that under God’s dispensational sovereignty, deliverance from sin now is His expressed will, while sickness and limitation are subject to God’s sovereignty active in pre-dispensational efficacy. Talked out with God Himself until that perfect harmony between God and our own hearts is an unshakable fact, these lines of thought enable us to arrive at a restful explanation of most of our difficulties concerning prayer.

Oswald Chambers’ prayer-life was one of intercession for others. Seldom did he ask specifically for anything material for himself. His whole personal attitude towards God was that of harmonious relationship, and absolute childlike dependence upon his heavenly Father.

The precious gems included in this book are more in the nature of ejaculatory response to fresh gleams of light, or fresh insight into personal needs as he enjoyed that close intercourse with his beloved Master.

While many other messages on prayer have already been included in some of his other books, this is confined mainly to the talks not otherwise in book form. It will be interesting to know that the first talk was one given to the soldiers at Zeitoun, and explains the significance of the outline, also showing the kind of message the men got there.

I cannot wish better for all who read these God-given messages, than that they have the effect of leading them also into that real fellowship that he himself habitually enjoyed with the Lord he loved so much.

JOHN S. SKIDMORE.

BRIMFIELD, LUDLOW,

SHROPSHIRE.

18th September, 1937.

If ye shall ask…

Chapter I — WHAT’S THE GOOD OF PRAYER?

I Timothy, ii. 1-8

BECAUSE WE NEED TO—Luke xi. I.

For Human Wits have an End—Psalm cvii. 13, 19, 28.

For Human Wills have an End—Romans viii. 26.

For Human Wisdom has an End—James i. 5.

Prayer alters ME.

BECAUSE WE MUST DO—James v. 16.

If we would know God—Matthew vi. 8.

If we would help Men—John xiv. 12-13.

If we would do God’s Will—1 John v. 14-16.

Prayer alters OTHERS.

BECAUSE WE CAN DO—Luke xviii. I.

By Asking

By Seeking Luke xi. 9-13; John IV. 7.

By Knocking;

Prayer alters CIRCUMSTANCES through me.

It is only when a man flounders beyond any grip of himself and cannot understand things that he really prays. It is not part of the natural life of a man to pray. By ‘natural’ I mean the ordinary, sensible, healthy, worldly-minded life. We hear it said that a man will suffer in his life if he does not pray; I question it. Prayer is an interruption to personal ambition, and no man who is busy has time to pray. What will suffer is the life of God in him, which is nourished not by food but by prayer. If we look on prayer as a means of developing ourselves, there is nothing in it at all, nor do we find that idea of prayer in the Bible. Prayer is other than meditation; it is that which develops the life of God in us. When a man is born from above, the life of the Son of God begins in him, and he can either starve that life or nourish it. Prayer is the way the life of God is nourished. Our Lord nourished the life of God in Him by prayer; He was continually in contact with His Father. We generally look upon prayer as a means of getting things for ourselves, whereas the Bible idea of prayer is that God’s holiness and God’s purpose and God’s wise order may be brought about, irrespective of who comes or who goes. Our ordinary views of prayer are not found in the New Testament.

When a man is in real distress he prays without reasoning; he does not think things out, he simply spurts it out—Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble, and He saved them out of their distresses. When we get into a tight place our logic goes to the winds, and we work from the implicit part of ourselves.

Your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask Him. Then why ask? Very evidently our ideas about prayer and Jesus Christ’s are not the same. Prayer to Him is not a means of getting things from God, but in order that we may get to know God. Prayer, that is, is not to be used as the petted privilege of a spoiled child seeking for ideal conditions in which to indulge his spiritual propensities ad lib.; the purpose of prayer is to reveal the Presence of God, equally present at all times and in every condition.

A man may say, ‘Well, if the Almighty has decreed things,

Reviews for If Ye Shall Ask…[First Edition]

[taylor · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is a book with a depth of teaching that will enhance your understanding in amazing ways. It is not the usual copy book of material but , as in all Oswald Chambers material, so deep and profound that it can take ten minutes to begin to digest just one sentence. It is not hard to read or confusing at all but it is so new in the depth of his understanding that one must stop and truly consider the gems of knowledge found.