Design

By Brother Gene

God designed us, all 100 trillion cells of us, and put them together perfectly. We are the result, but more than that, he designed a life for all that he created. Find the design and it works; ignore it, and it doesn't.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Page Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: May 12, 2021
• ISBN: 9781662425868

Book preview

Chapter I

God’s Design for Prayer

Various Texts

There are literally hundreds of verses of Scripture that speak of prayer. I have selected just a few to show something of God’s design for prayer. We will look at some of the prayers of Jesus, the Psalm 51 prayer of David, and then we need to see the basis of the incredible things that happened on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2:1 ff). That basis you may recall was a prayer meeting that lasted ten days. We will look at these examples of prayer in order to discover design and principles that will help us to have an effective prayer life.

Everyone prays! At one time or another, due to one circumstance or some other, to one deity or another, to one thing or another. When Paul went into the city of Athens (Acts 17), he was a bit shocked to discover the huge number of gods in that city. The Scripture says that Athens was a city wholly given to idolatry (Acts 17:16). Idolatry implies that the people of Athens were deeply devoted to their gods, and that they worshipped them. A natural part of their worship would be prayer. Was there something wrong with their prayers? Does God, in the Bible, give us real guidelines that would give us assurance that our prayers were being heard, and that an answer was on the way?

The purpose of this chapter is to search the Bible and learn what God has to say in this extremely important matter. As was true for the Athenians, not all prayer finds its way to the ear of Jehovah (his real name, [Jeremiah 16:21]). There are some very clear teachings in the Word of God, given for the express purpose of guiding in the matter of successful prayer. The word pray is used in the Bible over four hundred times. The word prayer is used over 100 times. We could never do an exegesis of all these passages, so we are going to look at just those that we need in order to gain the ear of almighty God.

First, we must accept the truth that the Bible is the inspired, written Word of God. What it has to say about prayer is the final word. Yes, there are about as many opinions as there are people, but opinions are just that, and ultimately, in this matter, they don’t work.

Second, we must know that the God to whom we pray is the God of the Bible, and there is no other than him. Then, we must know that he wants to hear from us! We are his creation, and he loves us beyond imagination. But then, there is a channel (John 14:6, later) for prayer that leads directly to his ear, and again, this is not a matter for speculation or opinion; it is a matter of objective truth. So, we must find that truth in order to have the prayer life that we need and that God intended.

In its simplest definition prayer is communicating with God, and it is the single most needed thing in all of life. We were created by him and for him, and without him life is never what it could be, should be. God sets the standards by which we must live, we do not. And those standards have been given to us through the prophets and apostles of God, and have been preserved for us in the pages of the Bible.

One does not get from the Bible what God has for us through a casual, once-in-a-while reading. Careful study is different. For example, what we are doing in this book is a study, not just a reading. We will look very carefully at each passage, each verse. And we will be careful to understand the meaning of words that are used and the context in which they are applied.

Example: As Jesus was about to be taken away from the apostles he left them a commandment. That commandment has been superficially interpreted by many. He said, Ye shall be my witnesses. Sounds simple, but it isn’t. In American culture, by American definition, a witness is someone who, one way or another, gives an account of certain happenings which he or she personally observed. There is no personal involvement in the witness, there is just the statement of facts and no more. And this is important, but it is not enough.

The word that is translated into the word witness in Acts 1:8 is the Greek word marturion, which is accurately transliterated into the English word martyr. Those first Christians understood that their faith in Christ might very well lead to death. For them, it was a giving of an account of the facts about Jesus Christ, but it was more, much more! It was not just a statement of fact; it was a statement of personal involvement—objective, yes, but even more so, subjective. These men, and women, did not just observe the life of Jesus, they experienced it! For them it was death over denial. A martyr is someone who is personally involved in the truth. And so they were. And so must Christians always be.

An objective study of the cross will never convey the message that God has for us…never.

Many passages from the Old Testament deal with prayer. This one is especially important for the wellbeing of one’s nation: "If My people, who are called by My Name, will [1] humble themselves and [2] pray and [3] seek my face, and [4] turn from their evil ways, then I will [1] hear from heaven, and [2] forgive their sins, and [3] heal their land" (2 Chron. 7:14, emphasis added).

So, based on the Word of God, healing for nations comes not from treaties or good intentions, but from the hand of God. And that comes from the prayers of a humble, repenting people. But now, we must say what many just simply will not accept: Who can do this? Answer: My people. So who are the people of God? The people of God are those who have repented of sin and come to the one channel (one channel only!) who opens the door to the Father. That one Channel is the One Way to God, Jesus Christ, his only begotten Son (John 3:16).

The Model Prayer

Matthew 6:5–16

Matthew. 6:5. Jesus warned them, and us, of the danger of praying in such a way as to impress those around us in the matter of our spirituality. Prayer is never, never to impress folks about how well we pray! Prayer is for the ear of God, and him only. And we are so weak in this that Jesus told them, and us, to enter into thy closet and shut the door so that our focus will be completely on our heavenly Father, and for no one else.

Matthew. 6:7. Vain Repetition—This does not mean that we should not repeat our prayer. Jesus prayed three times in the Garden; Paul prayed three times for personal healing; and the great multitude in heaven praised God repeatedly (Revelation 19:1–6) What it does mean is prayer should never be of vain, empty words, repeated over and over.

Matthew. 6:8. Do not be like those who speak in empty phrases and meaningless words, because God hears, and he doesn’t have to be convinced. Again, that does not mean that we should never repeat a prayer, for in many cases we need to pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17).

V. 9 The beginning of the Model Prayer.

"Our