In my earliest years, when you pulled into a gas station, you waited for the attendant to fill up your tank with fuel. And then came self-service stations. Now we have self-serve ice cream, self-serve check-out counters, self-serve bank accounts, etc.

Undetectable to the human eye, we now have self-serve ministers (ordained by seminaries instead of God) who help themselves to a congregation.

Almost all believers of the bible now have a self-serve faith. They imagine somehow that the larger their prayer circle is, the more God will listen to them. Elijah’s faith, as told in 1 Kings 18:30-46, does not receive as much attention these days as the type described in James 5:13-16.

Yes, God does tell His people to pray. But why? How many realize their idea of prayer is backwards? Our prayers don’t cause God to move. God is the one who does what He will and He will do it whether or not we pray. The hard concept to grasp is why then would He have us to pray?

One reason it’s hard for God’s elect (impossible for the unregenerate) to comprehend something so insulting is because of not being humbled enough to realize just how much we need God and God does not need us. God owes us nothing. We owe all of our being to Him. With the gap that exists between mankind and God, it’s not hard to understand why He needed to remind us in Isaiah 55:8-9 about trusting mankind to rule.

Every time God (not self) places us in the position to pray, He does it to work out the salvation that He originally gave us in the first place. From the human perspective, it seems we’re being proactive (because our will does act). Since God is the one who saves us (from our slavery to sin) for His use, He also will use our prayers. He will even let those who are not saved to be deceived into thinking He answers their prayers for them (to explain that statement would make this post way too long).

God instructed us to pray, “as it is in heaven,” in Matthew 6:10.  That means “It is finished.” When Jesus said that in John 19:30, he didn’t just mean His work on earth. Christ’s work on earth was a by-product of God’s will that was already done in heaven before He even created the world. This is why the LORD wanted to do His heavenly Father’s will.

If mankind couldn’t believe that his prayers ultimately held the power to possibly control the fate of events, most would never pray. Prayers have power, but only those which God has inspired.

When someone prays believing that his prayers control God’s behavior, it reveals that he has twisted around what God says in Philippians 2:12-13.  He has self-served himself to self-righteousness by thinking that he accepted Christ as his Lord and savior, while God waited helplessly in heaven hoping that He [God] would be elected by him (as if God was the lottery player and man was the one who possesses the wealth).

These self-gods are the false Christs and false prophets (mentioned in Matthew 24:24) Satan sends out to deceive (if it were possible) those who seek peace from the torment of guilt. They bend the truth by rationalizing that God knew ahead of time they would choose Him. One or the other is Almighty, so since God knows 100% of the future (He designed it) and man can’t, then how can it be logical that man is in control of it?… or is that too deep for most to try comprehending?

Because demonic spirits are allowed to roam this earth, there are people with a limited degree of capability to foresee some future events and have some psychic abilities. This is why the bible warns against this practice of witchcraft and fortune telling. It does exist. It can even appear to be used for the ‘good’ of mankind.

To believe that God submits His will to man’s desires expressed in prayer, is a subtle form of witchcraft. When prayers are the effect of God’s spirit abiding in His children, God is using those prayers to exercise the faith He has placed in them (e.g., Elijah) for their spiritual growth. It’s how God draws His own into a closer and more dependent relationship with Him.

It’s the opposite of our physical maturity. As babies, we depend on our parents tremendously. The goal of growing up is to become more independent so that we’re mature enough to meet the needs of our own children when they’re born. If we don’t gradually substitute our dependency upon our parents with one towards God, we end up living our lives in rebellion against God. Why it happens naturally is explained in Jeremiah 17:9.

Matthew 18:19 can be misleading if it is not compared with other scripture verses. At first, it seems like God is reacting to the action of two people agreeing on earth. In a way, He is… but these two people who are doing the asking are desiring God’s will to be done. They are doing so because what they are touching upon is a result of the thoughts God has placed into their minds. They are doing what’s said in 2 Corinthians 10:5.

All Christians belong to the Kingdom of God and all are Kings who rule over self (i.e., have true self-control). Proverbs 21:1 tells us that our hearts (minds) are turned whatever way the hand of the LORD wills. Those who pray for God’s will to be done, shall permanently grow into God’s will. We have this promise in Philippians 1:6.

Psalm 37:4 is also evidence that prayer is the symptom of God’s spirit at work in His children. When prayers are not inspired by God, they reflect a delight to serve self and God warns what may become of those prayers in James 4:3.

Why would God tell us to take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ when He [God] is the one who controls what way every individual’s heart goes (e.g., Exodus 7:13)? Because from our perspective, it’s impossible for us to see God steering our heart.

Without the faith of Christ, we are left to believe that we are the masters of our own destiny. God puts us to the test with every choice He gives us. We are responsible and accountable for what we do and/or don’t do.

For those who are His, we work (i.e., control self/thoughts) out what He worked in. As for the other 97%, what’s worked out are the symptoms caused by sin worked into human nature.

Symptoms are those things which work their way out and causes are those things which have worked their way in. As spiritual deception increases, causes are increasingly mistaken for symptoms and symptoms are mistaken for causes.

No, Lord, no... anything but my internet connection wires!

Not all trees grow up. Some grow sideways in wet soil!

I guess what all this means is that things ought to be looking better after today! I thought I might be returning back to my run down feeling I had last Wednesday when a sore throat and fever was trying to take over me, but even being out in the damp chill couldn’t make me ill. All day Wednesday I dosed myself periodically with colloidal silver, so by that evening whatever it was that was trying to make me sick was all gone. Here it is Friday night (I began this post in the morning with the two photos) and ‘the bug’ hasn’t resurfaced in spite of the stormy weather.

What an amazing antibiotic colloidal silver is! My son didn’t believe me that it would cure his conjunctivitis (pink eye), but it promptly did. My husband didn’t think it would cure his appendicitis attack on the Wednesday of last October 29th, but it worked¹ faster than he was able to prepare himself for going to the hospital (which is hard to do when you’re busy squirming on the floor in pain while vomiting repeatedly). Unfortunately, due to potential troublemakers, I don’t dare give any more examples and/or details. I’m not giving medical advice. I’m merely sharing some past historical events some people might find interesting. Even though I say this about colloidal silver, God deserves all the glory. He is the great physician who guides the way, heals, and answers prayers!

¹I found this information quite helpful (click on it for more info):

thank God!

The little red book (← a pun is there folks!) I’m referring to is titled The Book of Prayers: Compiled for Everyday Worship. It was published in 1981 by Avenel Books in New York and edited by Leon and Elfreda McCauley. Most people would glean through its pages and think it to be dull. Maybe I did too, since I never paid much attention to it during the quarter of a century that it’s been sitting on my shelf.

Anyhow, earlier last evening, I had been brought down in spirits because of being reminded of the harsh realities Aspies face in regards to employment due to how illogical (insane) the work force scene is. It came from the book Theory of Mind and the Triad of Perspectives on Autism and Asperger Syndrome: A View from the Bridge by Olga Bogdashina (more specifically from Temple Grandin’s statements repeated on page 158):

“Many people with autism expect all people to be good. It is a rude awakening to learn that some people are bad and might try to exploit them. AS people often cannot hold down jobs as they are unable (and often unwilling) to ‘play social games’. They are straightforward (not rude). They cannot accept that ‘know-who (to please)’ is more important than ‘know-how (to do the job)’.”

If all people lived to please God, then the work force scene would be logical and sane instead. Oh well, that’s for the new earth — for now, there is still work to be done in this present one. Even though I enjoy most of the work I do,¹ in spite of not getting paid and never receiving encouragement or praise for it, I don’t enjoy being constantly compared to and judged against the lifestyles of ‘normal’ women today.

Enough said about what brought me down; now to what elevated me! Page 28, of the prayer book, contained one called For a Purposeful Life. These are the words which blessed me with the same peace that children acquire from knowing their boundaries given to them from loving parents for their protection:

“When we have found life good, O Lord, we have asked for longer days; when we have found it heavy, we have asked for a lighter load. Teach us to accept whatever comes to us as useful cargo freighted with possible blessing. Help us to wrest a blessing from circumstance, to work with thee in making all things work together for good because we will to live according to thy purpose. Amen.”

Living according to God’s purpose, rather than according to what I want God’s purpose to be for me, is a comfort zone that no prescribed medication can offer. I should know that by now. It must go to show that knowing is not the same thing as humbly abiding in that knowledge.

I don’t know what other blessings lay ahead from the prayers in this book, but I’m eager to find out. The introduction The Strength of Personal Prayer by Harry Emerson Fosdick is loaded with profound statements. I shall summarize this post with a portion from page 4:

“There are two aspects to every strong life—rootage and fruitage, receptivity and activity, relaxation and tension, resting back and working hard. A man who cannot do the former can never do the latter well, never! He who cannot rest, cannot work; he who cannot let go, cannot hold on; he who cannot find footing, cannot go forward. The offices of psychiatrists are littered with folk who have mastered the techniques of activity and aggressiveness and now are going all to pieces because they have failed to master that other technique: they have nothing to rest back upon.”

¹It’s the household engineering duties that can be a drag, but then when I feel that way, I know what’s in need of readjustment (me). Being thankful is the cure for most everything → the greatest is being spared from eternal annihilation!

. . . give me neither poverty nor riches; — That doesn’t sound like today’s prosperity gospel message. We hear a lot about The Prayer of Jabez but we don’t here a whole lot about The Prayer of Agur. I guess it’s because it doesn’t satisfy the itch many ears have these days.

2 Timothy 4:3, “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;”