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Prayer Availeth
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"...To him that knocketh it shall be opened." -- Luke 11:10
These words of the Master reveal the third fundamental principle of the effectual fervent prayer that availeth much.
The Master disclosed the value of praying persistently in His discourse about the man asking three loaves at midnight. There is something much more encouraging in His teachings about prayer than we find in the words of the reluctant neighbor, who said, "...Trouble me not: the door is now shut..." Our Lord would have us understand that the goodness of our heavenly Father far exceeds the goodness of the sleepy man. The Master is teaching us that we can prevail in prayer in spite of the discouragements and difficulties confronting us in life.
The bread so desperately needed to satisfy the hunger of the weary wayfarer was on the other side of the closed door. Much depended on the importunate pleading and insistent knocking on the part of the man seeking bread. If he had been discouraged by his friend's gruff words, "...Trouble me not...," he would have gone away defeated and empty handed. If he had believed that his drowsy friend had spoken his final word when he said, "...The door is now shut...," he would have departed with a deep sense of frustration and failure.
Our heavenly Father will never rebuff his praying children, saying, "...The door is now shut..."Jesus is teaching us to pray with unwavering faith and firm confidence. He inspired us with dauntless courage to pray persistently when He said, "...To him that knocketh it shall be opened."
The Savior's heartening words imply that a vast realm of truth will be opened unto us when we knock at the door of the Father's house. It will enhance our understanding concerning the possibilities of prayer if we will devote some time to study what the Savior has said about the open door set before His people.
Jesus identified Himself as being the door when He said,
"I am the door: by me if any man will enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture." -- John 10:9
His astonishing words enable us to comprehend more completely the truth about prevailing prayer.
Christ is the door. He is the only entrance to God, and the only entrance to salvation. When we put Him in the promise regarding our persistent knocking in prayer we can perceive the truth. We can interpret the assuring promise as saying, "To him that knocketh, Christ, the Door, shall be opened." In other words, Christ will open Himself to us in answer to prayer. This is a blessed truth to contemplate. Christ opens His loving heart to His praying people. He opens His eternal hope to His praying people. He opens His enduring holiness to His praying people. He opens His invincible strength to His praying people. In the light of this Divine revelation, one is constrained to say,
"O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!" -- Rom. 11:33.
It has pleased the Lord to open His immutable purpose to His faithful saints and enable them to see His ultimate triumph over sin and death. He opens the gates of eternal life, the greatness of enduring love, and the glory of His likeness to His praying family. Through prayer we can enter into the joys of an uttermost salvation and delight ourselves in the abundance of peace. Through prayer we can escape the snares of Satan, and elude the evil purposes of the foe.
Christ is both an entrance and an exit. We can pray our way into the blessed realities of spiritual life, and pray our way out of the bewildering problems of life. Our Lord revealed these gracious facts to us when He said, "...To him that knocketh it shall be opened."
When Jesus opens Himself to His praying people He opens eternity to them, for He fills eternity with Himself and contains eternity in Himself. He is the First Cause and the Final Conclusion of everything in time and in eternity. Our concept of Christ is enlarged when He opens to us. The Psalmist was fully aware of this marvelous truth when he said,
"...Thou hast set my feet in a large room." -- Psa. 31:8.
Christ wills to open His Word to us in answer to prayer. He stated this fact when He said,
"I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me." -- John 17:8.
Perhaps my personal testimony will encourage others to pray that Christ will reveal His words to them. During the quiet hour of the morning I was asking the Savior to enable me to understand His Word. For many years I had made it my practice to study the Scriptures, but I was aware that the Scriptures contained a depth of meaning that I had not perceived. I sincerely desired to understand the Word of God. I realized my need of an enlarged concept of the plan of salvation. It was the one prayer of my heart to know more about God's invincible Word in order to preach the message of life to a perishing world. I was convinced that the Lord had heard my sincere prayer. Not many days after the season of prayer, He began to unfold His Word of truth to my heart and mind with a depth of meaning I had never known.
I was teaching in Asbury College when the Lord began to reveal His Word to me. I listened to my own lecture with great interest. I said things about the Savior that had not been prepared in my notes for the class. The light of Divine revelation flooding my soul was not the result of my reasoning. The truth about redemption did not come from my own mind; it was coming from the mind of Christ. My soul was enjoying great peace, and His living words were like fire in my spirit. I was constrained to tell others of the Savior's love for lost humanity. To this happy hour His truth abides within my heart and mind. His Spirit continues to reveal the Words of Christ to me day by day. I can say with the Psalmist,
"As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God." -- Psa. 42:1.
God's imperishable truth will glow with a new light when we knock at His door in prayer. If we have failed to grasp the significance of Christ's plain teachings about prayer when He said, "...To him that knocketh it shall be opened," we should ask Him to open Himself to us. There is nothing more simple and understandable in life than knocking at a door. Even a little child can knock at a door.
Christ is the Door between the spiritual realm and the physical realm. When we are born of the Spirit we enter a spiritual kingdom, which is a spiritual realm. We live, move, and have our being in a spiritual realm with Christ. We are in the world physically, but we are not of the world spiritually. God's Word declares that a righteous person is like a tree. A tree lives in two realms of nature; it lives in the earth, and it lives above the earth. Paul recognized this amazing fact when he said,
"Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth." -- Col. 3:2.
Jesus revealed an amazing truth when He said, "I am the door..." We can enter into His presence and pray before Him in the same simple manner that we can go into another room through an open door. When we discover this amazing truth, we find it possible to take others into
His presence and talk with Him about their needs. It has been my pleasure to take others into the presence of Jesus many times. I saw the truth of these things when I entered into a covenant of prayer with Christ. I do not find it difficult to enter into His presence at anytime.
When Jesus said, "...To him that knocketh it shall be opened," He meant to show us that it is possible for His praying people to enter the heavenly place where He is seated on the mediatorial throne, and present their petitions to Him. This fact is substantiated by Paul, who said,
"...Seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God." -- Col. 3:1.
The inspired prophet evidently perceived this wonderful truth concerning Christ when he said,
"...He shall be for a glorious throne to his Father's house." -- Isa. 22: 23.
God's children have a glorious throne in the Father's house. They have a perfect right to come boldly to the glorious throne of grace and make their requests known unto their heavenly Father.
Our Lord likewise disclosed a marvelous truth about the door when He said, "...And shall go in and out, and find pasture." It is apparent that a saved man can go from one realm to another and find spiritual food. Jesus has made an ample provision to sustain His people in both the physical realm and the spiritual realm. He cares for His people in the natural world and in the spiritual world. The Savior would have us understand that the Good Shepherd will care for His flock while they are out in the field, even as He cares for them when they are in the fold. In other words, the Savior will preserve us while we work and witness for Him in the world, like He preserves us when we are resting safely in the fold of His love. It is written,
"The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore." -- Psa. 121:8.
The changeless Christ has spoken with absolute authority concerning the open door.
"...Behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name." -- Rev. 3:8
"...To him that knocketh it shall be opened."
It shall remain open to all eternity.
"...Golden vials full of odors, which are the prayers of saints." -- Rev. 5:8
Christ frequently chooses some unusual place on earth to reveal Himself to mankind. It is obviously consistent with His Divine Nature and eternal purpose in redemption to disclose Himself in some unusual place and in some unexpected manner.
He revealed Himself to Moses in a burning bush in a desert. He revealed Himself to be the long expected Messiah to a woman of unsavory reputation at Jacob's well. He revealed a measure of His effulgent glory to three chosen disciples on a high mountain. He revealed Himself and His purpose to give the Gentiles the Gospel to Saul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus.
Perhaps the most amazing revelation ever given to mortal man was given to John when the Savior revealed Himself clothed in His majesty and might standing in the midst of the seven churches. John said,
"...When I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead...." -- Rev. 1: 17.
Christ chose to reveal Himself to John while in exile on the lonely isle of Patmos. This holy disciple was banished to this wave-washed and wind-swept pile of shattered stones and shifting sands,
"...For the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ." -- Rev. 1:9.
The Savior selected this faithful man to be the human channel through which His sublime truth could be given to His trusting saints. It pleased the blessed Lord to reveal the sublime truth about prayer in John's picturesque language, "...Golden vials full of odors"
Our Lord would evidently have us understand that prayer is a part of worship. It is like the odors of sweet incense ascending upward to God. The heavenly Father is pleased with our fervent prayers when we fill them with the fragrance of our sincere worship.
The Savior would have us understand that our prayers are kept in golden vials in His Holy Place in heaven like the golden censer, and the ark of the covenant overlaid round about with gold, were kept in the most Holy Place in the temple.
Perhaps God's praying people have not fully grasped the fact that all sincere prayers are immortal, and the Lord preserves these prayers like a sweet incense kept in golden vials.
We surely are aware that Christ's prayers are living petitions preserved for us in His plan of eternal salvation. He breathed the power of His endless life into His prayers. His prayers are immortal because He is immortal. His prayers will be answered because He is the answer to all prayer.
The prayers recorded in the Holy Scriptures are an immortal part of the Divine plan of salvation. These petitions were made immortal by the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit. The Spirit enables God's people to pray with yearnings which cannot be uttered.
"And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God." -- Rom. 8:27.
It is clearly disclosed in this remarkable Scripture that every prayer empowered by the indwelling Spirit becomes an integral and immortal part of the entire economy of God as disclosed in the plan of redemption.
I am thoroughly convinced that every prayer offered according to the will of God shall be answered either in our lifetime on earth, or after we have entered our heavenly home. However, I cannot discover anything revealed in the Word of God to warrant anyone in believing that the translated saints can pray for persons living on the earth. Praying to the translated saints, and asking them to pray for us, is a modified form of idolatry. Jesus Christ is the only mediator between God and man. All prayers must be offered to Him, and in His Name only.
When I affirm that every prayer offered in the Name of Jesus shall be answered, I am not saying that God will overrule the human will in order to answer our prayers. He cannot and will not save any man against his will, but He will convict a man of sin against his will.
Perhaps an incident will disclose what I mean when I speak of an immortal prayer. One night during a camp meeting, a man came to the altar weeping with deep conviction for sin. After a season of earnest prayer, he was converted and gave a glowing testimony. His faithful father had preached for many years and had prayed often during those years for his unsaved son. He never lived to see his son saved, but on this particular night in the camp meeting, the loving Lord answered prayer and saved this erring son of the preacher.
It helps me to imagine that the Savior called His sainted servant and said, "My child, I have many of your prayers in golden vials. They are like sweet odors poured out before Me. I have the prayers you offered for your erring son during your lifetime on earth. I am now ready to answer your prayers during the camp meeting where you preached My Gospel many years ago. My child, I have just now granted your son a pardon in answer to your prayers and prayers of My people." It encourages my heart to believe that God will answer every prayer.
While praying during the quiet hours of the morning in a hotel room some years ago, I was burdened to pray for a woman slowly dying with a cancer of the throat. She had been a successful missionary for many years and had returned home from the field broken in health, bitter and resentful in spirit. I knew her saintly mother during her lifetime, and I knew how she had prayed for her daughter.
While praying for this dying missionary, the Lord said to me, "I am ready and willing to answer a mother's prayer, and give her suffering daughter peace of heart and mind." I was so sure that the Lord had spoken to me about this dying woman, and about His willingness to answer her mother's prayers, that I wrote a letter urging certain women to go and pray with this suffering missionary. She found peace and comfort of heart and mind, and went home within a few weeks to be with her faithful Savior and her rejoicing mother.
Many of the Lord's redeemed children will live and die without receiving the answers to many of their sincere prayers. When we live by faith and die in the faith, we can be assured that a Just and Holy God will not forget His certified promises regarding His willingness to answer the prayers offered in the Name of Jesus.
The "...golden vials full of odors, which are the prayers of the saints," shall be poured out before the mediatorial throne of Jesus some glorious day. When that gladsome hour shall arrive on the wings of time, we shall see the triumph of the tears we have shed in the hours of agonizing prayer. We shall see the Father glorified in the Son.
We are living in a passing world filled with fears and doubts; but we can live in this transient world and not be filled with its fears and doubts regarding the answer to our prayers. The inspired Psalmist said,
"Trust in him at all times; ye people, pour out your heart before him: God is a refuge for us." Psa. 62:8.
God's certified promises relating to prayer give us the inalienable right to say,
"Hear my cry, O God; attend unto my prayer. From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, when my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the rock that is higher than I." -- Psa. 61:1,2.
The Scriptures encourage us to pray incessantly and importunately knowing within ourselves that God will answer our petitions in His own time, and according to His own will. Let us offer up prayers with strong crying and tears unto Him that is able to save to the uttermost. Let us pray without ceasing until the hour comes for our immortal prayer to be poured out like sweet incense poured out of golden vials.
"Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am..." -- JOHN 17:24
Jesus presented the precious legacy of His prayer when He offered His intercessory prayer preserved for us by John. The Lord let His disciples have the pleasure of knowing what His intercession for them in heaven as their High Priest was like. The disciples had heard the Savior pray for them many times, but they had never heard Him pray as He did at this particular time. They must have been deeply impressed by the simplicity of His approach to the Father. They heard Him pray with the implicit confidence of the Beloved Son, Who is coequal and eternal with the Father. They must have realized that Christ breathed into His intercessory prayer the efficacy and power of His endless life.
Jesus presented the priceless legacy of His prayer to the Father when He said, "Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou gavest me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world." These gracious words of Jesus reveal His final will regarding the blessed estate of the redeemed. His inalienable right to plead His will before the Father is based on His finished work in the world. He said,
"I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do." -- v. 4.
Jesus made it clear that His intercessory prayer is an integral part of His redemptive work on the cross. His finished work and His final will are one in the Divine plan of salvation.
It has pleased the Savior to disclose the final fulfillment of all He has willed and devised for His purchased people. The pleasing prospect of being with Him where He is shall be fulfilled to the glory of the Father and to the everlasting admiration and joyful acclamation of His adoring saints.
It was difficult for the disciples to understand the Savior's avowed purpose to go away. Their minds were sorely perplexed and their hearts troubled by the disturbing fact of His sufferings and death. They thought that He was leaving them alone to serve and suffer in a world hostile toward all they believed and preached. Perhaps they had almost reached the point of accepting final defeat when Jesus revived their faltering courage, saying,
"Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you." -- John 14:1,2.
Let us emphasize His gracious words, "...A place for you." Our Lord revealed the purpose of His departure when He uttered these immortal words. He lifted the veil between time and eternity to establish the faith of His troubled people. He enabled His ransomed saints to see the heavenly home of the soul with the eyes of their hearts. He would have His people rest their faith on His comforting words, "In my Father's house are many mansions..."
There will be no homeless children in the family of God. All shall dwell in stately mansions throughout the endless day. This unfriendly world has no permanent abiding place for the children of God. They were born in this world, and many shall be buried in this world, but this passing world is not their home. They have no continuing city on the earth. God's people are citizens of the celestial City, the heavenly Jerusalem, which John saw coming down from heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
Perhaps we are disposed to think of the eternal pleasure and ineffable joys to be obtained in the place prepared for His people. We try to visualize the beauty of the City whose Builder and Maker is God. We are inclined to wonder about the skill of the Infinite Artist who has blended the seven prismatic colors of white light to enhance the resplendent glory of the holy habitation of the redeemed.
While meditating on the blessed hope of heaven let us not overlook the fact that our expectations are based on the finished work of Christ. Jesus said to the Father, "I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do." He made no mention of the price paid in blood and tears to prepare the place where we could be with Him to all eternity. He prays like One returning home after having completed an assigned task.
His vicarious sufferings on the middle cross provided the necessary fitness of moral character for us to sharp eternal bliss with Him in the Father's house. His intercessory prayer assures us that we can be sanctified through the truth. It is His will to cleanse us by His blood and present us holy and unblamable and unreproved in His sight. (Colossians 1:22.)
We have every reason to believe that we can avail ourselves of the blessed benefits of His finished work, and come to the end of life's journey and receive a grand welcome into the City of God. His finished work and final will are the sure foundation on which we rest our hope to be with Him where He is, and to behold His glory.
Jesus possessed a peculiar joy in achieving His Father's purpose in redemption. He had a peculiar pleasure in providing a place in the Father's house for His trusting people. His joy in bringing many sons unto glory enabled Him to triumph over His physical sufferings and anguish of soul.
The merciless mockery of the multitude, the scorning sneers of the scribes, and the reproaches of the riotous rabble could not turn Him from His fixed purpose to finish His work according to the will of the Father. The stripes, spittle, blood, and bruises could not defeat Him. The insults and indignities heaped upon Him could not overwhelm His fervent love for His homeless saints. Being numbered with the transgressors, He was crucified on a lonely hill called Calvary. He suffered, the Just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God.
He was despised by foes, derided by fanatics, and deserted by friends, but He triumphed over sin and death, and returned to the right hand of the majesty on High, and ever lives to make intercession for His saints.
It would be utterly impossible to imagine the overwhelming despair and dreadful disappointment that would sweep over the souls of the redeemed if Christ's prayer should not be answered. The black raven of despair would croak the dirge of eternal death on the graves of the godly. The living sons of God would lift up their voices in unutterable lament and bewail the day they heard the hope of the Gospel.
We have no fears and doubts regarding the final triumph of Christ's intercessory prayer. He has presented His petition as a legacy to be shared by His trusting people. His last will and testament has been signed by His nail-scarred hand and sealed by the Holy Spirit. Every word uttered in His immortal intercession shall be answered in full.
The voice of His supplication has been heard in high heaven, and the language of His weeping has been interpreted before the mercy seat of pure gold. His tears shall triumph and His petition shall be granted.
It is almost unbelievable that our Lord can find pleasure in holy fellowship with His ransomed people to all eternity. His prayer shows us that it is His will to dwell with His people in the sacred bond of love throughout all ages, world without end.
The greatest pleasure to be enjoyed in heaven will be the unspeakable pleasure of being with the Savior for evermore. The glory of His presence shall make glad the City of God.
We would find no pleasure in beholding the beauty of the Father's house of many mansions if Christ were not present to fill it with the light of His countenance. The brightness of His glory, and beauty of His Person shall enhance the happiness of the redeemed. The river of life, the fruitful trees, and the anthems of angels enhance the joys of the habitation of the holy people, but these blessed realities would fail to satisfy the citizens of the land of endless day unless the glorified Son were present to receive their eternal praise.
Let us continue to pray that our Lord will count us worthy to receive the legacy of His intercessory prayer presented to the Father. Let us not fail to obtain the spiritual fitness provided for us in His finished work. We must ever be mindful of the fact that without holiness no man shall see the Lord.
Let us take comfort in the Savior's immortal prayer, "Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou gavest me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world."
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