Does God Intervene?

Why Pray?

If there was one thing in my Christian life that I found hard to understand, it was prayer. God knows everything. He sees the end from the beginning. He doesn’t plan everything in our lives but He knows everything. The very thing God wants to do is for people to know Him, love Him, serve Him. So if He wants these things and we do too, why doesn’t it just happen? Why pray?

I was talking to Graeme one day and he said that the "rain falls on the righteous and the unrighteous and when we pray we can change course". My whole perspective on prayer altered!

The Scripture says:

He is good to all (Psalm 45:9)

For God so loved the world that He gave His own Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16)

For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust (Matthew 5:45)

The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. The Lord is good to all, and his mercy is over all that he has made (Psalm 145:8-9).

Good things happen to bad people and bad things happen to good people, however when we pray we can change the trajectory of the future. Intercepting prayer can change our thought patterns, and we can move onto a new pathway.

There are the heart agonizing prayers like Hannah praying for a child (1 Sam 1:9-28). David’s repentance prayer for forgiveness of his sin with Bathsheba (Psalm 51). Nehemiah’s quick prayer for the King to grant him his request (Nehemiah 2:4-5). Hezekiah going into the temple and laying out the letter from King Senneharib of their eminent invasion and pleading for God’s help (Kings 19:15-16;19). Steady constant prayers like Daniel praying three times a day at his window (Daniel 6:10). Elisha praying for his servant so he could see into the spiritual realm (2 Kings 6:17).

God loves all so why do we need to ask for what he already wants from us and others? Perhaps a better question is; does God intervene in our lives by prayer? Can we change the trajectory of our life through prayer? God has given us free-will, and with it comes the responsibility of living as a human being led by the Holy Spirit, just as Jesus did, an example for us to follow.

Paul’s Life - Before and After Conversion

Paul (Saul) was a very zealous man for God and the traditions of his fathers. When this new Nazarene sect became what he thought was a rival to Judaisim, it had to be put down. 

In his own words:

I persecuted this Way to the death, binding and putting both men and women into prisons (Act 22:4)

So I thought to myself that I had to act in strong opposition to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. (Act 26:9)

And this is just what I did in Jerusalem; not only did I lock up many of the saints in prisons, …but I also cast my vote against them when they were being put to death. (Acts 26:10)

…I tried to force them to blaspheme; and since I was extremely enraged at them, I kept pursuing them even to foreign cities. (Act 26:11)

How much then was God involved in Paul’s pre-conversion life? He valued being spiritual, so he had made it his aim to know more about in God in order to please Him.

“I am a Jew, born in Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up in this city. At the feet of Gamaliel. I was educated strictly in our ancestral law and was zealous for God, just as all of you are today. (Acts:22:3)

In his zealousness to keep the traditions pure, it seems that he forgot about mercy - but he states that God granted him mercy because he was ignorant and unbelieving (1 Tim 1:13). Arn’t a lot of people in that boat you might say? There is a small phrase in Acts 26:14 in Christ’s conversation with Paul. Jesus said to him:

‘It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’

“Hard for you to kick against the goads…” A goad is an animal prodder to push them into the direction you want the animal to go. God was prodding him. There was something in Paul’s conscience that greatly bothered him as he went around arresting those men and women. Somehow I think he knew that in his zeal he was neglecting something greater as when Jesus rebuked the leaders saying:

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier provisions of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others” (Matt 23:23).

Justice, mercy and faithfulness - the heart of God. In Paul’s fervour for truth he neglected to seek revelation from God and love people.

So now Paul is on his way to Damascus to find Christians and he finds that he has an encounter with their leader instead. In a flash of light Paul is blinded and falls to the ground making him cry out: 

    Who are you Lord?!

 …I am Jesus, the Nazarene whom you are persecuting.

“I am Jesus”. What a deeply shocking moment. The one he hated was… God?! His mind must have been reeling. For three days he sat in darkness remembering his experience, remembering the Scriptures, thinking about claims made from Christ’s followers and remembering Stephen as he was dying saying: “I see Heaven opened up and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God”. What grief he must have been in but - Paul knew to go to God and Acts 9:11 tells us that he prayed. After three days Ananias came to him to lay hands on him for healing and to be filled with His Spirit, immersed him in water (baptism) and called him, ‘Brother Saul…” How much changed for him in three short days. Paul received the revelation from God, saw that Jesus fulfilled the Old Testament requirements of the Messiah, followed Him, saw His miracles, lived his life devoted to Christ and became one of the most effective men on this earth.

What I hoped to show you in talking about Paul’s conversion was that it wasn’t an isolated incident. It didn’t come out of the blue. He spent his life in search of God and to follow him in every little thing. He said:

"I am a Jew, ...circumcised the eighth day, of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the Law, a Pharisee;  as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to the righteousness which is in the Law, found blameless".

He wanted to know God with all his heart and it was the Holy Spirit drawing him through his eagerness to be a learned spiritual man protecting the faith and his country. And in all of this there was a voice speaking to him louder than his actions. Something didn't sit right, he was uncomfortable doing what he was doing. The Spirit was prompting him, prodding him, drawing him in and then on the Damascus road Jesus encounters him saying: “It is hard for you to kick against the goads…”

Wanting a Map

Years ago I asked a friend “If God so wants us to follow Him why doesn’t He make things clearer. Why do we pray? Why doesn’t He lay it all out so we know what to follow!?” He replied: “Because if He gave us a map - we wouldn’t need Him”. It’s all about relationship. Isaiah says it plainly:

“Come now, and let us reason together,” says the Lord, (Isaiah 1:18)

Reasoning together means a going back and forth in dialogue. Imagine that, God wants to reason with us and help us to see right not just to be told what to do. He loves free will!

A railroad switch, is a mechanical lever enabling railway trains to be guided from one track to another. That’s a good way to explain prayer. Going in one direction, the “switch is pulled” through prayer and the “train” the life, switches to another track.

Life as a believer is to accept the will of God, but with the attitude of changing prayer too.

This is why Jesus says:

But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door, and your Father who sees in secret, will reward you” 

God does intervene through prayer. Our lives are changed because He can alter our circumstances through prayer, because "The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much” (James 5:16). And “on the day I called, you answered me; you did make me bold with strength in my soul” (Ps 138:3).

 

The Holy Spirit’s Work on Earth 

Everything that exists is sustained by him. Unbelievers may not realize it but they wake every morning because God sustains the universe.

If He only thought of Himself,
And gathered to Him His Spirit and His breath,
All flesh would expire together
And man would return to the dust (Job 34:14-15)

(ii) His work is to convict people of their state, to see their situation before God

And He, when He comes, He will convict the world regarding sin, and righteousness, and judgment” (Jhn 16:8-10)

To convict us of:

Sin: Not reaching God’s standards.
Righteousness: Doing right
Judgement: There will be a day of reckoning when Christ returns.

And to magnify Christ.

But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. “He will glorify Me, for He will take from Mine and will disclose it to you.(Jhn 16:13-14)

(iii) He speaks everyday and Hebrews tells us that when the Holy Spirit speaks, we must be responsive:

Therefore just as the Holy Spirit says, “Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your heart’ (Heb 3:7-8)

Conclusion

Our friends, family and enemies need to know the Lord and we can help by prayer, speaking to them, helping them - using any gift we have to employ (Rom 12:1-21). Come to God, leaning on His Holy Spirit to guide your prayer so it’s an effective prayer (James 5:16). Pray in tongues when you don’t know how to pray (1 Cor 14;15). Being silent before Him in tears is effective prayer (Rom 8:26). When you pray you are dialoging with God, reasoning together, and changing the trajectory.

 

 

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1 Thessalonians 5:17 Pray without ceasing
Jeremiah 33:3 Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known.
Philippians 4:6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
Ephesians 6:18 Praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints.
James 1:5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.
James 5:18 Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit.
Matthew 26:41 Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
2 Chronicles 7:14 If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.
Luke 18:1 And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart.
1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
John 16:24 Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.
Colossians 4:2 Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.
Luke 11:5-13 And he said to them, “Which of you who has a friend will go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves, for a friend of mine has arrived on a journey, and I have nothing to set before him’; and he will answer from within, ‘Do not bother me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed. I cannot get up and give you anything’? I tell you, though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his impudence he will rise and give him whatever he needs. And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. ...
1 John 5:14 And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us.

 

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Painting of Paul: By Attributed to Valentin de Boulogne - vAHBpCifHgxB7g at Google Cultural Institute maximum zoom level, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=23590521