Why Does God Use Prayer To Accomplish His Will?
In a previous post we looked at the power of prayer. We learned a vital lesson – one which at first blush sounds a bit odd, but one which in fact affirms a very basic biblical truth. We learned that there is no power in prayer. That is, there is no power in the act of prayer itself. The power of prayer is not in the act of praying, but in the God of Power and Might who accomplishes His will on earth as it is in heaven through the instrument of prayer.
To illustrate the point, we considered two separate arguments. First, we saw how almost all religions of the world extol the act of prayer as a core discipline of their particular religious practice. Muslims are enjoined to pray five times daily. Hindu men are called upon to pray three times a day. Members of the Baha’i faith, depending on which particular plan of personal devotion they happen to choose, are encouraged to pray up to five times daily as a spiritual discipline.
Now unless we are to believe that all religions are essentially teaching the same basic ideas and worshiping the same God, we are forced by sheer logic to conclude that there cannot be an equal efficacy to the prayers of peoples of all religions. Though peoples of all faiths engage in a similar-appearing act of prayer, which from an outside observer’s perspective would seem to represent the same basic phenomenon, are we as Christians to believe that this act of prayer is equally attended by supra-human power regardless of who is doing the praying or before whom the prayers are submitted? Of course not. The power of prayer is not in the act of prayer, but in God – the one and only true God who has revealed Himself in creation and Scripture – who accomplishes His will through our prayers.
Second, we witnessed how Elijah’s confrontation with the prophets of Baal helped to illustrate the true power of prayer. The prophets of Baal prayed to their god all day long. The sincerity of their devotion – testified to most graphically by their bloody self-mutilation – was then and is still unquestionable. But their result – or lack of result – is striking. 1 Kings 18:29 reads: “But there was no voice; no one answered, no one paid attention.” The reason that there was no answer was that they were petitioning a non-existent deity! There was no power in their prayers because they were praying to a false god! Were there power in prayer itself, this would have been a prime opportunity to see that power manifested. But, alas, there is no power in prayer – just in the Almighty God of heaven and earth, the One who made Himself known when called upon by the prophet Elijah to hear his prayer to turn the peoples’ hearts back to the God of Israel.
So we concluded last week: there is no power in prayer itself. There is, however, immeasurable power in the All-powerful and Sovereign God, Maker of heaven and earth, who has ordained prayer as one of the primary means by which He accomplishes His will on earth.
Moving on from here, then, I think it is fair to follow up with a further line of questioning, namely this: why does God so often use prayer to accomplish His will? And, as we begin to look at the Book of Acts to see how the early church engaged in prayer, what can be gleaned from those texts that might help shed light on the question, why pray?
Let us look today at just one example from Acts chapter 1, a passage in which God reveals His will through the prayers of the eleven remaining apostles. Weeks before, Judas had betrayed the Savior, having sold Him out for a mere thirty pieces of silver. Overcome with remorse, Judas went and hung himself. Now, after Christ ascended back to heaven, the remaining eleven apostles of the Lord gathered together to choose a replacement for Judas to become an apostolic witness to Christ’s resurrection.
This is what you might call a major decision. Years later, the Apostle Paul would write to the church at Ephesus that the church was “built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone.” The apostles of the Lord – those eyewitnesses of the resurrection who, according to Acts 1:21-22, accompanied the Eleven from the days of John the Baptist all the way to the ascension of Christ – formed the very foundation on which the church of Jesus Christ was built. Adding an apostle was no ordinary decision!
It is instructive to us, then, to observe the means by which the Eleven made their final selection, or more precisely, discovered which one it was that God had selected for Himself. After canvassing the potential candidates in accordance with the essential requirements stated in verses 21-22, the apostles presented two qualified men before the Lord, Barsabbas and Matthias. Acts 1:24-26 thus reads: “And they prayed and said, ‘You, Lord, who know the hearts of all, show which one of these two you have chosen to take the place in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas turned aside to go to his own place.’ And they cast lots for them, and the lot fell on Matthias, and he was numbered with the eleven apostles.”
To “cast lots” probably means that marked stones were placed in a jar, shaken up, then the one whose stone fell out first was selected. While this is the last time we read in Scripture of lot-casting, it nevertheless should not be viewed as the early leaders of the church giving the decision over to mere chance. Indeed, Proverbs 16:33 says “the lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the LORD.” Apparently, both Barsabbas and Matthias were equally qualified. The Eleven were not casting lots over a moral question, or one regarding spiritual qualification. They were choosing between two good options. But more than their choosing, they were seeking to know the one whom God had chosen. That is precisely what they prayed for: “O Lord, show us which one You have chosen.”
If a reader were to skip from verse 23 to verse 26, he would see the same ultimate result: two equally qualified men put forward from which one, Matthias, is chosen to join the Eleven to replace Judas. But verses 24 and 25 give us the heart of the matter and the lesson for today. The Eleven were not just concerned with filling a vacancy. No, much more importantly, they were concerned with knowing the mind of God and with being instruments through which He could reveal His will. They did not determine the will of God through prayer; they discovered it. They’re prayer was not the power which effected the decision; rather, they’re prayer was the instrument through which God effectively revealed His decision.
But let’s explore another important element of prayer, one that is testified to in this very passage. There are any number of ways in which God could have seen to it that Matthias became the twelfth apostle to replace Judas. If we believe that God is sovereign and will ultimately accomplish His will, then we seemingly have every reason to believe that God’s will concerning Matthias would have come to pass one way or another. But by revealing His will through the prayers of the apostles, God revealed something to them, and by extension to us, that we simply cannot miss. By making known and accomplishing His will through prayer, God is telling us that He wants us to be intimately involved in the very process by which His will is accomplished.
Recall a point we made last week: as the Sovereign God, our Lord declares the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done (Isa. 46:10). But God not only declares the ends; He also prescribes the means. And for much of what God desires to accomplish on this earth, He has prescribed that His will be accomplished through the means of prayer. God is a God who desires to involve us in His work! He doesn’t just do His will; He does His will through us! He wants us to witness Him at work. He wants us to be a very part of what He is doing. He wants to build up our faith in Him by having us petition Him concerning His will, then accomplishing that will before our very eyes, even with direct reference to our prayers.
Consider this more commonplace example. You are without a job. You are down and out. You have a family to feed, and you can’t feed them. There’s a knock at your door. You open the door and there’s a bag of groceries on your door mat. How great is that? Your family has food for a day!
But how much greater it could be if we inserted just a few critical additions. You are without a job. You are down and out. You have a family to feed, and you can’t feed them. You bow before your Heavenly Father and cry out, “Father, help me to feed my family! Let my family see that You are real and that You really care.” Then there’s a knock at your door. You open the door and there’s a man and a woman who tell you that while they were praying last night, God spoke to them about your particular need and instructed them to bless you with these provisions. Now, how great is that? Your family has food for a day. But far more important to God, your family has witnessed firsthand His care and concern for their well-being!
You see, God does not just want to provide for us. He wants us to know that He is the One providing for us! God does not just want us to help others in their need. He wants us to know that it is He who gives us the means and the heart to help others in their need. He doesn’t just do His will under a cloak of darkness. He wants us to be involved in the very accomplishment of His will.
Now what about the decision-making that took place in Acts 1? God desired that the Eleven – and presumably the rest of the infant church – all know that He had specifically appointed Matthias and that the decision was not merely a haphazard chance event. But rather than just have Matthias show up one day as the replacement, He involved others in the very process itself – through the instrument of prayer – so that those involved have a faith-building experience and through that experience learn to subject themselves, not merely to the discipline of prayer, but to the One who accomplishes His will through the means of prayer. He wants us to know that He is the Power of prayer.
Do you have some significant decisions to make in your life today? Are you deciding on a career move? What college to attend? A relationship? Are you part of a search team at a church considering a pastoral candidate? Whatever the case, perhaps your particular decision does not rise to the magnitude of selecting an apostle to be part of the foundation of the universal church. Nevertheless, your decision is important to you – and to God. It’s not really the magnitude of the decision that matters. It is God’s desire to magnify Himselfby revealing and accomplishing His will through our prayers. That is why God calls on us to pray.
Remember: prayer is not so much about us getting our will done in heaven; it is about God inviting us to be His instruments through which He accomplishes His will here on earth. Prayer is not about us “twisting God’s arm” to see things our way. It is about us submitting ourselves to the will of God as revealed in the word of God, and asking God to accomplish those things in our lives in tangible ways that bring us into close and intimate contact with Him and involve us in the very process. Just like with the Eleven as they sought the Lord about a replacement for Judas, God wants us to be intimately involved as instrumental means through which He brings about His desired ends.
So why does God use prayer to accomplish His will and what do we learn from this passage in Acts regarding prayer? That the Omnipotent and Sovereign God wants us to be involved in the very accomplishment of His will – not so we can think that our prayers were the effective power, but that He effectively used our prayers as means to bring about His desired ends. As Jesus instructed us to pray: “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”