Uninhibited Asking

Colossians 1:3-8

COL-026

We are studying Colossians 1:3-8. Our subject is "Thanksgiving for the Colossians," and this is segment number four.

We have noted in our Colossian passage that prayer is the power base for all activities in the Christian life. Prayer taps into God's almighty power and wisdom for our personal benefit. God the Holy Spirit enters into all of a Christian's prayer efforts by editing and expanding the believer's petitions as per the will of God, and as per our personal; physical; soul; and, spirit weaknesses. The apostle Paul indicates that he prays regularly for the believers in Colossae, and when he does, he thanks God for them. Only a born-again believer in the Lord Jesus Christ is authorized to pray to God the Father. Unbelievers have no line of communication with God in heaven. The order of prayer is to God the Father; on the authority of God the Son; and, in the power of God the Holy Spirit.

Prayer

Now, one of the things that, sooner or later, you discover about the Berean ministry, if you have not already learned it, is that people understand us clearly. We are not middle-of-the-roaders in this ministry. We don't take the non-controversial middle of the road, even though some people wish we would. The person who is in the middle of the road is a person who does not believe the things he stands for, and he is not opposed to the things that he is against. He is middle of the road. And from time-to-time, people come to the place where they put it in so many words such as I have heard: "I cannot go to that church. Its literal attitude toward the Scripture makes me uncomfortable because it condemns the things I like to do." And the things that those people like to do are the things from their sin nature. And sooner or later, I get the details on what it is that they like to do.

It is prayer that helps us enormously in cleaning up our lives. People who are out of step with the will of God; with the moral code of God; and, with (in heaven's name) the good judgment of God, are not people who want to pray. You don't pray when you're fooling around with sinfulness. You don't pray when you're out of step with the implications of the doctrines of Scripture. You don't pray when, in your soul, there's a corrosive, degenerative effect of evil. You just don't pray.

So, prayer brings you up face-to-face with what you are, and you stop and say, "Wait a minute. I have to straighten this out before I can go any further."

Now I cannot stress this enough. I'm talking to you young people, and to you kids who are college age. Don't sit here and let this blow over you. This is the time for you to learn to become a person of great prayer, to start practicing it.

This is what's going to make you a true woman or a true man. The problem with the people who do not like to be told that God has standards of righteousness is that they lack manhood. These are the twits of our society. These are the wimps of our society. They do not have true womanhood. These are the people who are the whiners, and who cannot rise to the capacity of being grace-oriented people. They talk it big, but they do it little. Prayer puts us in perspective and in focus on ourselves.

So the apostle Paul was happy to pray for these Christians, and he was thanking God that, in their case, the Holy Spirit was spending His time interceding for their blessing and their needs. The Holy Spirit wasn't preoccupied with interceding with them to stop doing the things that they shouldn't be doing as husbands and wives, and mothers and fathers, and children, and employers and employees, and everything else, and to get in touch with the Word of God.

Thanksgiving

We are surrounded in the Berean Ministry by a lot of human beings who do an enormous amount of things for us that are great blessing: some unobserved; some not very public; and, some we don't make a big public show of. And yet, we are indebted to those people, and our thankfulness to God for them is legitimate and proper. We are tremendously blessed, and we should be praying for those people – that they would be able to continue doing the good things we have them doing for us.

Just run your mind through certain individuals. Put a face on this. Notice the people who do things around here, and ask yourself, "How would our situation be if we did not have them?" Many of you walk into this auditorium, and have no idea what went on to get it ready for what you have here, and for the enjoyment of this moment. We walk through our ministries, the beneficiaries of an intense investment on the part of the lives of believers. And we should pray for them not to be undermined by Satan, and not to be taken off into the world system.

Now it is very sad when a person's prayer life becomes weak, because then he is vulnerable to a lot of scuttlebutt, and to a lot of misconceptions, and not the worst of all, to his own sin nature.

When praying for a legitimate need, here's another principle you should remember. When praying for a legitimate need: yours; or, someone else's, you should be prepared to be God's instrument for meeting that need if you can. That may be God's answer to your prayer.

Put Feet to your Prayers

We used to put it like this: "Put feet to your prayers." So often, we're praying for things that we can solve. This person has a need, and you're able to solve it. What in the world are you praying about? Go and solve it. And unless God says, "No, don't do it," when you ask God for something, and this includes yourself – so much you can solve for yourself, you quit your whining and your self-introspection, and get yourself into a perspective that is a biblical perspective, and you'll find that you can solve a great deal of what the problems are that you must bear with. And other people have a need, and you're able to solve it. Put feet to your prayer. What have you to lose? You have a great deal to lose by not doing it. You have eternal glory and an eternal reward to gain by doing it.

Principles of Prayer

So, there are certain guiding principles that we should be aware of to encourage us to do the job of prayer, which cleans up our lives and gives us the ability to be victorious in our service for God. For the guiding principles for the use of the tactic of prayer, please turn to Luke 11:5-8.

Uninhibited Asking

Shameless Persistence

This is a parable about uninhibited asking. This man had a need. He went to his friend at a terrible inopportune time, but he did not hesitate to go and ask him. He had the need, and he asked. We do that on a human level. Why would we not do that with God? His friend responded. He gave him the three loaves of bread. He opened the door; shoved the bread at him; said, "Go now already;" and, slammed the door. Why? Because he got tired of his importunity. The Greek word there – "metochos" (met'-okh-os) is his shamelessness or his impedance: "I tell you though, he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, he will because of his persistence." I like that old King James English "importunity" – because of his persistence. And the Greek word there means his "shamelessness," or his "impudence:" "I'm not going to take no for an answer. I need your help."

The Will of God and the Timing of God

If shameless persistence can obtain a favor from a neighbor, then certainly boldness in prayer will receive answers from our Father in heaven, as per His will and timing. The will of God and the timing of God are critical factors governing prayer. We should ask without any hesitancy, and without any intimidation. Whatever it is – however big or astounding it may be, we should ask.

Then Jesus went on, and in Luke 11:9-10, He applied the parable: "And I say to you: ask, and it shall be given to you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives. He who seeks finds. And to him who knocks, it shall be opened.

In the Greek language, this has a little different slant. We would have to translate this as: "And I say to you: keep on asking; keep on seeking; and, keep on knocking. And to the one who keeps on asking; keeps on seeking; and, keeps on knocking, it shall be opened." This doesn't come through in the English, but the Greek is very clear. It says: "Keep on; keep on; and, keep on." This is uninhibited asking, and you let God respond in His good time, and in His good judgment. But you keep on asking until the problem is solved, and the need is met, one way or another.

The principle here is being uninhibited in what you ask for. That is the main thing. Being uninhibited in what you ask for is the boldness of coming in there.

Continual Asking

Here's this widow. She has a problem. She has a legal problem. The arrogant judge should help her, but doesn't want to bother. She makes repeated importunities to him, and finally, just to get rid of her, he does it. Now, unless God the Holy Spirit clearly leads you otherwise, you should persist in asking for legitimate needs. You should continue asking, no matter how many times, until the issue is resolved.

Verse 1 begins: "Men ought to pray." In verse 8, Jesus says that when He returns, will there be faith on this earth? Are people going to be able to rise to believing such a marvelous experience as prayer? This prayer persistence, the implication is, will not be widespread. When Jesus returns, people will not be much on praying. It's tough for Christians to be praying a lot, and to be obedient to the doctrinal principle of praying without ceasing – every day, all day long. You can just add it up. Make a list of how many times you stop to pray.

"Lord, my car is in terrible condition. I want to go to church. I want to pray for your blessing. Get me there and get me back." So you get in and you go.

"Lord, I'm on my way to someplace. Maybe I shouldn't go there. Give me a car breakdown, or keep me from it – whatever."

"Lord, I'm about ready to make this decision, and here's what I've decided. I need the guidance."

I mean there's no end to it. As soon as you start realizing that you quit using prayer in a crisis, or as the last resort, then suddenly, you'll find that you're just preoccupied with prayer, and that you'll have to start backing off to do something else in life, because you'll discover how great your need is.

Principle number one is uninhibited asking. There's nothing that you should not ask God for, that you are free in your heart to do so. And secondly is continual, persistent asking until the signal comes one way or another to stop asking, or the answer comes.

Asking in Faith

And then as was implied here at the end of this parable, we have another principal: asking in faith. How about Mark 11:22-24? "And Jesus answered, saying to them, 'Have faith in God.'" Faith is believing. Faith is trusting in an object of authority. Faith in salvation is of value because it's placed in Jesus Christ. Faith in itself has no value. The value of faith is what you have faith in: "Have faith in God. Truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be taken up and cast into the sea,' and does now doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says is going to happen, it shall be granted him. Therefore, I say to you: all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they shall be granted you."

The essence of God assures us of His faithfulness in responding to our prayers. The Holy Spirit leads to proper requests so that we may expect to see the returns. We're not just blowing soap bubbles that break and disappear. When the Spirit of God leads, then we are asking in propriety, and we should not treat prayer as maybe it'll work, and maybe it won't. It will work, when it's properly used. This is believing that prayer is the tactic of the Christian in the angelic warfare. Once you believe that you cannot make it through the day in the combat of spiritual matters without prayer, then you'll become a praying person who will pray in faith.

The issue again, in all of these illustrations (these principles) is that if you don't use it, it's no good. Prayer has to be used for it to be of any value. So, asking in faith is principle number three.

Unanimity

The fourth principle asking in unanimity. You find this in Matthew 18:19: "And I say to you that if two of you were agreed on earth about anything that they may ask, it is to be done for them by My Father who is in heaven." There is power in a Christian's prayer in common, confident agreement. When we gather Wednesday night in prayer meeting, it is because there's a special power when we unite together in prayer.

Group Prayer

This word "agreed" looks like this in the Greek Bible: "sumphóneó" (soom-fo-neh'-o), S U M P H O N E O. This word means "to harmonize." "Sumphóneó" means "to harmonize together," or "to get in sync together." And you can see that we get our English word "symphony" from this. This is where the word "symphony" comes from – to organize, in a harmonious way, a variety of sounds. That means there is no discordant voice in the local church prayer life to jar the harmony. There is unanimity. But that unanimity has to be the product of God the Holy Spirit. And if it is, He removes the persistent, discordant believers. You do have to wait some time to get the symphony, but you ask in unanimity. And when a church body gathers together, and they ask in the unanimity of all of their common understanding of what the Spirit of God is leading them to do, it's a lot more powerful than when you pray alone. That's the point here. That's why we pray together. It is a great power. And if the unanimity is the will of God (if the purpose is the will of God), and the unanimity is being interrupted, then God removes the element that's disrupting the unanimity.

Uninhibited Conviction

So we pray with the power of that united conviction. We don't always know the answer, obviously. And sometimes (very often), we pray as best we know at the moment, and we leave the working out of the details to God the Holy Spirit, and to our Father in heaven. But we gather together on the best unified basis we know at the time. That is because if we are wrong, then it will come into perspective that this was not the best move. And then we take a directional change.

Those of you who fly airplanes on omni-directional signals, you know that every now and then you'll get the signal that you're slightly off course. And you don't go into a frap, and you don't go into a distress over it. What you do is you make correction. You make appropriate correction so that you are still on target, and you will still reach your destination. You do what is necessary when you learn you have to make a change. So, suddenly what you're doing is in unanimity with the signal being sent out to you for the direction to your target.

So, these four basic things should be understood about prayer. They're guiding principles in the use of this tactic. There's nothing you cannot ask God for. There's no time when you should stop asking. You should not fail to treat prayer with respect, and thus to ask in faith, believing. And there is great power when Christians gather together and pray together in a united fashion.

Prayer Accomplishes Much

Now, the whole problem of this is basically using it. What we know is always to rise to make it part of our practice. Please turn to James 5:16 – the very last phrase of that verse. This has to do with prayer and the angelic conflict. What do you think Satan and the demons want to do to you in your prayer life – very easily? They want you not to do it. They want to discourage you from doing it. Here, at the end of James 5:16 is this phrase, "The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much."

Now, that sentence, unfortunately, as translated, misses something very important that is critical for you to understand about prayer. In the Greek language, when they want to emphasize something (some concept, or some word), that's the first word they put it in the sentence. At the very first of the sentence, they'll put the word that they want to tell you: "This is the important thing." And in this Greek sentence, interestingly enough, the first word is "much." This is the Greek word "polus" (pol-oos'), P O l U S. Take a look where it is in the English sentence. It's at the very end. In the Greek sentence, it is up front. Aha! Here's the first clue that an enormous thing can be accomplished with prayer. This is the word that is put up front for emphasis. And the word "much:" much what?

It goes with the word "accomplish." This is the word "ischuó" (is-khoo'-o), I S C H U O. "Ischuó" means "to have power," or "to have force," so as to be capable of producing results. This is the second word in the Greek sentence: "Much accomplishment." Those are the two primary things that this sentence is conveying. A certain kind of prayer has the force to accomplish enormous things.

Now, what kind of prayer is that? That's the kind of prayer we want. A certain kind of praying will accomplish a lot. This word is a verb. It's in the present tense, which, in the Greek, means it's constantly true when it's used. It's active voice, which means this has the power in itself. And we would translate this way: "Has much force to produce results."

What has force? We come to the third word in the Greek sentence. It is this word "deésis" (deh'-ay-sis), D E E S I S. This word means "prayer." This is the subject of the sentence. So, it goes with "accomplish much." Prayer is able to do much; or, prayer has much force. That's the idea.

So with these three words, something very important has been told us. Prayer can accomplish an enormous amount of blessing for you. This word "deésis" (deh'-ay-sis) comes from another Greek word that looks like it. It's the Greek word "deomai" (deh'-om-ahee) D E O M A I. This is the word that the Greeks used when they would petition a ruling king for a favor. They would go to a king, and say, "I need a favor, your grace." They would address the king as "your grace" because he was going to be kind enough to do this to them: "You don't deserve it, but I'm a gracious sovereign, and I'm going to do this for you. And this word was used by the Greeks when they asked the king for something they had no right to ask him for. It was an outright favor.

They had another word. It looks like this in the Greek language: "oxioo," when they were standing before a judge. In a court of law, they would petition, "This is my right. This is something that I'm entitled to. I deserve this, and I ask for legal relief and judgment in my behalf." He's not asking the judge for any favor. This is: "I have a right to this, and I want the judgment in my behalf." These are two very different words. The Spirit of God does not do this. He does not tell you that you have a right to stand before God to accomplish some great thing in prayer. But he does say that you have a desperate need such that you may approach God on a grace basis, because prayer is a grace operation all the way. This word indicates that you may beseech a sovereign God, not as one who is entitled to it, but one who is dependent upon the grace of God.

Prayer of a Righteous Man

Now, the next keyword for the fact that prayer accomplishes much – it adds: "Of a righteous man." The Greek word is "dikaios" (dik'-ah-yos), D I K A I O S. Now, this qualifies the kind of prayer which is able to produce much. Now, the Greek does not have the word "man" ("a righteous man") in this verse. It's a "Righteous one." So it's men or women. It's a righteous person. That is the idea. And the righteous refers to what?

First of all, the righteous refers to the fact that you have a spiritual relationship to God, and you are in his family through Jesus Christ. If you do not have a family relationship, you can't talk to God, and your prayers are useless.

Secondly, it involves the righteousness of temporal fellowship. First, it is the righteousness of eternal fellowship in Christ. Secondly, it is the righteousness of temporal fellowship – in fellowship with the Spirit of God. And it is this which is talked about in Ephesians 6:14 as the breastplate of righteousness. God pays attention to the prayers of people who are born-again, and who are in temporal fellowship. 1 Peter 3:12 says, "For the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous." This is both righteous in terms of absolute righteousness or salvation, and righteous in terms of temporal, experiential righteousness in time: "The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and His ears attend to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil."

So, it's very clear that the world has no access to God, and neither does the carnal Christian. But for the Christian who is not only saved, obviously, but also in temporal fellowship, he has great access to God. So, we translate this in this way: "The prayer." And this is the prayer of a grace request from somebody who is in a desperate situation. This Greek word "deésis" for "prayer" is when you're in a crisis. You have no place to turn. The roof is caving in on you. God has to come through. There's no place else to go. That kind of a prayer of a righteous man is able to do much. The prayer of a righteous person is able to do much.

Energy

Now, here's the kicker. Our translation uses the word "effective" prayer. The word "effective" looks like this: "energeó" (en-erg-eh'-o), E N E R G E O. This is the word that means "to put something in operation." "Energeó" is to put something into operation. This is power in operation. This is the word from which we get the English word "energy." This has to do with energy. This has to do with something that is set in motion.

Now there are two kinds of energy. There is energy which is active, and it's out there doing things; and, there's energy, which is just potential. It's just sitting there. That is called kinetic energy. You have energy, it can do something. You have a huge snowball on the top of a mountain, and it's propped up. It has kinetic energy. It has potential. But until you jerk the prop out that's holding it back, and let it start rolling down the mountain, it won't do anything. But once it's rolling down the mountain, now you have the active kind of energy. It's going to crash and smash everything in its way, as that huge snowball comes down. And it's going to pick up speed; it's going to pick up power; and, it's going to pick up size as it moves down.

So, here's the picture. The prayer of a righteous person (a born-again, in temporal fellowship person) is able to do much. And remember that the word "much" is right at the first of the Greek sentence. That's the thing God is trying to emphasize to us – if it is put into operation.

There's another word in Greek – why I'm showing you that this is so explicit, and while I'm showing you these words. It's called "dunamis" (doo'-nam-is), D U N A M I S. This is the word which is used in Romans 1:16. And Romans 1:16 is talking about something that's potential. This is the snowball up there at a mountain before you set it loose. It has potential power: "For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the potential power of God for salvation to everyone who believes: to the Jew first, and also to the Greek." And there in Romans 1:16, very carefully, God says this word "dunamis." It is potential power.

However, that's not what he's talking about here in prayer. He's using the word "energeó" (en-erg-eh'-o), which is operational power. And the way we translate this is: "When it is operational," or "When it is put to use."

So, what are we saying? The prayer of a righteous person is able to do much when it is operational. The translation kind of confuses that by saying "effective" prayer. What they're trying to say is that it is effective when you use it. The prayer of a righteous person is able to do much when it is operational (when it is being used).

In the Greek language, again, we're told that this is always effective. We're told that it's in a voice that indicates that it's for your personal benefit. You are the beneficiary of this effectiveness when you use it. And it is a spiritual principle which is stated.

So the Bible has a very dramatic and powerful things to say about prayer: how we go about it; and, the realization that this is something that accomplishes everything you could ever dream that you needed to have done.

However, what's the bottom line? Do it. What good does it do to have a special power of God because two or three Christians are praying together, rather than just one Christian, if those Christians are all spread around town, and they won't come to prayer meeting to join forces? Then it's a useless principle. It doesn't work. But when they get there, and they're all in the same little spot together, and their hearts are united in prayer, then there comes an effective impact of the Spirit of God, because God says: "That kind of prayer, I bless even more than your individual personal, private prayer.

That's why I never weary, nor am I ever careless about somebody who comes to me and says, "Would you pray for me about this?" I make sure that I remember it, and that I note it down, and I see to it that I pray. What are they doing? They're operating on the principle of unanimity. I'm praying, but if I can get you and a couple of other people who are sympathetic, and who have prayers which are going to be put into operation, then my hope is even more likely to be fulfilled.

As Samuel said in the Old Testament, "God forbid that I should sin by not praying for those who have beseeched me." God forbid that I should sin by somebody asking me to pray for them, and then I don't. It's a proper and right thing to do. And I'm always pleased about this. And it happens all the time. People come to me, with the smiles on their faces, and say, "You won't believe what's happened. That thing I asked you to sweat through in prayer with me? Bingo. Here's the next stage. Here's what's developed. Here's what's coming to pass." And we know that God has respected His promise for unanimity in prayer.

We have a few closing thoughts from the Word of God. 1 John 5:14-15, "And this is the confidence which we have before Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the request which we have asked from Him." Since we know that God hears prayers, and we ask upon proper ground, and the Spirit of God carries us through, we can say that it's a done deed. That's what the verse is saying. We ask, and He responds. Therefore, if we ask, we know that we will have it.

Luke 11:1 is the next reference: "And it came about that while He was praying in a certain place, after He had finished, one of the disciples said to Him, 'Lord, teach us to pray, just as John also taught his disciples to pray.'" It is a legitimate request on the part of believers to ask God to help you to learn to pray. Consider yourself fortunate that you attended the previous session, and even of greater fortune, that you have been here for the last couple or three sessions, because you received an enormous amount of biblical insight into prayer, if you're able to metabolize it, and you're able to grasp it, and you're able to pull it together. And it will transform what you know as a life of prayer.

Luke 18:1: "Now, He was telling them a parable to show that, at all times, we ought to pray, and not to lose heart." "Not to lose heart" is Satan's game – to cause us to lose heart in prayer, and not wait for God upon His timing and His purposes is to be made clear.

We have one more. I Thessalonians 5:17, "Pray without ceasing."

God our Father, We thank You for the instruction of the Word of God. And we pray the Spirit of God will bring all these things carefully to our memories. We pray that we shall be able to respond to them, and that we would become magnificent people, young and old alike, here at Berean Church as prayer warriors: people who have thought about the principle of prayer; people who use the technique of prayer; and, people who believe that much can be accomplished by a righteous person when prayer is used. We ask Thee to help us to appreciate the fact that, while our souls are thrilled by the potential of prayer, it is the only way to go, as was exemplified by Thy Son, who at times prayed all night long. For in His humanity, He could not function in any other way than we must function on a basis of prayer. That's how we are able to live our lives in a way that is acceptable to Thee. That is the way we avoid the corrosive effect of the sin of the world system around us. That is the only way we can use our time of our lives without squandering it and trivializing it. That is the only way that we can protect ourselves against human viewpoint that surrounds us. It's the only way that we can use our money in a way that we'll not spend an eternity regretting what we have failed to do. It is only prayer that puts us into focus with the mind of God on any particular issue. Thank you for this provision. In Jesus' name. Amen.

Dr. John E. Danish, 1995

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