James 2:14–26 gives crucial guidance into the faith that makes true disciples of Jesus.
Many people mistakenly assume they are true Christians on their way to heaven. That is the foundational truth we have been exploring in this series on True Disciples. We have seen numerous Scriptures in the New Testament clearly teach that we cannot assume we are a Christian simply because we say Jesus is Lord or because we grew up in church or because we regularly go to church, read our Bibles, and pray.
My purpose in this series of posts is to ensure you know what it takes to be a true disciple of Jesus who is forgiven of sin and assured of eternal life.
In this post I want to double down in establishing that there is a kind of faith in Jesus that falls short of saving one’s soul.
Inadequate faith
James 2:14 says, “What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him?”
Notice James makes this a matter of salvation. He’s about to talk about the kind of faith that can successfully save a person’s soul. He implies there is a kind of faith that does not save someone’s soul—an inadequate faith. So, just because someone has faith in God or faith even in Jesus, that does not guarantee that such faith will save them.
Faith by itself
Verse 15 continues: “If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, be warmed and filled,’ without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? 17 So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.”
Verse 17 notes three characteristics of faith. Faith can be “by itself.” Secondly, faith can be without works. And thirdly, faith can be dead. Faith that is without works is faith that is by itself, and it is dead. Verse 16 asks, What good is that?
Demons have faith
Verse 18 continues: “But someone will say, ‘You have faith and I have works.’ Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. 19 You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!”
So, even demons believe true things about God. They believe he exists, and they correctly believe he is one. That is much more than atheists believe, but it is not a faith that will save the soul of any demon. They know it, because they’re already shuddering at what awaits them.
Useless
Verse 20 continues: “Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless?”
Here again is the statement that there is a kind of faith that is useless.
“21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? 22 You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; 23 and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, ‘Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness’—and he was called a friend of God. 24 You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.”
Abraham’s faith was different. It was a living thing that resulted in works. His works did not produce his faith or his salvation. Rather, his faith produced works. And that was a kind of faith resulting in justification and salvation.
Dead faith
Verse 26 continues: “As the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.”
Dead faith cannot give us eternal life. That is the unambiguous message of James 2. No one who believes in God should assume that such belief is enough to give eternal life. Believing in God does not make you a true disciple. Believing in Jesus does not necessarily make you a true disciple. It might make you a true disciple if your belief is a living faith.
Come back next week as we continue to lay the groundwork for the marks of a true disciple of Jesus.
Being “in faith” is a life-changing mindset and attitude.
On the windowsill of my office sit two flowerpots. In each is an orchid. One is almost completely dead, with three desiccated leaves, and one tiny, shriveled, yellow-green leaf sitting atop the stem. The other is alive, but only with four, long, drooping leaves, and a brown, stiff flower stem about 10-inches tall. Neither plant has had a flower in many months.
The plants are in this near-death condition because of my inattention. For years they would regularly put up a flower stem on which four to eight beautiful orchids would bloom and last for more than a month. We kept them in our living room window, where they received indirect sunlight. But then we moved them into my office, where there is much less light, and I watered them irregularly at best.
These orchids are a picture of what can happen to a Christian’s faith. Faith does not flourish without attention.
Firm in faith
Isaiah 7:9 says, “If you are not firm in faith, you will not be firm at all” (ESV).
We need to be “in faith.” Faith must be our mindset, our overall attitude. Anyone who knows us well should be able to describe us as persons who have a spirit of faith, a heart full of faith, just as Acts 6:5 describes Stephen as “a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit,” and Barnabas as “full of the Holy Spirit and of faith” (Acts 11:24).
But we will not get “in faith” by accident. We need to attend to two aspects of our heart.
Both general and specific
We need to water both general faith and specific faith.
Our overall spirit of faith consists in the firm belief we have in the truths developed in the previous posts of this series, in particular:
If you believe these truths as you believe the sun is hot, you will be “in faith.” Your heart and mind will have a faith culture where faith for specific promises of God will easily flourish. For this reason I regularly review and meditate on these truths.
If you doubt these fundamentals of faith, you will have a difficult time trying to believe any specific promise of God, such as his promises to provide for you (such as Philippians 4:19) and protect you (such as Psalm 121).
Specific faith
When I was in high school, several times a day my father would strap a sphygmomanometer to his arm and test his blood pressure. Keeping track of that was critical to his health.
Similarly we need to pay attention to our level of faith and do the work necessary to be generally in faith rather than generally in doubt, to believe rather than disbelieve.
For most people it is what it is. Like a flag on a pole, which behaves differently as the wind continually changes, their faith is at the whim of circumstances, input from reading and media, irregular devotional life and church attendance, emotions, and trials. Most Christians do not memorize or meditate on faith-building promises as a healthy person pays attention to exercise and diet. When doubt is their prevailing attitude, they are not self-aware and proactive to change it. They ignore it just as I have ignored my orchids for a long time (but no longer. When I finish this post, I will pitch my orchids).
Takeaway
Either faith or doubt will predominate in your heart. On any day, in any week, in any season of life, we will in general be a person of faith or of unbelief.
Being in faith means being aware of the faith level of one’s heart and taking whatever action is necessary to have faith in general toward God and his Word, and faith in specific for particular promises on which we are standing.
My father lived 82 years, more than 35 years beyond when I first saw him regularly checking his blood pressure. You can have strong faith as you pay attention to stay firmly “in faith.”
Jeremiah 9:23–24: “Thus says the LORD: ‘Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD.’” (ESV)
Living faith speaks and by speaking grows stronger.
King David knew lots about faith. In Psalm 23 he demonstrates the important principle we will explore today.
In verse 1 David writes, “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.” That is a statement of faith. Similarly, the last verse in the psalm speaks words of faith: “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD forever” (v. 6).
Speaking confident words about what God will do in the future is a normal part of David’s psalms. Is that presumptuous? Should he attach to each statement of faith the words “Not my will but yours be done,” as Jesus used in the Garden of Gethsemane?
Was David presumptuous when he shouted to Goliath in the hearing of the soldiers nearby, “This day the LORD will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down and cut off your head. And I will give the dead bodies of the host of the Philistines this day to the birds of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, and that all this assembly may know that the LORD saves not with sword and spear. For the battle is the LORD’s, and he will give you into our hand.” (1 Samuel 17:45–47)
That is as bold a declaration of faith as you will ever see. And as correct as the words “Lord willing” are, David does not say that. He believes he knows God’s will in this matter, and he speaks it out for all to hear. Judging by the results, we can conclude that God approved of David’s confidence in him.
Faith speaks
Living faith speaks and by speaking grows stronger.
Faith must speak, for Jesus said, “The mouth speaks what the heart is full of” (Luke 6:45). There is an unavoidable unity between the heart and the tongue.
A heart brimming with faith delights to put that faith into words.
Faith declarations are a fruit of faith feelings. Words are organic to faith. They are like roots growing down from a seed into the earth and like the stem sprouting up from that seed and reaching for the sun.
Unbelief speaks
Unbelief certainly speaks. When we do not truly believe, we can scarcely hold back our negativity, complaints, grumbling, and forebodings.
When the twelve spies sent by Moses to explore the Promised Land returned, ten of them tried to say something positive but then spoke the fear that had taken over their hearts:
“We came to the land to which you sent us. It flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. However, the people who dwell in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large. And besides, we saw the descendants of Anak there.” (Numbers 13:27–28)
Two of the twelve spies—Joshua and Caleb—had faith, and they answered the fears of the ten with a verbal declaration of confidence in what God would do. “Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, ‘Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it.’” (Numbers 13:30)
Fearing that the faith of Caleb and Joshua might persuade the nation to invade and fight, the ten spies then spoke the terror and doubt that had taken over their souls:
“‘We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we are.’ So they brought to the people of Israel a bad report of the land that they had spied out, saying, ‘The land, through which we have gone to spy it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people that we saw in it are of great height. And there we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak, who come from the Nephilim), and we seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them.’” (Numbers 13:31–33)
Unbelief speaks and by speaking grows stronger.
The spirituality of words
Spoken words are spiritual and powerful. They are an inevitable, organic element of faith or doubt.
Paul referred to the “spirit of faith.” He said, “Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written, ‘I believed, and so I spoke,’ we also believe, and so we also speak” (2 Corinthians 4:13). The spirit of faith is, “I believed, and so I spoke.”
Spoken words are so spiritually important and such a reliable indicator of the heart that God includes them in his description of how a person is saved. Romans 10:9–10 says:
“If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouthone confesses and is saved.”
Confessions matter to God. Our spoken declarations of faith correspond to his spoken declarations of promise.
Faith speaks in two ways
Have you ever tried to speak words of faith when your heart did not believe? You can feel the bifurcation of your soul. It feels as though you are lying (though you are not, for it is never wrong to agree with what God says). Consequently, sometimes we need to declare God’s promise aloud until we can declare our faith aloud.
That illustrates the need for two sorts of faith statements. One is declaring God’s promise; the other is declaring the fulfillment of that promise. Both are important and powerful.
If you are sick, for example, you declare the promise, “Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases” (Psalm 103:2–3). You say it aloud until you believe it, for living faith speaks and by speaking grows stronger. And when you truly believe God’s promise, you declare with a unified heart, “I am healed.” (See By Faith I Already Have the Answers to My Prayers.)
Takeaway
Living faith speaks and by speaking grows stronger.
Jeremiah 9:23–24: “Thus says the LORD: ‘Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD.’” (ESV)
Faith grows when you believe in the power of prayer and faith.
I once heard someone criticize a Bible teacher for “having faith in faith.” In other words, the critic concluded that the teacher in effect had confidence in his faith apart from God. Perhaps the critic felt the teacher was even exalting faith above God, that to get what one wants, God’s will or involvement are not an issue, that all one needs is to have strong faith and use it in certain ways.
Well, there certainly are ways to abuse the teaching of faith, but believing that prayer and faith are powerful is not one of them. Scripture affirms it explicitly. James 5:16 says, “The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working” (ESV).
The power of prayer
God says this because he wants us to believe it. It helps your faith when you believe prayer is powerful. It helps your faith not only to know God ultimately is powerful, but also that because of his power prayer secondarily is powerful. The power of prayer is a derived power, but it is definitely powerful.
Peter prayed over the corpse of Dorcas, and she returned to life.
After three years of famine in Israel, Elijah bowed to the ground and prayed atop Mt. Carmel, and a thunderstorm resulted.
When Daniel prayed for understanding, God sent an angel.
The power of faith
Faith also is powerful.
Jesus said, “Have faith in God. Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him” (Mark 11:22–24, ESV).
Similarly, Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you” (Matthew 17:20).
So Jesus wants us to believe in the power of faith. Speaking figuratively, he says it is so powerful it can move mountains. It can accomplish huge things.
By faith the teenager David slew the giant Goliath.
By faith Joshua caused the sun and moon to stand still in the sky so Israel could finish the defeat of an enemy in battle.
And by faith Moses pointed his staff toward the Red Sea, and it parted.
The power of prayer and faith is secondary
So it is not wrong to make much of the power of faith and prayer if we acknowledge God as the ultimate source of their power.
For nothing happens apart from him. “From him and through him and to him are all things,” including all answers to faith and prayer (Romans 11:36). Methods cannot accomplish anything apart from God.
When we recognize the power of our prayers and faith to move mountains, we are like David, who trusted in God to give him victory over Goliath but also chose his weapons carefully. Saul tried to help David by giving him his armor and weapons. David tried them out and realized they would not help him because he had no training or experience with them. Instead he stayed with the weapons in which he had confidence and experience: his sling and staff.
He ran confidently toward Goliath declaring his faith in God and swirling the sling he had used powerfully in the past to drive predators from his sheep. He knew what that sling could do with God’s help.
We likewise must believe in the power of prayer and faith and what they can accomplish through God.
Two obstacles to faith
The greatest obstacles in Western culture to believing this are a naturalistic worldview and a cessationist theology.
Naturalism believes matter is all that exists, that science can explain everything apart from the existence of God, and that miracles are impossible. The Bible rejects that notion from cover to cover. But even those who believe in God can struggle to escape the effects of a non-supernatural worldview. To do so, they must saturate themselves in Scripture, believe what it says, and recognize the effects of naturalism in their own belief system and expectations.
Cessationism is the belief that the supernatural works narrated in abundance in the four Gospels and the Book of Acts ended when the last of the apostles died. Christians who have cessationist beliefs will have a limited view of the power of faith and prayer.
Life principle
Prayer is powerful, and faith is powerful—through God.
Jeremiah 9:23–24: “Thus says the LORD: ‘Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD.’” (ESV)
When prayers are not answered, we still have every reason for hope and faith.
Have you ever given up on prayer or faith? At a low moment have you ever said to yourself that it really does not work, that faith and prayer are a waste of time?
Sadly, that is the situation of most people in most churches. I assume that because according to surveys most Christians barely pray and most do not attend prayer meetings. Anyone who really believes what the Bible promises about prayer will want to pray because the promises are so great.
Suppose when Abraham was 98-years-old you asked him whether prayer and faith work. Had God given him a child through Sarah? No. Did he have descendants like the stars in the sky and the sand of the seashore? No. Did he have possession of the Promised Land? No.
Twenty-three years of faith and what did he have to show for it? A son through Sarah’s servant. And he did not own one square inch of the Promised Land. Yet he is the archetype of faith, exhibit A, the father of all who believe—God’s chosen one.
When Prayers Are Not Answered
All this points to the critical importance of knowing that God fulfills your faith and prayers in his time, his way, and according to his will. If you do not know this, your efforts at serious, specific prayer that expects answers may end in disappointment and even disillusionment.
There are many reasons for this. We cannot control God. He is perfectly good, and so he does only what fulfills the highest good, which only he in perfect love and wisdom understands. Our ways are not his ways. He tests our faith.
So those who mean business in prayer and faith had better dress for the weather, pack for a trip, and bring an umbrella. Shallow, naïve faith will get you little but soggy shoes.
Let’s look more closely at the crucial factors affecting answers to our faith: God’s time, God’s way, and God’s will.
God’s time
In the four Gospels, God acts quickly. Jesus heals people and drives out demons on the spot. One of the frequently used words in Mark is immediately. God of course can and often does answer prayers sooner rather than later, even immediately. I pray and believe for prompt and timely answers.
But I am not disoriented if that does not happen. I adjust mentally and settle in to exercise perseverance. Luke 18:1 says Jesus “told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart.”
For instance, by the time Abraham was 100, God had given him the son for whom he had believed, but his descendants would not take possession of the Promised Land for more than 400 years. And as for having descendants like the stars in the sky, that promise is still being fulfilled three thousand years later, for every believer in Christ is a child of Abraham.
There is an appointed time for our faith in God’s promise to be fulfilled. Referring to God’s promise to Abraham, Romans 9:9 says, “This was how the promise was stated: ‘At the appointed time I [the Lord] will return, and Sarah will have a son.’”
When you trust the promises of the eternal God, you are dealing with One for whom a “day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day” (2 Peter 3:8).
“You have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised” (Hebrews 10:36).
God’s way
Sometimes God gives us exactly what we ask. “According to your faith be it done to you.” (Matthew 9:29). Other times, however, he gives an upgrade over what we believe and expect by answering our faith in a way we never could have imagined.
The unanswered prayer of Zechariah and Elizabeth
For example, the priest Zechariah and his wife simply wanted a son. God had someone greater in mind. He wanted them to raise the one Jesus described as the greatest prophet of the Old Covenant.
For decades Elizabeth was barren. Their prayers were not answered as they expected; instead they got older and older—until one day near the end of his life Zechariah stood performing his duty in the temple when an angel suddenly appeared to him. The angel promised him an answer to his prayers; he and Elizabeth would bear a son.
Unfortunately this fulfillment of prayer was not unfolding the way Zechariah expected, and he answered the angel with words of doubt. Nevertheless, after being disciplined with muteness for months, he received John the Baptist as his son. None of this did Zechariah or Elizabeth expect as they went through their previous adult years. But God had a plan. God had an upgrade.
Unanswered prayers and assorted surprises
The next time you read the great faith chapter, Hebrews 11, notice the diversity of ways that God fulfilled the faith of his people. Rarely if ever could any of these people have predicted how God would answer.
Certainly the children of Israel who cried out year after year to God for deliverance from Pharaoh and their taskmasters in Egypt could not have imagined the ten plagues, the terrifying Passover, their plundering of the Egyptians, the parting of the Red Sea, the days of hunger followed by the giving of manna, the covenant requirements enacted at Mount Sinai, the promise of entering the Promised Land and inheriting it as their own. In fact they rejected Moses numerous times because God was working in ways they did not understand.
Shadrach, Meshack, and Abednego could not have imagined their faith being fulfilled by being thrown into a fiery furnace, their walking around in the furnace with the Angel of the Lord, and their exiting the furnace with not a hair singed nor a thread of their clothing burned.
Joseph could not have imagined that his dreams would be fulfilled by his being sold into slavery in Egypt, by being falsely accused and thrown into a dungeon, by 13 years passing for him in Egypt until he was suddenly taken into the presence of Pharaoh and exalted as ruler of the land.
Naaman’s way and God’s way
And then there is Naaman, who came to Israel to see Elisha the prophet for healing of leprosy. He had faith to believe that Elisha could heal him in a certain way, but God had other plans. Elisha told him to dip seven times in the Jordan, and he would be healed.
“But Naaman was angry and went away, saying, ‘Behold, I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call upon the name of the LORD his God, and wave his hand over the place and cure the leper. Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean?’ So he turned and went away in a rage.”
Naaman is a picture of many people when God does not do what they expect. We want the answer our way, but God wants to answer his way. We get upset and walk away.
Fortunately for Naaman his servant persuaded him to give the Jordan River a try, and Naaman was healed as he submitted to God’s way.
We need not only to pray and believe; we also need to trust. People of faith must be people of trust in God.
God’s will
Have you ever felt that you might have more success at receiving answers to prayer if you just could say the right words or fast from food for a longer time or intercede more tearfully or pray more times a day or whatever?
Certainly there are biblical principles for answered prayer—yes, emphatically yes—and the Bible commends earnest praying and fasting. But unconsciously we may be trying to control God, and if so, we will probably be disappointed. God cannot be manipulated. He never turns over ultimate control of the world or our lives to us. While he may have mercy on us when we pray this way and grant our requests, it is not because he has been manipulated.
When we think that all we need for answered prayer is the right method, or following the right formula, we are not taking into account God’s will.
1 John 5:14 says, “This is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us.”
How Jesus prayed
Jesus famously prayed in the Garden, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done” (Luke 22:42).
Although it is possible to pray like this when we have no faith, or when we are afraid to hope lest we be disappointed, that was certainly not the case with Jesus.
What he does in these words is acknowledge God’s ultimate control and his submission to it. It is similar to stating one’s travel plans but adding, “The Lord willing.” (See James 4:13–16). Jesus earnestly prays, but he never gets frustrated with his God or tries to lord it over him. He pours out his soul to try to influence his Father, but never acts as though he knows better how the Father in the end should do things. Jesus never prays in a way that suggests God had better do what he asks, or else…. He displays throughout that he trusts the will of God.
“In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence” (Hebrews 5:7).
Jesus could have pointed to many promises of the Old Testament that supported his request to be delivered from going to the cross, such as Psalms 91 and 121 and dozens more. But God’s will was for Jesus to fulfill many other Scriptures, especially Isaiah 53 and Psalm 22 and all the Old Testament sacrificial system in which an animal died as a substitute for the sinner.
The nature of a promise
Granted, this gets complicated. When is a promise a promise, and when is it not? When is what seems to be a promise more like a general principle of the way God often works, but not an ironclad way that he always works in every situation for someone who has faith? (See Hebrews 11, especially verses 35–40.)
I do not have a simple answer, but I choose to take a simple approach. If God’s Word says he does such and such, and I need him to do that, I am going to pray for it and believe it. If God’s will turns out to be otherwise and my life fulfills other Scriptures, I will submit to that and glorify God. And if my heart is right, my faith and trust will not suffer for it.
If our faith crumbles when prayers are not answered
If our relationship with God suffers because he has not answered our faith in the way we want, it shows we do not have the right attitude. It is possible we unwittingly have been trying to manipulate God, insisting that he do things our way, in effect acting as though we are God, that we know better how to run the universe.
We may even resemble the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel who cried out and cut themselves to try to get Baal to burn the sacrifice (1 Kings 18). Or we may be like the mistaken Gentiles in Jesus’s teaching who sought techniques to get prayers answered: “When you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words” (Matthew 6:7).
Again, we need not only to believe God’s words, but also to trust his will and remember our place.
Takeaway
When prayers are not answered, we still have every reason for hope and faith, for God fulfills prayers of faith in his time, his way, and according to his will. God always remains God.
I believe that those who persist in faith will not ultimately be disappointed. Somehow in this age or the age to come, God will reward enduring faith.
Jeremiah 9:23–24: “Thus says the LORD: ‘Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD.’” (ESV)
Does God hear us? How can we be sure our prayers are more than smoke in the wind?
A few weeks ago I sold my used car to CarMax. From beginning to end, as we discussed the deal I paid close attention to everything the representatives said and every written document. What was I promising to them, and what were they promising to me? Eventually I signed the papers, and they gave me a check. All based on words.
In human relations, words are decisive. In our relations with God, words also are decisive. We pay close attention to what God promises, and God pays close attention to what we ask and say.
When you utter a prayer, a monumental, earth-shaking thing has happened. A human being has asked Almighty God to do something, this God who rules all things has heard it, and this One who is faithful and true will certainly act according to his promises and conditions. Large or small, miraculous or seemingly mundane, something changes because you uttered a prayer and met certain conditions. Whether your prayer moves a nation or comforts a grief-stricken widow, the King of the universe acts because of your words.
God hears
When you become convinced of this truth, it will transform your prayer life. How normal it is to feel as though our words in prayer are like smoke—immaterial, insubstantial, temporary. It seems they dissipate and disappear. We cannot see our words, and we cannot see God. We can feel we are just talking to ourselves or that God pays little attention to them. And so, our words seem less consequential than they actually are.
But the truth is, our words in prayer are like the signed contract of a car sale, or like the switches on a railroad track that send a rumbling, earth-shaking, 200-ton locomotive and its train of many cars rolling down one track instead of another. This is the significance of words spoken to God. Every time you pray, it is momentous. Every word you utter to God matters.
Here are seven Scriptural illustrations of the crucial truth that God pays perfect attention to your every word and prayer, and works in your life according to them.
Psalm 139:1–4
In Psalm 139:1–4 David writes, “O LORD, you have searched me and known me! You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O LORD, you know it altogether.” (ESV)
God knows everything, everything in the past, present, and future. He knows every single word you spoke and thought you had when you were a child, when you were 20, or anytime else in your life. Your life is an open book to him, and every word is written down. In fact, so great is his knowledge of your words, he knows them “altogether” even before you speak them!
David says God is searching everything about you and knows it all. He is paying attention. That certainly includes your prayers.
Daniel 10:12
As the prophet Daniel sought the Lord earnestly for three weeks regarding the situation of the nation of Israel, Daniel 10 recounts that an angel appeared to him. The angel tells Daniel, “Fear not, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand and humbled yourself before your God, your words have been heard, and I have come because of your words” (Daniel 10:12).
Why did the angel come to Daniel? “I have come because of your words.”
Was God listening? “Your words have been heard.”
Mark 7:25–29
Mark 7 says Jesus went into the Gentile region of Tyre and Sidon, and “Immediately a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit heard of him and came and fell down at his feet. Now the woman was a Gentile, a Syrophoenician by birth. And she begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter. And he said to her, ‘Let the children be fed first, for it is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.’ But she answered him, ‘Yes, Lord; yet even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.’ And he said to her, ‘For this statement you may go your way; the demon has left your daughter.’” (Mark 7:25–29)
What changed? Why did Jesus first refuse to act but then change his mind? “For this statement.” If she had not said what she said, Jesus would not have done what he did. In the kingdom of heaven, words are decisive.
Note that her first requests were not decisive in causing Jesus to act, but her final answer was.
Matthew 9:27–30
Traveling elsewhere, Jesus encountered a pair of blind men. The “two blind men followed him, crying aloud, ‘Have mercy on us, Son of David.’ Then he entered the house, the blind men came to him, and Jesus said to them, ‘Do you believe that I am able to do this?’ They said to him, ‘Yes, Lord.’ Then he touched their eyes, saying, ‘According to your faith be it done to you.’ And their eyes were opened.”
Jesus did not immediately heal these two men as they pleaded for mercy. One of the conditions of answered prayer is faith, and Jesus wanted to establish that these men had it. So he kept walking and eventually entered a house. The blind men persistently followed him down the road and entered the house behind him. There he examined them with a simple, direct question: Do you believe?
Their two-word answer was decisive: “Yes, Lord.” Those words were enough for Jesus. Their previous cries for mercy did not bring the healing, but these two words were telling. These two words carried the day, because their words were words of faith, “He touched their eyes, saying, ‘According to your faith be it done to you.’ And their eyes were opened.”
Just a couple of words—faith words—and their lives were changed.
Matthew 8:5–10, 13
On still another occasion when Jesus “had entered Capernaum, a centurion came forward to him, appealing to him, ‘Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, suffering terribly.’ And he said to him, ‘I will come and heal him.’ But the centurion replied, ‘Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof, but only say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I too am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. And I say to one, “Go,” and he goes, and to another, “Come,” and he comes, and to my servant, “Do this,” and he does it.’ When Jesus heard this, he marveled and said to those who followed him, ‘Truly, I tell you, with no one in Israel have I found such faith. … And to the centurion Jesus said, ‘Go; let it be done for you as you have believed.’ And the servant was healed at that very moment.”
This story is all about one’s confidence in the decisive nature of words. The centurion recognizes the decisive power of Jesus’s words, but he also displays his confidence in the decisive nature of his own words, not only with the soldiers under his command but also with his request of Jesus. He fully believed Jesus would have regard for his petition.
And Jesus did pay close attention to everything the centurion said. Jesus heard enough to know the centurion had faith. Words display faith. As Jesus said elsewhere, “The mouth speaks from the overflow of the heart” (Matthew 12:34). This is one reason our words are crucially important. They reveal faith or doubt. “And to the centurion Jesus said, ‘Go; let it be done for you as you have believed.’”
Genesis 18:22–33
Before God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, he allowed Abraham to intercede with him on behalf of their righteous residents. In the well-known account, Abraham requests that God would spare the city for the sake of 50 righteous people.
“And the LORD said, ‘If I find at Sodom fifty righteous in the city, I will spare the whole place for their sake.’” (Genesis 18:26)
Notice that God answers Abraham with precisely the number requested: 50. And with each of the requests that follow, God agrees to the precise number stated by Abraham: 45, 40, 30, 20, and 10. We do not know how low God would have gone if Abraham had continued. But the point is, God showed his intention to act based precisely on a man’s words.
When Abraham began this negotiation and first asked for the number 50, God could have skipped the negotiations and said he would not only spare the city for the sake of 50, but for 10. Instead we see God following the principle that he pays perfect attention to our every word and prayer, and in accordance with them works in our lives.
Numbers 30:2–15
We conclude with what the Bible says about making vows to God. Notice in the following passage their binding nature.
Numbers 30:2–5 says, “If a man vows a vow to the LORD, or swears an oath to bind himself by a pledge, he shall not break his word. He shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth. If a woman vows a vow to the LORD and binds herself by a pledge, while within her father’s house in her youth, and her father hears of her vow and of her pledge by which she has bound herself and says nothing to her, then all her vows shall stand, and every pledge by which she has bound herself shall stand. But if her father opposes her on the day that he hears of it, no vow of hers, no pledge by which she has bound herself shall stand. And the LORD will forgive her, because her father opposed her.”
Making a vow is like signing a mortgage. A person binds and obligates himself or herself to pay the debt. God pays attention to a human vow; to break that promise is to sin against him.
Takeaway
God pays perfect attention to my every word and prayer, and in accordance with them works in my life.
Jeremiah 9:23–24: “Thus says the LORD: ‘Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD.’” (ESV)
When you are established in faith, you can truly know God and his ways.
In the Fall of 2012 I was working full-time for a publisher and part-time as pastor of the church I still serve. One day my supervisor called me to his office and informed me that the company was laying off a large segment of its work force due to financial deficits and that I was one of those losing his job.
I had never experienced that before. You hear stories of people losing jobs and being devastated, and you wonder what you would do if it happened to you. As my supervisor explained the process of ending my employment and as I walked back to my office, my thoughts and emotional reaction surprised me. Although suddenly confronted with a long list of uncertainties and losses, my heart was calm. I was disappointed, sure, but not afraid. I felt confident that God was in charge, that he would provide for me and my wife, and that we were beginning an exciting new chapter.
Certainly I have not always been so assured. I recall a decade prior to this layoff driving for several hours with a friend to a meeting, and as the conversation moved to plans for the future, I admitted to my sense of financial insecurity. In other words, I was afraid and told him so. I did not see how I would have enough money for old age. For years I lived with foreboding about this.
Why? Because I did not adequately know God. Yes, I was a regenerated Christian, a devoted follower of Christ, a pastor. I knew God in the sense that I was born again and knew the Bible well and understood many truths about God accurately. But I did not know him well enough to trust what he repeatedly promised in Scripture about providing for my needs.
Faith and knowledge
To the extent that we do not really believe what the Scripture says, we do not know him. True knowledge of God depends on faith. One can articulate the most intricate aspects of the doctrine of the Trinity yet find it difficult to joyfully say, “God loves me.”
This is why the subject of faith is so important for Christians who want to know God better. Our knowledge of God cannot exceed our faith. The quest to know God is far more about increasing faith than about adding theological information and answering our questions.
What Jesus expected
As you read the Gospels, have you ever noticed what Jesus repeatedly called attention to as he engaged with his disciples and strangers? He certainly talked a lot about love, obedience, righteousness, and truth. Nevertheless, though I have not tallied the occurrences, it seems to me he talked most about faith and unbelief. He regularly either commended people for their faith or admonished them for doubt. He expected people to have what we would classify as enormous faith. And he marveled when his disciples were afraid of drowning in a momentous tempest. He admonished them when they worried about going hungry in the desert although they had just two loaves of bread and a couple of fish and a crowd of 5,000 to feed. He bypassed others who doubted he could heal the sick and demon-afflicted.
Moreover, he taught things about faith that are, well, unbelievable. He said true believers would with a word be able to move mountains, perform miracles, replant trees in the sea, and receive whatever they ask. Not only can God do amazing things, so can we.
God’s will
This stretches one’s faith to the breaking point. Some Christians respond by reaching for that level of faith, though it is by no means easy (that is, unless you become as a child [Mark 10:15]) and it raises many questions. Others do not know what to do with these teachings. They might explain them away, regarding Christians who pursue such faith as unwise or unhinged, asking for trouble and disillusionment. Or they might accept the teachings, but shake their heads and regard them as personally unattainable. Some might say these teachings of Jesus are for those who have the special gift of faith.
Based on my reading of the Gospels, I do not think Jesus would say that. He expected big faith from everyone. Moreover, to limit strong faith to a spiritual elite is to relegate most Christians to a stunted knowledge of God, as described above, and the fear, insecurity, instability, weakness, and defeat that comes with it.
No, Jesus said, “Have faith in God” (Mark 11:22). That is an imperative. Thus that is his will.
Scripture warns against being double-minded, saying to one who asks for wisdom, “Let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways” (James 1:6–8, ESV).
Hebrews 11:6 says, “without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.”
Romans 14:23 says, “whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.”
Isaiah 7:9 says, “If you do not stand firm in your faith, you will not stand at all” (NIV). The RSV says, “If you will not believe, surely you shall not be established.”
The trouble with accepting unbelief
We cannot experience the Christian life described in the Bible without faith in what God says. So the idea that we should tolerate in ourselves an unbelief of anything God says in his Word is simply wrong. We must not be satisfied with anything less than believing all he says. Unbelief insults God, implying that he is not truthful, cannot be trusted, and is not Almighty. Being content with unbelief requires resisting Jesus, who is the “author and perfecter of our faith” (Hebrews 12:2).
Therefore we must not rationalize and excuse our own unbelief. Unbelief will creep and grow. It is Satan’s foot in the door. It is an invitation to the unmanageable power of fear and the ruin that accompanies it.
Established in faith
So we need to be established in faith.
To establish means to put on a firm basis, to make stable or permanent.
I live on the 20th floor of a high-rise. I have watched many high-rises built around us. Before the first floor is built, I have seen dozens of holes drilled deep in the soil and then filled with concrete. I have seen a quarter million tons of concrete, steel, and glass go into a tower one floor at a time. A high-rise is as established as a man-made building can be. It is heavy and has a big footprint. It is anchored to the ground with deep underground columns. A puff of wind will not knock it over, nor will a normal trembling in the earth crack it to pieces.
To establish something is to position it to endure. It is in balance, not teetering. It is grounded, not suspended in midair. It has a foundation. It is built on rock, not sand. It is consistent, not wavering. It is single-minded, not double-minded.
The 20 truths this series highlights will bring you to this place of established faith. Believing these 20 truths will make you an immovable, spiritual rock. And most importantly, you will know God as he is. You will know him in your experience, not just intellectually. And your Christian life will work the way the Bible describes.
How the Christian life works
The Bible describes the life of a Christian as one marked by peace and joy even in the midst of conflict; by strength abounding even in our weaknesses; by answered prayer even though for a long time we walk by faith and not by sight.
The Christian life does not work as the Bible describes without faith, without faith in everything the Bible promises, without faith in the worldview the Bible describes—a worldview in which God is almighty and responsive to the prayers of those who believe. That is not the worldview of most people in educated, Western cultures, for whom the idea of a God who can do miracles is inconceivable. If you want to know and experience God, you must abandon that worldview and fully adopt what the Bible says about God and his ways with us.
Each of these 20 truths plays a crucial role in the superstructure of established faith, so do not miss a week. You will learn to call these truths to mind before you pray and then pray with confidence. When you sense fear and unbelief slipping into your soul, you will call these truths to mind, and they will reestablish you in immovable confidence. You will learn to live all day, every day, established in faith—and thus knowing God better than ever before.
Jeremiah 9:23–24: “Thus says the LORD: ‘Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD.’” (ESV)
When we pray for wisdom with reliance on the Holy Spirit, he imparts wisdom to us normally from within, in a way that seems like our own thoughts or feelings, but with divine clarity and calm.
As you seek wisdom for everything that matters to you, it is helpful to reflect on which member of the Trinity actually illumines your mind with that wisdom.
Jesus said, “The Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you” (John 14:26, ESV).
First John 2:20, 27 says, “You have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge…. The anointing that you received from him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about everything, and is true, and is no lie—just as it has taught you, abide in him.”
Pray for Wisdom with Reliance on the Holy Spirit
The One who imparts wisdom to you is God the Holy Spirit. His presence on you and in you is called “the anointing,” and thus in one sense his presence resembles oil smeared on your skin.
But his anointing goes deeper. His anointing is not merely on the surface. It “abides in you” (1 John 2:27). First Corinthians 6:19 says, “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God?”
1 Corinthians 6:17 says, “He who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him.”
So the God who teaches you is not distant, out there somewhere external to you. Rather, he is as near to you as he can possibly be. His Holy Spirit has united with your human spirit. He now indwells you. You are the temple of the Holy Spirit. He has anointed you as if smearing you with oil or pouring into you as into an oil jar.
As you seek wisdom for what matters to you, this means the divine person who will reveal that wisdom is as near as your own beating heart. And when you receive that wisdom, it will typically seem as though you conceived it yourself, rather than it coming like a voice from outside.
Your ceiling
Because you as a Christian have the Holy Spirit, your ceiling for wisdom is not your IQ—whatever that is in the physical human brain and immaterial spirit, and whatever it is that determines it. Rather, your ceiling is the divine knowledge of the Holy Spirit, which is unlimited.
First Corinthians 2:11–12 says, “No one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God.”
The Holy Spirit is able to reveal wisdom and knowledge to you in a way that also gives understanding. He is not limited like a human teacher, who can only explain and illustrate and so on, and then it is up to you to comprehend. A human teacher cannot get inside of your mind and actually enable you to understand—actually turn on the lights. But the Holy Spirit can do that.
The Holy Spirit understands the deepest thoughts of God, and he enables us to understand what he wants us to know.
What God is willing to teach you
Moreover, the Holy Spirit does not limit what he will teach about.
First John 2:27 says, “His anointing teaches you about everything.”
John 14:26 says, “The Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.”
This verse highlights what it means to have inside of you the Holy Spirit himself.
“the Helper” – Do you need help? Do you feel your limitations? Do you lack wisdom? The Holy Spirit lives in you in order to help you. He knows you need help and wants to give it to you. You are not asking him to do something outside of his divine role.
“whom the Father will send in my name” – The Holy Spirit cooperates with the other members of the Trinity to help you. He applies to you all the unlimited resources of the Sovereign Father and his beloved Son.
“he will teach you” – Jesus promises that the Holy Spirit himself will teach you. Trust him and be patient. He is the master teacher, along with the Father and the Son the most competent instructor in the universe. Place yourself in his competent hands as a teachable student.
“all things” – Things like understanding the Bible; overcoming stubborn sin; managing your work, body, emotions, ministry, and finances; organizing your home and possessions; overcoming challenges and problems; and having a healthy marriage, single life, family, and relationships of all kinds.
“bring to your remembrance” – He not only teaches what you do not know, he helps you remember what you have forgotten.
How George Washington Carver learned to help poor farmers
George Washington Carver’s scientific work on behalf of poor farmers is an example of the Holy Spirit’s willingness to help those who depend on him with anything they need to know. A Christian and botanist who lived from 1864 to 1943, Carver taught at the Tuskegee Institute in the years after the emancipation of slaves in America and devoted his work to helping former slaves become self-sustaining farmers.
One significant challenge they faced was poor soil depleted of nitrogen by generations of planting cotton year after year. To address that need Carver taught the necessity of crop rotation. In alternating seasons, farmers needed to plant crops like peanuts and sweet potatoes, which restored nitrogen to the soil. But peanuts were not a profitable crop, and farmers balked. Carver realized he needed to create demand by discovering new uses for them.
So he prayed for God’s understanding, and then he went into his lab, which he called “God’s little laboratory,” and followed God’s leading.
Over time he identified more than 300 uses for the peanut and published 105 food recipes using peanuts.
To demonstrate the value of his discoveries, writes Glenn Clark, “He himself took a plot of land that was 19 acres of the worst land in Alabama to experiment on to find what could be done to improve production. The first year it brought him a net loss of $16.25 an acre. After his first year of scientific treatment and cultivation it showed a profit of $4.00 [an acre]. Within another year the profit was $40.00 an acre and every following year brought better returns.”1
For perspective, at the time, in the South “most of the farmers contrive their best to live on an average cash income of $310 a year per family of five persons.”1
Quotations from George Washington Carver
Carver said:
“As I worked on projects which fulfilled a real human need, forces were working through me which amazed me. I would often go to sleep with an apparently insoluble problem. When I woke, the answer was there.”
“Believe. The promises of God are real. They are as real, as solid, yes infinitely more solid than this table which the materialist so thoroughly believes in. If you would only believe, O ye of little faith.”
“God is going to reveal to us things he never revealed before if we put our hands in his. No books ever go into my laboratory. The thing I am to do and the way of doing it are revealed to me. I never have to grope for methods. The method is revealed to me the moment I am inspired to create something new. Without God to draw aside the curtain I would be helpless.”
“There is no shortcut to achievement.”
“Start where you are, with what you have. Make something of it and never be satisfied.”
“Anything will give up its secrets if you love it enough. Not only have I found that when I talk to the little flower or to the little peanut they will give up their secrets, but I have found that when I silently commune with people they give up their secrets also if you love them enough.”
Honors
That Carver helped poor farmers, accomplished extraordinary things, and had enormous positive effects on his fellow Americans both black and white is beyond question.
After Carver died in 1943, “President Franklin D. Roosevelt dedicated $30,000 for the George Washington Carver National Monument west-southwest of Diamond, Missouri, the area where Carver had spent time in his childhood. This was the first national monument dedicated to an African American and the first to honor someone other than a president.”2
Among many more honors and recognitions, “in 1977, Carver was elected to the Hall of Fame for Great Americans. In 1990, he was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame. In 1994, Iowa State University awarded Carver a Doctor of Humane Letters. In 2000, Carver was a charter inductee in the USDA Hall of Heroes as the ‘Father of Chemurgy.’ In 2002, scholar Molefi Kete Asante listed George Washington Carver as one of 100 Greatest African Americans.”2
(Lawrence Elliott’s biography on Carver inspired me: George Washington Carver: The Man Who Overcame. It is probably available at your library.)
Life principle
When seeking God’s wisdom, people often look for external guidance of some sort, such as a voice or a sign, or for dramatic guidance that is unlike their normal experience. But it is God the Holy Spirit who imparts wisdom to you, normally from within your human spirit, in a way that will usually feel like your own thoughts or feelings, but with divine clarity and calm.
God wants to help you if you will persevere. The Holy Spirit is your helper. Like Carver, we can learn to work with him. He will teach us what we need to know.
A Prayer: Lord, teach me how to work with the Holy Spirit. Teach me how to receive wisdom and help from him. Holy Spirit, I need and request your help in ________. In Jesus’ name, amen.
1. Glenn Clark, “The Man Who Talks with the Flowers,” (Kindle location 568 of 638)
2. Wikipedia, “George Washington Carver”
Jeremiah 9:23–24: “Thus says the LORD: ‘Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD.’” (ESV)
We must pray for wisdom with faith because a double-minded person will not receive anything from the Lord. Here is how you can develop the necessary faith.
The most encouraging verse in the Bible about praying for wisdom is 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” (ESV).
However, it is immediately followed by a warning that might make you lose heart. “But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.” (James 1:6–8)
Knowing that an answer to prayer depends on your faith can make you lose faith! If everything depends on God, we can be confident because we know he is reliable. But if something depends on us, we can despair because we know how far short we fall of perfection, especially perfect faith. And we know how our emotions can ride a roller coaster.
There is no way around it, though. If you want to learn how to pray for wisdom for everything that matters to you, you must learn to pray with faith.
And you can do it.
You can pray for wisdom with faith
Again, you can do it. God will help you if you will enter the school of faith. Depending on how strong or weak your faith is now, it may take a while to learn to pray for wisdom with faith, but you can and will learn if you depend on God and persevere.
Praying for wisdom is an outstanding exercise for developing the muscle of faith. You build faith by using it, by going through the ups and downs of having faith for a request but then losing it—but not giving up. You again press in to God’s promises to regain faith. And you may go through that cycle many times, but if you do not quit, if you do not give up in despair, if you come back to your senses—to the bedrock reality that God is absolutely faithful—and keep choosing to believe God’s Word, you will find that the episodes of doubt come less often and are weaker and weaker.
Meanwhile your foundation of faith gets deeper and deeper, stronger and stronger, to the point where faith dominates your soul. And finally you come to the place where, changing the metaphor, all the oxygen for doubt is gone. Doubt suffocates and dies. And the only thing left standing and breathing is indomitable faith.
That is your future, my friend, if you will enter into the school of regularly praying for wisdom and staying at it until wisdom enters your heart (Proverbs 2:10).
Day one is decisive
Daniel 10:12 shows one key principle of faith. In previous posts in this series we saw that an angel appeared to Daniel, who for three weeks had been earnestly inquiring of God for wisdom. The angel said:
“Fear not, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand and humbled yourself before your God, your words have been heard, and I have come because of your words” (Daniel 10:12).
There is a crucial principle about how to pray for wisdom with faith: believe that the moment you pray God has heard you. Notice the past tense: “From the first day…your words have been heard.”
That is not unique to this verse in Daniel. In the New Testament God promises this to all Christians as we pray according to his will. First John 5:14–15 says, “This is the confidence that we have toward 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 requests that we have asked of him.” Again we see that the answer comes when we pray.
Jesus himself states this truth. “Whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours” (Mark 11:24). In the past tense you received it, and in the future tense it will be yours. So God has heard your request and determined to give you the wisdom you seek, but he may not do so immediately, or even soon. You have to keep faith that God has heard you for as long as he in his wisdom requires.
You can do it with his help. He will give you grace, for he delights in your faith.
Your words are decisive
I love the last few words from the angel in Daniel 10:12: “your words have been heard, and I have come because of your words.”
Do you recognize the weight of your own words? Do you realize how much attention God pays to your words, how much spiritual glory and power they have? And do you appreciate how decisive your words are in God’s sight?
Granted, some teachers, both Christian and non-Christian, have taken this to an extreme, but do not overreact to unbiblical extremes to the point that you lose the reality clearly taught in Scripture. Words that accord with the will of God are the currency of his kingdom. Pray for wisdom with faith that your words are heard in heaven—and it is done (James 1:5–8).
Jeremiah 9:23–24: “Thus says the LORD: ‘Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD.’” (ESV)
We should pray for wisdom without presumption about how God will answer, because he answers prayers in countless different ways and at times we do not expect.
If you are like me, you head into a time of asking God for wisdom with a hope about how and when he will answer. If I fast and pray and clear my calendar to do nothing but seek him with a listening ear, surely he will give me the wisdom I seek that day, hopefully within a few hours.
Moreover, my earnest hope is that I will “hear God.” That is, that words and thoughts will form in my mind with a clarity and emphasis that could suggest these thoughts are from God rather than me, giving the answer I seek. Or I will read the Bible and fall upon verses that leap off the page with exactly what I need to do. Or that day someone will say something to me that providentially, unknown to him, is “the word of the Lord.”
Disappointed
Expectations like these are why I am usually disappointed on the day I seek God earnestly for wisdom. I have heard plenty of stories by people who have such experiences, but they are rare for me, and strangely, seem more rare the older I get. I suggest you do not base your expectations on my experiences, but if you can identify with me, let them encourage you. If God does not give prompt, clear direction when you seek him for guidance and counsel, you are not unusual.
For this reason I strongly counsel you to pray for wisdom without trying to control how God answers. Have an open mind to how and when he will give the wisdom you seek. He almost certainly will not do as you expect, and he probably will answer every new request for wisdom differently than how he has answered previous inquiries. God likes variety.
You never know
For example, look in the Gospels at all the different ways Jesus healed people. He might lay his hand on the sick person, or merely speak a healing command, or spit on the ground to make mud and apply it to the blind eyes, or stick his fingers in deaf ears, or spit on his finger and touch a mute tongue, or healing virtue would flow to those who touched his cloak.
When we pray for wisdom, there are countless situations through which God can breathe the answer. A book. A conversation. A wise mentor. Your evaluation of recent efforts. A dream. Your analytical thinking or research. Prayer. Reading the Bible. A seminar, webinar, conference. Practice. Your gradual, one-percent improvement each time you do what you are trying to learn and seek to improve for the next time.
Or through an angel. Okay, that might not be the most likely answer, but that is how Daniel received his answer in Daniel 10. Again, you never know, and you probably cannot guess. God surprises us if we pray with faith and keep the faith for as long as necessary (James 1:5–8).
Keeping Faith
As I said in a previous post, I have been focused in prayer for over three years on getting wisdom for how to win converts and enfold them in our church. God has taught me much in that time, but I have not yet had the breakthrough insights I need.
Nevertheless, I know they are coming, for I believe. (James 1:5–8, Matthew 21:22, which literally reads, “All things whatever you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.”) Scripture calls Abraham the man of faith (Galatians 3:9, ESV), and he had to wait decades for some answers, and longer for others, even hundreds of years after he died.
Daniel had to wait three weeks for the wisdom he sought (Daniel 10:13). But the reason he had to wait was the angelic messenger bearing his answer faced satanic interference that delayed him. Otherwise Daniel would have had his answer promptly (Daniel 10:12). That tells me there are innumerable reasons unknown to us why an answer to our prayer can be delayed. And there are innumerable means God may use to give the answer. God sent an angel to Daniel, and he may send a human to give your answer. It could be anyone, communicating in any way, in-person or through any media.
Pray for Wisdom without Presumption
Therefore it is essential that you maintain your faith and keep seeking an answer (through prayer, research, practice, or however) for as long as necessary. Do not presume to require God to answer in a particular way.
Be open, flexible, persistent. Keep exploring, seeking.
And stay alert to what may be the divine answer you seek. In other words, if you are tending sheep in the desert and see a bush on fire that keeps burning and is not consumed, turn aside and pay attention (Exodus 3). Since I am seeking wisdom for effective evangelism, I should take notice if someone I know says out of the blue, “I just read a tremendous book on evangelism, and I am already seeing fruit from what I learned in it.”
Pray for wisdom without presumption about how God will answer. I am not disappointed when I pray for wisdom with faith and persistence and do not require that God answer me in extraordinary ways. His wisdom sooner or later enters my heart (Proverbs 2:10).
And remember, learning to pray for wisdom for everything that matters to you is an important way to know God practically, in daily experience, as someone you can rely on to help you. Knowing God and his ways is not just an intellectual experience; it is also a lived out experience of prayer, trust, and dependence. If we know how to explain God doctrinally but do not know how to depend on him for what we need in life, we are missing something important and wonderful.
Jeremiah 9:23–24: “Thus says the LORD: ‘Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD.’” (ESV)
