I'm preaching Sunday on prayer at MercyHill. I am convinced that ministry at MercyHill must be first ministry "by Jesus" not ministry "for Jesus". We are in desperate need of His ministry to us, and only then may we truly minister in His name. The yearning for Jesus ministry to me personally and to those with whom I serve has become my fervent prayer.
While studying for Sunday I found this quote from E.M. Bounds.
"God has plainly and with directness committed himself to answer prayer. If we fulfill the conditions of prayer, the answer is bound to come. The laws of nature are not so invariable and so inexorable as the promised answer to prayer. The ordinance of nature might fail, but the ordinances of grace can never fail. There are no limitations, no adverse conditions, no weakness, no inability, which can or will hinder the answer to prayer. God’s doing for us when we pray has no limitation, is not hedged about, by provisos in Himself, or in the peculiar circumstances of any particular case. If we really pray, God masters and defies all things and is above all conditions.
God explicitly says, “Call unto me, and I will answer.” There are no limitations, no hedges, no hindrances in the way of God fulfilling the promise. His word is at stake. His word is involved. God solemnly engages to answer prayer. Man is to look for the answer, be inspired by the expectation of the answer, and may with humble boldness demand the answer. God, who cannot lie, is bound to answer. He has voluntarily placed himself under obligation to answer the prayer of him who truly prays.
God’s Word does not say 'Call unto me, and you will thereby be trained into the happy art of knowing how to be denied. Ask, and you will learn sweet patience by getting nothing.” Far from it. But it is definite, clear and positive: “Ask and it shall be given unto you.'”
EM Bounds, Complete Works 193-195
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I have read similar comments by well-known authors and I always come away with one of two feelings: inadequacy as a "pray-er", or doubt about the author's communication skills. While I recognize my own inadequacy in many areas, including prayer, I also note in the quote above the almost hidden phrase, "If we meet the conditions of prayer,..." The balance of the quote makes the conditions seem almost peripheral while I believe they are necessary conditions, without which the believer's prayer has no impact.
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