NT Framework - Prayers Immutable Base

Do you want or even need your prayers to be answered? Is there a prayer that is guaranteed to be answered? Yes there is. The key is in praying in accordance with God's word and aligning ourselves in grace in His will. 

More information about Beyond the Walls, including additional resources can be found at www.beyondthewalls-ministry.com 

This series included graphics to illustrate what is being taught, if you would like to watch the teachings you can do so on Rumble (https://rumble.com/user/SpokaneBibleChurch) or on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtV_KhFVZ_waBcnuywiRKIyEcDkiujRqP).

Jeremy Thomas is the pastor at Spokane Bible Church in Spokane, Washington and a professor at Chafer Theological Seminary. He has been teaching the Bible for over 20 years, always seeking to present its truths in a clear and understandable manner. 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas and
our series on the New TestamentFramework.
Today a smaller, bite-sizedpiece from the larger lesson.
We hope you enjoy it.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
The doctrine of prayer.
The first point in the doctrineof prayer, which we saw
illustrated in Daniel 9 withDaniel's prayer, was prayer
should avoid fatalism.
What do I mean by that fatalism?
What do I mean by that?
A fatalistic view of thesovereignty of God?
Some Christians have a verystrong view of the sovereignty

(00:30):
of God in the sense that theywould say that all the details
of life, every detail, isdetermined by God.
So, for example, what colorsocks you put on this morning,
what tie you bought last week ifyou still buy ties what purse

(00:50):
you wore today, what colorearrings and shape earrings you
bought or put on today weredetermined by God that you would
buy those and put those ontoday.
So, the very strong view of theevery detail of life determined
by God.
Sovereignty idea.
In that view of sovereignty,what room is there for prayer?

(01:18):
Let's say you want something tohappen in history.
That's why you're praying.
Right, we just pray for JaneOrlop.
Why?
Because we want her to get well.
We want her shoulder not to bebroken.
Now, if it's already determinedwhat it is whatever will be will

(01:39):
be then why are you prayingabout it?
Prayer loses its impetus ormotivation when you have a view
of the sovereignty of God, thatwhatever will be will be and
that's just the way it is.
Why would you pray forsomeone's salvation if they're
either going to be saved orthey're not, and God's already

(01:59):
determined it?
Why waste your time praying?
And of course, you'd have toback off from the whole thing
and say, well, the prayersthemselves would be determined
by God.
You know, it's this interestingway of trying to think about
things, but fatalistic views ofGod's sovereignty crush prayer.

(02:22):
Prayer is not really valid,because whatever's going to
happen is going to happen anyway, whether you pray or not, right
?
So that idea should be avoided.
Now, one way I've viewedsovereignty and tried to convey
it to people, because God issovereign.

(02:42):
We don't question that.
It's just a matter of what isyour model?
What does it look like If youhave a ship that is setting sail
from one port and it has adestination at another port?
Now the origin and thedestination are set at the

(03:03):
beginning and the end, and then,as the ship sets sail, it's
going across various waters andyou are on the ship.
You are human.
Now you have freedom.
It's freedom within the form ofthe ship.
You can go down and eat dinner,you can go swim, you can look

(03:25):
over the bow.
You have all sorts of thingsthat you can do on the ship.
You can go down and eat dinner,you can go swim, you can look
over the bow.
You have all sorts of thingsthat you can do on the ship.
But there are also limitations.
You can't do things that arenot on the ship.
You can't go visit someplaceelse.
You're stuck on the ship andyou're going to a certain
conclusion, but during thatjourney you have some freedom.
Right, and this is one model orpossible way of looking at the

(03:49):
plan of God.
I'm sure it is inept, it is notperfect, but it is a way of at
least conveying how thebeginning and the end are set by
God, as well as the route toget there.
But yet within it, humans havefreedom.
Within this limited sphere.
That opens up the possibilityfor room for prayer and asking

(04:12):
God for this or for that.
But guess what, if you pray forthe second coming not to happen
?
That will not be answered.
Why will that not be answered?
Because that is part of thesovereign plan of god that is
set.
Okay, and that is what danielwas looking at.
Daniel was saying now you got70 years over here in jeremiah,
but you told me there's going tobe these four successive

(04:33):
kingdoms.
Now the angel described howboth could work in the plan of
God.
He said well, jeremiah is abouta partial restoration after 70
years, but the total restorationis after the 490 years.
So Daniel wasn't going tochange any of that by praying,
right.
But he also knew, hey, there'shuman responsibility and we need

(04:58):
to as a nation confess our sinand what we have done.
And so that is a part of hisprayer.
And that illustration of theship hopefully gives a little
bit of help as to a model forGod's sovereignty.
But that's the first point.
Prayer should avoid fatalism.
It kills prayer.
We do not have a fatalisticview of the sovereignty of God.

(05:18):
The second idea that we see inthe doctrine of prayer is that
prayer should be based on God'simmutable word Again God.
Like the second comingillustration, you could pray
against that, but God is notgoing to answer prayers that are
contrary to his word.
So prayers should not becontrary to the plan of God and

(05:42):
purpose of God, but they shouldbe rather filled with his word.
If we pray scripture, we can becertain that God will answer
those prayers in his timing andin his way.
We have to amend it with that.
If we pray Scripture, we can besure that God will answer those

(06:04):
prayers.
But he will do it in his timeand he will do it in his way.
Right, but we can be sure if wepray Scripture.
Those are prayers that aregoing to be answered.
Daniel based his prayer on theword of God in Jeremiah and the
word of God that was given tohim in Daniel 2.
His whole prayer was based onthe books of Jeremiah and what

(06:27):
he had going on relative to hisown books and writing.
So that's a firm basis.
We study the scriptures and wetry to understand them.
We don't understand, we pray.
We ask the Lord show me how tounderstand them.
We don't understand, we pray.
We ask the Lord show me howthis works.
Explain this to me, help meunderstand, and the Lord will
answer in His time and in Hisway.

(06:48):
So prayer should be based onGod's immutable Word.

Speaker 1 (06:51):
Thank you for joining us on Beyond the Walls with
Jeremy Thomas.
If you would like to see thevisuals that went along with
today's sermon, you can findthose on Rumble and on YouTube
under Spokane Bible Church.
That is where Jeremy is thepastor and teacher.
We hope you found today'slesson productive and useful in

(07:11):
growing closer to God andwalking more obediently with Him
.
If you found this podcast to beuseful and helpful, then please
consider rating us in yourfavorite podcast app, and until
next time, we hope you have ablessed and wonderful day.