Doctrine of Prayer; James 1:6
When James says to count it
all Joy in the first few verses he is setting up the tone for the entire
epistle where he is basically going to tell us in the rest of the epistle all
of the doctrinal skills and techniques that we need in order to fulfil this
opening mandate. He is going to continually come back to this theme of
endurance and testing and joy over and again. We have seen the concept of the
soul fortress. The psalmist continually talks about how the Lord is the
strength of our soul. He is our rock, our fortress, the bulwark of our souls.
In our soul is our volition where we make our choices. Our life is the product
of our choices. Whatever we do, whatever we become in life is the consequence
of our volition. Right now we are determining what we will be in 15 or 20 years
from now. Our life is the product and the outcome of all of our choices.
We live in an era when we
try to disavow personal responsibility for everything. If somebody does
something that is very heinous we immediately jump to the excuse that they are
somehow insane. The problem is that these decisions that eventually culminate
in a person becoming mentally deranged is the product
of years and years and years of negative decisions, whether they are mental or
overt. No child is born schizophrenic, he gets that
way because of his response to the external adversities of life. This is the
very point that James is going to make when we get down to the end of verse 6.
He says that there are only two ways that you are going to deal with this.
Number one is in faith, by going to God in prayer and utilizing the
problem-solving devices, and the faith-rest drill is the foundation for all of
the stress-busters. NASB “But he must ask in faith without any
doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed
by the wind.” So we have this image of instability. We either have stability
because we are walking by means of the Holy Spirit and applying doctrine and
using the stress-busters to deal with adversity in our life, or we are in
instability. We might think we are stable because we are handling life’s
adversities through this technique or that technique but eventually that will
crash. Verses 7 and 8 say, NASB “For that man ought not to expect
that he will receive anything from the Lord,
How can we as believers
avoid this kind of soul instability? There are ten stress-busters. Adversity is
the outside pressure on the soul, it is inevitable; but stress is optional.
Stress is the inside pressure on the soul that if not handled by the
stress-busters and by building this spiritual fortification around the soul to
prevent adversity from penetrating the soul, then the result is that the soul
begins to fragment and come apart. That ends up in the DIPSUCHOS
believer, the psychotic. The ten stress-busters are God’s tool that he has
revealed to us as believers so that we can handle any and every situation in
life. God knew every situation in our lives in eternity past and he made
complete and total provision for that so that we could handle it and He would
receive the glory. That is why grace orientation is fundamental and basic in
the problem-solving devices, because we have to understand grace, that it is God
and not us; it is not what we do, it is what God has already done for us and
learning to rely upon that in trusting Him.
James 1:5 NASB “But
if any of you lacks wisdom.” We saw that wisdom is the divine viewpoint of
Scripture, what the Bible calls EPIGNOSIS [e)pignwsij] in the Greek, chokmah in the Hebrew. It is
usable doctrine. When the pastor or evangelist or teacher
communicates the Word of God under the filling of the Holy Spirit that goes
into the mentality of the soul. The Bible talks about two arenas within
the mentality of the soul, the left lobe of the mentality of the soul or the NOUS, and this the Bible calls the mind. Information comes in as GNOSIS, academic
knowledge. This is simply a staging area. A lot of believers accumulate a
tremendous amount of academic knowledge about the Bible but they never convert
it to EPIGNOSIS. Just because they have a lot of GNOSIS doesn’t
mean they have a lot of EPIGNOSIS. Under the filling of the Holy Spirit and the
exercise of positive volition GNOSIS is transferred, when you believe it, into the right
lobe and it becomes EPIGNOSIS. When it becomes EPIGNOSIS, this is usable doctrine. When you come
top Bible class you hear a tremendous amount of information about the Bible and
about doctrine. When you leave you get about twenty or thirty per cent of that
notes and you can remember about ten per cent of it tomorrow. Probably only one
or two per cent really gets over here as EPIGNOSIS because you really don’t understand it yet. Before GNOSIS can be
transferred into EPIGNOSIS you have to understand it, there has to be real
cognition there, you have to fully comprehend it. The Holy Spirit makes it
understandable to you under the term PNEUMATIKOS or spiritual phenomena. That means that you can
comprehend it, not that you do comprehend it, because we learn doctrine like we
do everything else in life and that is line upon line, precept upon precept,
here a little, there a little. It comes incrementally. The first time you hear
something you have an overview. The next time you hear it you can start
plugging in some details. Under this concept, the Holy Spirit making it
understandable, it means that you have the capacity to comprehend what is being
taught in terms of doctrine. With the unbeliever it just goes right over the
head. But you have the capacity to understand it, though you may not understand
it and probably won’t understand a lot of these things the first time you hear
them. A lot of times people have heard these things so much they think they
understand them. Just because they can repeat things back the way the pastor
taught it, using his verbiage and terminology, people think they understand the
concept. But they don’t understand the concept, they
can just give it back by rote. You have to learn it line upon line, and as you
do, as you begin to comprehend it and believe it, it is transferred over to the
right lobe as EPIGNOSIS.
This is all done under the
filling of the Holy Spirit and the filling of the Holy Spirit is the result of
confession of sin. We recover the filling of the Holy Spirit, we are restored
to fellowship with God, and we can start moving forward in the spiritual life.
All confession does is get you to a point where you can go forward. The Holy
Spirit is not going to violate your volition. He is not going to come in and
tweak you to positive when you hit that test. The test is designed to determine
if your positive volition will carry through in the midst of that test so that
you will reach into that doctrine that you have stored in your soul, pull out
the right doctrine and apply it to that situation. That is what promotes
spiritual growth. It is the Holy Spirit who helps you remember where you have
stored that in your soul and how you apply it to the situation. The Holy Spirit
does not do it for you. Confession does not move you anywhere, it just puts you
in the place where under the filling ministry of the Holy Spirit you can move
forward, but you move forward by means of the filling of the Holy Spirit and
the doctrine that is in your soul—the two power options—and you positive
volition. When you exercise that positive volition you move forward. Then you
have spiritual growth. It is not something that is automatic.
The faith-rest drill,
doctrinal orientation and grace orientation are the problem-solving devices
that underlie what James is talking about in verses 5 and 6. He says, “But if
any of you lacks wisdom.” So immediately you realize that if you are going to
solve the problem of stress and adversity in your life, if you think you lack
something, and what you lack is the doctrine necessary to apply to the
situation, then that is brining in problem-solving device # 4, doctrinal
orientation. You have to have wisdom, you have to have
that doctrinal orientation, that EPIGNOSIS in the right lobe of your soul. “Let him ask of God.”
This is the prayer, “Lord, I need this,” and God in His righteousness and
justice will provide the Bible teaching necessary to give the information
needed so that it can be applied to those tests and the believer move forward: “…let him ask of God, who gives to all
generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him.”
This brings in the fifth
problem-solving device which is grace orientation. We have to understand that
we don’t bargain with God (God, I’ll do this if you just help me get through
this problem), that is not grace orientation, it is legalism. Legalism is
always the enemy of grace. The issue is that if you are in fellowship under the
filling of the Holy Sprit and you pray, God will generously and without
reproach, provide the solution for you. This is the point of verse 6.
James 1:6 NASB
“But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like
the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind.” This begins with the Greek
word AITEO [a)itew]. His is a present active imperative, a command, a
mandate to ask by means of faith—EN [e)n]
plus the dative of PISTEUO [pisteuw],
the noun for faith. EN plus the dative has various nuances and meanings, but
one of its primary ones is that of means or instrumentality. The solution here
is that if you are going to use prayer to apply these problem-solving devices
or stress-busters then it needs to follow a certain protocol. A protocol
involves the rules and regulations laid down in any type of procedure. This
protocol here is that we are to ask by means of faith.
Prayer
1) They key word here is AITEO, which means to ask, to
request, to petition. It is the key word used in the New Testament for
intercessory prayer. Supplication prayer involves two categories: a)
intercessory prayer, which is prayer for others; b) petition, which involves
requests for one’s self. AITEO is used
five times by James, so we are going to see that prayer is a key aspect in
applying the stress-busters to the problems of life.
2) Prayer is a grace provision. That means we did nothing
to deserve it, God gave it to us so that we would have access to His presence.
Prayer is that grace provision of the royal priesthood. In the Old Testament
they could pray but they had to pray through the priest, through the Levitical
priesthood, whereas in the church age as a royal priest we have the privilege
of direct access to God at any time. The purpose of this communication is to
acknowledge our sins, express our adoration and praise to God, giving thanks in
every situation and for everything, interceding for others, conveying our own
personal needs in petitions, and just conducting intimate conversation with
God.
3) You do not pray to be spiritual, you pray because you
are spiritual. That is a vital point that most people miss today. Most are so
concerned about going out and doing something for God, wether it is evangelism,
or giving or prayer, or going to church, because they thing that promotes
spirituality, but you do those things because you are spiritual. They are the
consequence of your growth and maturity, they do not
cause or bring about growth and maturity. Your prayer life is no stronger than
your spiritual life.
4) Prayer is for believers only. Unbelievers do not have
a relationship with God. Prayer is intimate family communication; unbelievers
are not in the family. The only prayer that the unbeliever can get heard is the
prayer of salvation: “Father I believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross for
my sins.”
5) Prayer demands concentration and thought. The prayers
of the Old Testament and New Testament was so that these people would sit down
and craft their prayers, think about them; they built a foundation for what
they were getting ready to say. Prayer relies on doctrine, on fact, not on subjectivity.
6) Prayer should be the highest priority in life after
learning Bible doctrine because it is part of our family intimate relationship
with God the Father. If intercession is the highest priority of the Lord Jesus
Christ and the Holy Spirit, then it should also be the highest priority in the
believer’s life. This is specifically stated several times in Scripture, that
one of the primary roles of the Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit is
interceding continually for the church age believer.
7) As believers our prayers fail because we fail in our
spiritual lives. We do not understand the will and plan of God. We can’t take
passages out of context, we have to understand the will and plan of God or our
prayers will fail.
8) Every believer is commanded to pray. 1 Thessalonians
9) Prayer changes things. James 4:2 NASB “You
do not have because you do not ask.”
10) Prayer consists of four basic elements. C= confession,
simply acknowledging sins to God the Father; A= Adoration, the praise function
of prayer. We see this again and again in some of the adoration/praise psalms
in the Old Testament; T= Thanksgiving, expressing our gratitude to God in every
situation and for every circumstance; S= Supplication, the expression of our requests.
Two categories: intercession for others and petition for ourselves. Prayer may
involve any one or any mix of those categories. But to be sure that our prayers
are heard we have to be in fellowship. If we keep short accounts that is not a
problem.
11) Prayer is addressed to God the Father in the power of
the Holy Spirit and in the name of Jesus Christ. Why is that? When Jesus taught
the disciples to pray He addressed the prayer to God the Father. If the role of
Jesus Christ in the church age is to be our advocate and our intercessor, and
He is continually making intercession for us, then why are we going to Him with
our prayers. He is interceding with the Father for us,
so we do not go to Him in prayer. We go to the Father. He is the one Jesus
Christ is addressing in His prayers for us on a daily, moment-by-moment basis. Both
Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit continually go to the Father on our behalf,
and we address our prayers to God the Father in the power of the Holy Spirit,
and in the name of Jesus Christ.
[Gap in tape]
Prayer is not a
stress-buster per se but is the means by which we implement the faith-rest
drill, grace orientation, or doctrinal orientation, express our personal love
for God the Father in many different ways.
This passage says, “But he
must ask in [by means of] faith…” This brings us to the third of the
problem-solving devices/stress-busters, the faith-rest drill. The faith-rest drill under girds all of the subsequent
stress-busters. If you don’t understand the dynamics of the faith-rest
drill, then you are going to have problems moving past that stage in your
spiritual growth.
The doctrine of the faith-rest drill
Introduction
a) The faith-rest
drill is one of the ten stress-busters of God’s plan for the church. The
beginning point of the faith-rest drill is to believe God when He makes
promises to us. For example, Proverbs 3:5, 6 NASB “Trust in the LORD with all
your heart [mentality of the soul]. And do not lean on your own understanding
[human viewpoint].
b) When we are filled with the Spirit we tend to learn
some basic promises about God, and we begin to grasp on to those promises, and
in our spiritual infancy we begin to grow as we claim those promises and apply
the doctrine. It is called mixing the promises of God with faith.
c) The faith-rest drill is the stress buster used by
believers in all dispensations. It is referred to in Ephesians chapter six
under the metaphor of the shield of faith. Once again, it is the shield
metaphor, the fortress, the bulwark, the rock that protects our soul.
d) The faith-rest drill is the glue that holds all of the
stress-busters together, the foundation, the cornerstone.
e) In the church age God the Father has provided this as
part of our portfolio of invisible assets. We have an incredible number of
spiritual assets.
f) These are designed by God for ever believer to use to
handle any adversity, any suffering, any difficulty in
life.
g) Believers have choices every time any adversity, any
prosperity, or any situation arises in their life. It is at that time that you
make the choice whether you are going to apply these stress-busters to the
adversity or the prosperity situation.