Is Confident Prayer being Presumptuous?
http://victoriouswordchurch.blogspot...sumptuous.html
Is Confident Prayer being Presumptuous?
http://victoriouswordchurch.blogspot...sumptuous.html
Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that. (James 4:13-15)
It's funny how they use this passage to promote the idea that we can not know what the will of God is in any area. The context of the verse is life and death. We have no promise to the effect that we will avoid physical death and we have no promise that it will not end because of persecution, meaning that our life ends prematurely even in the absence of sickness and disease. The context is vital, it says nothing about promises concerning protection from other dangers, health, sustenance in terms of food and water etc.
God gave us His Word to pray it specifically over situations in our lives. I don't think it's presumptuous at all to remind Him of what he promised us. (and not that God needs any reminding...WE need the exercise of reading His Word, and speaking it) Abraham took it a step further when he asked God to save Lot. He went beyond speaking the Word and he "bargained" with God.
FresnoJoe (08-23-2015)
Seems to me we are exhorted in scripture to be confident: Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them. mark 11:24
FresnoJoe (08-23-2015)
We MUST have confidence in God in our prayers for them to be heard.
MarieAnne...Head Smilie Catcher
Zephaniah 3:17
The Lord your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing."
Well, if this "confidence" business keeps up, it's going to start sounding like believing God's promises are actually true which could lead to casting out devils in Jesus' Name, speaking in tongues, moving demons out of the way, taking in deadly things having no effect, laying hands on the sick, and they shall recover... which sounds like the Great Commission (Mark 16:15-18) which sounds a lot like name it and claim it aka word of faith (Romans 10:8)
It's a slippery slope... this sort of thing sounds like that which "Full Gospel" people believe, you know as though God's Word is actually true!
FresnoJoe (08-23-2015)
Jesus' Confidence lay in ONE thing...that He was led by the Holy Spirit in all that He said and did...
Jesus was continually in prayer to the Father and we see little about what that looked like except for a few instances...
When He taught the disciples to pray
When He raised Lazarus
When He was in the Garden
Prayer, even when it's scripturally solid needs to be Spirit led...otherwise we may be 'demanding' something that is promised in scripture but Holy Spirit wants us to be praying differently for that situation.
I do believe prayer can be presumptuous but I believe more often it is just done in the flesh...
If we spend far more time listening in prayer I am convinced we would speand far less time talking and our prayers would be come more accurately targeted.
I can pray a generic, deliver him, prayer for the alcoholic but see little results despite the fact that I know that is what Jesus died for and provided...
I believe God wants our prayers to be far more guided and detailed...and when we really don't know His specific will to pray in the Spirit until we do..
FresnoJoe (08-23-2015)
Absolutely..our confidence is in HIM and not actually in our prayers...In His finished work...
Most of what Jesus did was not 'prayed over'..it was commanded because He already knew exactly what God wanted done and how He wanted it done. I do believe we often act in presumption though because we are acting on scriptures which reveal the general will of the Father but not the specific will for the immediate person or circumstance...
I think far too often we are just scatter shooting ...and Satan and deception dodge the pellets...
FresnoJoe (08-23-2015)
FresnoJoe (08-23-2015)