AWAKE, ARISE, AND TRIUMPH
Sunday – January 1, 2023, Tevet 8, 5783
A WELL OF TRUTH
WHAT ABOUT PRAYING FOR OTHERS?
Greetings and HAPPY NEW YEAR dear saints of God and welcome back to The Three Minute Word blog. The Sunday edition is generally titled “A Well of Truth” today talking about prayer. The word ‘prayer’ in the title is a broad term generally meaning or referring to our conversation with God about situations or people. Before I move on, please take a moment to share this teaching as widely as possible by every means available to you. Thank you for sharing. I see and have seen much confusion about ‘prayer’ and many prayer failures. In fact, it seems that almost all prayers fail. The question is why. To give us the right prospective, it is not God, it is not His Word, nor is it the fault of other people. That leaves us. Many things interfere with our prayers including unforgiveness, passing judgement (not judging), strife with our spouse or others, willful unrepented sin, failing to walk in love (agape), and the king of the mountain unbelief. These of course are for another study, another time. Let’s examine the following Scripture passage.
1 Timothy 2:1-4 (KJV)
1 I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men;
2 For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.
3 For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour;
4 Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.
Can we pray for anyone, at any time, for anything? The answer is yes and no. What are we releasing in faith, in love, led of the Holy Spirit, with our words? The Lord through the Apostle Paul gives us some guidance. It is the will of God that we pray (general term) for all people and notice we are speaking to God about these people. These are generally unsolicited prayers. We are not speaking to the mountain in their life for example, like sickness, financial issues, grown children or other issues, and so on (Mark 11:23-24). There are many circumstances, instances, where we do not have authority or jurisdiction concerning another. Keep in mind there are two kingdoms and the person you are going to pray for, about, may be in the other kingdom (darkness). We are speaking to God. First let’s focus on verse one.
1 Timothy 2:1 (AMP)
1 FIRST OF all, then, I admonish and urge that petitions, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be offered on behalf of all men,
A supplication or petition on behalf of another (same for ourselves) would include the Scriptural basis (will of God) and the desired outcome. Prayer is talking to God about the persons situation both in our known tongue and an unknown tongue to get direction. Intercessions are a standing in the gap as a priest before God in the persons behalf (Luke 13:6-9). We are to be thankful for all, yes all, peoples. Remember all are made in the image and likeness of God, and God loves all, and desires that all be a part of His family. We are speaking to God because we have not been invited by the person involved therefore, we have no authority or jurisdiction in their life. Some things we will never be asked by persons in need of prayer. An example would be; how many unsaved people have asked you to pray that they will get saved?
I hope that we are seeing that, yes, we are to pray for all people as we have knowledge of their situations and are led of the Holy Spirit however there are guidelines as to how to accomplish the desired end. For example, a person with an illness who has not asked us specifically to pray for them we have no authority to speak to the illness. However, we can come to God on their behalf concerning their healing asking God to bring them to the right Scripture, for the building of their faith, to give them an increased space of time for their faith to grow, and we give thanks to God for all of this and their healing. Now, we can apply this to other things in people’s lives as well. As I start to draw to an end for today let’s examine the following passage.
1 John 5:14-15 (KJV)
14 And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us:
15 And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.
The will of God is what we find in the Word of God, like it is always His will for people to be saved, financially prosperous, spiritually prosperous (precedes the physical), and it is always His will for people to be healthy. The word ‘heareth’ in verse fourteen and ‘hear’ in verse fifteen is a legal term for not just hearing but acting upon. So, when we ask according to the will of God, and we have just reviewed some of His will. This is a lengthy teaching (and very incomplete) but may offer many some guidance. Back to our initial Scripture.
1 Timothy 2:1-4 (KJV)
1 I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men;
2 For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.
3 For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour;
4 Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.
We get guidance concerning our prayers for those in authority. Verse one is the guideline and verse two is the desired outcome. Notice in verse four it is also the will of God that we pray for the salvation of all people. It is also the will of God that all of His children come to the knowledge of the Truth. Notice it is possible to be saved and never come to the knowledge of the Truth. If you doubt the truth of that statement then answer this. Why is the vast majority of the body of Christ neither prosperous nor healthy when both are the will of God?
Lord willing, I will have another fresh Word from the Throne next week.
2 Chronicles 20:20 b (KJV)
20 … Believe in the LORD your God, so shall ye be established; believe his prophets, so shall ye prosper.
Receive the blessing in Jesus’ name!
Numbers 6:24-26 (MSG)
24 GOD bless you and keep you,
25 GOD smile on you and gift you,
26 GOD look you full in the face and make you prosper.
By: Dr. David R. Wood, Author, Bible Teacher, and Prophetic Voice
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