ChristiansUnite Forums

MISUSE OF PRAYER

By Cornelius R. Stam

Many Christian people fail to pray acceptably. They
indulge their wills, earnestly praying that God will lead;
yet all the while determined that He shall lead according to
their desires, even if contrary to His revealed will. Then,
when faced with the written Word, they say: "But I have
prayed much about it." They even challenge God, like the
young woman who justified herself for entering into an
unequal marriage vow by saying: "I asked the Lord if this
wasnt His will just to hinder it somehow." Such misuse of
prayer is worse than superstition; it is sacrilege, for the
young woman should have known -- probably did know --
that the written Word had already condemned what she
wanted, prayed about and got.
       
Then too, there is much superstition among God’s people
with respect to prayer. How readily some believers "feel
led," seek for "inner promptings" or listen for that "still
small voice" in answer to their prayers! They say: "The
Lord told me" this or that, or "The Spirit whispered to me"
or "I could just hear Him saying." When such remarks are
made to this writer he usually inquires further into the
details and invariably learns that no voice was heard at all,
but that the speaker merely took some feeling or impres-
sion to be, in some mystic way, a direction from the Lord.
       
God does speak to us through His Word, even when some
incident or circumstance emphasizes the truth of His Word,
but with the Word complete He no longer speaks to us by
visions or even by still small voices, and the instructed
believer will be careful not to depend upon "inner prompt-
ings," knowing that by nature "the heart is deceitful above
all things" (Jer. 17:9).

<:)))><

I know it is the Holy spirit in me that leads me to prayer, Brother love, not my wonderful nature. I am constantly talking to God, discerning between what is from MY will and what is from the Holy Spirit inside of me. Jesus said; "For out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks." The more of the spirit we have inside of us, the more our hearts will DESIRE the things of the spirit. I can tell if I'm praying for MY will when I am praying wor worldly things rather than for spiritual things. More and more I could care less about worldly things. I KNOW for a fact that God will ALWAYS give me anything that is of the spirit, like learning how to love others properly, wisdom, discernment, humility, etc. He MAY give me worldly things but ONLY when He knows they will not replace the spiritual things that are good for me.

If he believes that, then he's never heard the voice of God, because it's just not true. Does he not realize that the spirit is within us? How can it then not converse with God, nor hear God?

I agree that all things must be carefully examined; sometimes we do only hear from our own minds and think it's God. But to say it never happens is wrong; that would mean we serve a dead god.... I serve the living God!


...but I do agree with this.

That's beautiful, Heidi!

:D