A Prayer To Know God's Will And Have The Power To Carry It Out

We were speaking yesterday about how people were amazed at what Jesus said and did. What’s your reaction when you hear these words:

This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him. 1 John 5:14

I’d say that’s pretty amazing stuff, wouldn’t you?  Confidence?  Anything?

Jesus did great things because He spent lots of time in prayer seeking to know the will of His Father.  We are promised that God will respond to us when we pray “according to His will” but we need to spend time with God so we are sensitive to His voice as He speaks His will to us.  This is how Jesus described it for Himself in His relationship with the Father:

Jesus gave them this answer: “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, and he will show him even greater works than these, so that you will be amazed. By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me. John 5:19-20, 30

That’s what we pray for today – willingness to pray so we hear and do all the amazing things Jesus wants us to do.  Remember what Jesus told His followers:

Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.  John 14:12

Really?  Jesus healed the sick, sent away evil spirits, multiplied bits of food to feed thousands, calmed storms with a word, raised the dead and on and on. “greater things than these???

I long for that but I don’t see that yet in my life.  Do you? Jesus was up before dawn praying hours with His Father.  At the end of long and tiring days of ministry it was Jesus who sent His friends away and then went off into the mountains to pray. 

God invites us to spend time with Him.  Part of our conversation with God needs to be asking Him to show us His will and then paying attention to what He says.  We spend so little time praying and then when we do pray we often have our laundry list of things we need. God want so fill us with the knowledge of His will.

… he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ,  Ephesians 1:9

This was the prayer of the early church:  we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,  Colossians 1:9

Lord, this is our prayer as well, that we would be filled and guided by Your Holy Spirit so we would know Your will.  Forgive us for the way we run in and out of Your presence with our list of demands rather than sitting with You so You can show us all that You have on Your heart. 

We long to somehow get to that place where Jesus did when He saw what You were doing and then did it.  Increase our faith that in Your love for us You long to show us what You are doing and to empower us to actually do these things in Your name.  Forgive us for deciding what Your will is without really hearing it from you.  Help us to stop wasting time and effort by doing things that aren’t opening doors for Your power and for judging with our own thoughts and understanding rather than as we hear from You.  Help us to live to please only You and not ourselves. 

We really do want to grow in grace so that we get to the place where we are confident that what we are asking of You is according to Your will – we know Your heart is full of love and blessing but we need to know Your will as we pray for each person and situation that is before us.  Help us to be willing to listen until we know, ask until we receive, seek until we find, knock until the door is opened to us.

Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.  Matthew 7:7-8

So today let’s find some time to give our attention to God and just simply ask His will about things we wonder about.  We might be surprised at what He tells us.