New Covenant Prayer: Session 2 – What Does God Want

Notes:

What Does God Want?    See Session Slides Here

1 Jn.5:14-15. Our motivation in prayer: ‘What does God want?’ We usually focus on deliverance or supply (fix list and wish list). The Holy Spirit wants to help us re-focus by helping us to see the big picture. E.g. ‘Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you’ (Matt.6:33).

The big picture: EARTH – WORLD – KINGDOM. God loves the Kingdom. It is what He is building, 1 Jn.2:15-17.

 God is the centre of creation. Remove Him from the centre, and you will lose gravity, spin out of control and self-destruct. God’s purposes are the very centre of spiritual gravity. Prayer is an opportunity to align ourselves with these.

There are 2 ways we can pray. 1) Carnal. That’s when it puts me in the centre; 2) Spiritual. That’s when we ask, ‘What does God want?’ Jesus prayed: ‘Now My soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? But for this purpose I came to this hour.  Father, glorify Your name’ (Jn.12:27-28).

 At the end of His life Jesus said, ‘I have glorified you on the earth’ (John 17:4). What a way to sum up your life! Like Jesus we can pray two different prayers: ‘Father, save me!’ or ‘Father, glorify your name.’

‘Father, glorify your name’ is the prayer that God always answers. How God chooses to glorify His name may be by saving us; but maybe not.

Carnal prayer: Begins with us…through God…back to us. Peter was ‘Not mindful of the things of God…’ The carnal mind is enmity towards God, James 4:3. See also James 4:4-5.

Spirit-led prayer asks, ‘What does God want?’ Spiritual prayer begins with God, passes through us and ends with God. Abraham and Sodom. God took Abraham into His counsel to involve him in His purposes.

Prayer is like electric circuit. Starts and ends with God. ‘For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen’ (Rom.11:36).

The message of NC prayer is not that you can have everything you believe for and you can be delivered from everything that makes your life unhappy. It is: ‘whatever you are going through Jesus is enough!’

Some may ask: ‘If God is going to fulfill His purposes anyway, what is the use of praying?’

  • Elijah prophesied rain, but still prayed for it.
  •  Daniel understood the time of release from captivity but still prayed for it.
  •  Prayer aligns us with the purposes of God. Prayer does not change the will of God. It does not get Him to change His purposes and get new purposes. It takes us into His counsel so that we flow with Him.
  • Prayer disarms our self-interest and affirms our trust that the Father who loves us so deeply knows us better than we know ourselves. ‘Father, may the purpose for which you have created me and placed me where you have in the world be fulfilled completely.’


# Answers to this quiz are found in the notes above. Click on quiz to commence. Only correct spelling is recognised. A minimum 70%  correct is required to advance to the next session.