The School of Prayer - Part 1

No Christian rises any higher than his praying. The most important part of your life and the most important part of my life is the part that only God sees: our prayer life. Now, it's important for us to know how to pray. And during these days we're going to be looking into Luke 11 and we're going to be enrolling in the school of prayer.

In Luke 11:1, we read this: "And it came to pass that as he was praying," that's the Lord Jesus, "in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples." You discover that our Lord teaches us four basic lessons about prayer. There's a kindergarten lesson, a grade school lesson, then there's a high school lesson, and there's a graduate school lesson. And during these days, we'd like to learn these four lessons. We'd like to graduate in the school of prayer. I trust you'll stay with us and learn these lessons. 

Luke 11:1 gives us the kindergarten lesson in prayer. Here it is: we must pray. You say that's so very practical, so very obvious. Yes, it is, but many people never learn it. When a person first enters into the family of God, when you trust Christ as your savior and you are born from above, this lesson needs to be learned. This is the kindergarten lesson: we must pray. You see, John the Baptist prayed.

Now, you must remember that John the Baptist was filled with the Holy Spirit before he was born, and yet he had to pray. John the Baptist was related to our Lord Jesus Christ, and yet he had to pray. John the Baptist was the greatest of the Old Testament prophets, and yet he had to pray. Jesus said none was ever greater in preaching in the kingdom than John the Baptist, and yet John the Baptist had to pray. Now, my friend, if a man like John the Baptist, a prophet, a spirit-filled man had to pray, how much more do we need to pray? John taught his disciples how to pray. 

Jesus prayed. Now, here is a remarkable thing. Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was perfect, and yet he had to pray. He could perform miracles, and yet he had to pray. Our Lord Jesus Christ was perfect in thought and word and deed, and yet he had to pray. Now, my friend, if Jesus had to pray, how much more do I need to pray? If John taught his disciples to pray, and if Jesus taught his disciples to pray, is it not important that you and I learn how to pray? We must pray. That is the kindergarten lesson in the school of prayer. You see, these disciples saw the Lord Jesus praying, and they realized that the secret of his ministry was the Holy Spirit of God working because Jesus prayed. 

In the Gospel of Mark, we're told that early one morning the Lord Jesus arose, he left Peter's house, he went out into a quiet place and there he prayed. And when the disciples woke up, they said, "Where's the Lord Jesus?" And someone said, "You know where he is. Why, he's out praying." And sure enough, they went out and found him and he had been praying. I wonder, my friend, if people can't find you, do they know what you're doing? There's some saints of God, if you can't find them, you know that they're shopping or they're fishing or perhaps watching TV. I wonder if anyone says, "You know, if you can't find him, I'll tell you what he's doing: he's praying." What a great reputation it is that people would know that we believe in prayer. 

Now, the kindergarten lesson in prayer is just simply: we need to pray. I'm talking about the kind of praying people did in the Bible. Moses depended on prayer. Joshua depended on prayer. The Apostle Paul wrote 1 Thessalonians 5:17. In the New Testament, you find the church depending on prayer. We need to pray. That is the kindergarten lesson in prayer. But don't stay there. Now, some saints have never gotten that far, but don't stay there. Move on to the grade school lesson in prayer, and this is found in Luke 11:2-4. Let me read them to you from Luke 11: "And he said unto them, When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth. Give us day by day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins; for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil." 

Now, this passage is usually called the Lord's Prayer. Our Lord could never pray this passage. He never said "Our Father"; his relationship to the Father was unique. He would never say "forgive me my sins" because he never sinned. Better it is to call this the disciples' prayer. You see, he is teaching his disciples to pray. Now, what is this lesson in prayer? Remember now, the kindergarten lesson: we must pray. The grade school lesson: we must pray in God's will. You know, it's a marvelous thing when you graduate out of kindergarten into grade school and you understand that praying is not getting man's will done in heaven; praying is getting God's will done on earth. Praying is not overcoming God's reluctance, as George Mueller has expressed it; praying is laying hold of God's willingness. Prayer does not mean we twist God's arm, so to speak, to get the things that we think we need. 

In this grade school lesson on prayer, our Lord is teaching us we must pray in God's will. Now, let's look at this prayer and find out what it means to pray in the will of God. He said unto them, "When ye pray," not if ye pray. He assumed that they would pray. Not if, but when. "When ye pray, say." And would you notice something interesting? There are nine personal pronouns in this prayer, and not a one of them is singular. It's "Our Father," "give us our daily bread," "forgive us our sins," "we also forgive" those who are indebted to "us," "lead us not into temptation," "deliver us from evil." This prayer is plural. 

When you start praying this way, you discover something interesting: we are a part of the great family of God. And when we pray, we must keep the whole family in mind. "Our Father." You see, my friend, I have no right to pray and ask God for something that will bless me but hurt you. I have no right to ask God to give me anything that would hurt some other member of the family. We're saying, "Oh God, I'm a part of the great family of God, and I'm thankful for this. Now guide me as I pray so that my prayers will not just be a blessing to me; they'll be a blessing to your whole family." "Our Father which art in heaven." Did you notice that when you pray in the will of God, you start with God? This prayer doesn't begin "give me," "help me," "lead me." This prayer begins with God's concerns. 

"Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name." I tell you, my friend, when we're praying like this, we won't ask for anything that will take away from the glory of God. I have no right, you have no right, to ask for anything that will hurt the glory of God. "Hallowed be thy name." That's God the Father. "Thy kingdom come." That's God the Son. I should not pray anything that would hinder the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. "Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth." That's God the Holy Spirit. It is God that worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure, Philippians 2:13. 

Did you notice this now in the disciples' prayer? When you're praying in the will of God, you're keeping the whole family of God in mind, and you realize that God's interests must come first. I fear that too much of our praying is "give me this" and "give me that" and "do this" and "do that." If we're really praying in the will of God, our first concern is the glory of God, the coming of the kingdom of God, the will of God being done on earth. Now, once that is taken care of, then we turn to our own needs. "Give us day by day our daily bread." That's praying for today. "And forgive us our sins." That's taking care of yesterday. "And lead us not into temptation." That takes care of tomorrow. 

You see, it's right for us to pray about my needs today. It's right for us to pray about our concerns for tomorrow. But only after we have dedicated ourselves to God's concerns. The kindergarten lesson in prayer: we must pray. The grade school lesson in prayer: we must pray in the will of God. That means we are concerned for the glory of God's name. We're concerned for the accomplishment of God's will in this earth. 

Now we move into the high school level of prayer, and this is found in Luke 11:5-12. What is the high school level in prayer? We must pray as children coming to a father. Now, that's important. We must pray not as slaves coming to a master. We must pray as children coming to a father. Now, as you read these verses, you discover that one word is repeated several times. It's the word "friend." Let's read them. "And he said unto them," in Luke 11:5, "Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go unto him at midnight, and say unto him, Friend, lend me three loaves; For a friend of mine in his journey is come to me, and I have nothing to set before him? And he from within shall answer and say," and you can just imagine this tired man who's been rudely awakened by pounding at the door, "Trouble me not: the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give thee." That wasn't true, of course; he could. "I say unto you," says Jesus, "Though he will not rise and give him because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity," his persistence, "he will rise and give him as many as he needeth." 

Now our Lord adds this: "And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened." And of course, you know from your own Bible study that those three commandments—ask, seek, knock—are in the present tense. Keep on asking, and keep on seeking, and keep on knocking. That's important. "If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion?" 

You see, our Lord is talking here about friendship, but he's also talking about sonship. Now, this is important. Back in our Lord's day, people went to bed early. They didn't stay up all night. They didn't have any television to watch or radio to listen to. And so they would gather the children together, they would lock the door, and the family would go to sleep. Early in the morning, the women would arrive and bake bread, and they usually baked only enough bread for one day. They didn't have the kind of places that we have to purchase bread. They couldn't put it in the freezer; they had no freezers. And so they prepared their bread day by day. 

Now, here is a man who has a friend stop to visit him, and the man has nothing in the cupboard. What's he going to do? Well, he goes to his friend, his next-door neighbor, and he pounds on the door until he awakens his neighbor. His neighbor is very angry and says, "No, I can't do it. You're going to wake the children up and we're going to have a family problem." But finally, to get him away from the door, the neighbor opens the door, gives him the bread, and then goes back to sleep. Now some people interpret this parable to mean this: if you pound on God's door long enough and hard enough, if you make yourself a pest, God will finally get tired of hearing it and he'll give you what you want. Now my friend, if that's what prayer is, we are in real trouble. Our Lord's not saying that at all. 

He is saying this: if a friend, a sleepy, grouchy friend will do for his friend what he asks, how much more will a loving heavenly Father who never goes to sleep do not for a friend, but for a child? Did you notice in Luke 11:11 our Lord shifts the emphasis from friendship to sonship? The kindergarten lesson in prayer: we must pray. The grade school lesson in prayer: we must pray in God's will. And now the high school lesson in prayer: we must pray as children coming to a father. 

Now, of course, there is a teaching in the Bible about our friendship with God. It's a beautiful thing. Jesus said to his disciples, "I'm not going to call you servants; a servant doesn't know what his master's doing. No master has to explain anything to a servant. I'm going to call you friends." And you are my friends, if you do whatever I tell you to do, John 15:15. Abraham was called the friend of God. He talked with God face to face. Lot is called the friend of the world, and he was at enmity with God. There is a friendship with God. But you know, prayer is based on something much deeper than friendship. Prayer is based on sonship. That's why that prayer that our Lord gave to us in Luke 11:2 begins "Our Father." 

Our Lord is arguing from the lesser to the greater. He's saying this: if a friend will do this for a friend, how much more will a father do it for his own children? You see, your Father knows your needs even before you ask. Now, it's still important to ask. This is the way God has ordained it. God has ordained that prayer is the method by which we get that which God wants to give to us. The neighbor did not know that his neighbor had a need. God knows your need. The neighbor wasn't anxious to help. Before he went to bed, he didn't go over to his neighbor and say, "Look, I'm about to go to sleep. Is there anything I can do for you before I go to sleep?" 

Your Father is anxious to help you. 1 Peter 5:7: "Casting all your care upon him, for he careth for you." And your Father is not irritated by your coming. Every good gift and every perfect gift comes from above, from the Father of lights. Oh, your Father is not irritated by your coming. And your Father is generous; he's not miserly. Our Father in heaven is so generous he wants to give all that we need. And you can come to him at any hour, any time; he never slumbers, he never sleeps. 

The argument in Luke 11:11-12 is simply this: if a son comes and asks a father for bread, that father's going to give him bread; he's not going to give him a stone. If he asks for a fish, the father's going to give him fish and not a serpent. If he asks for an egg, he's not going to give him a scorpion. You know what our Lord is saying here? Your Father loves you so much he will never trick you when you pray. He'll never play games with you. He'll never joke with you. Our Father is serious about our needs. And our Lord is saying this: never be afraid of answered prayer. Did you get that? Oh, when you move into this high school level of prayer, when you are praying as a child coming to a father, it is a loving relationship. 

Now friendship is a marvelous thing. It's wonderful when friends help friends. But oh, sonship is an even more marvelous thing. And to think that you and I, as the children of God, can come to a loving, concerned Father any time of the day or night and the answer to our prayer is not going to hurt us. You see, you never have to be afraid of what your Father is going to give you when you pray as a son coming to the Father. This is the real meaning of Luke 11:9 when our Lord says, "Keep on asking, and it shall be given to you; and keep on seeking, and ye shall find; and keep on knocking, it shall be opened unto you." 

He is saying this: don't just pray in emergencies. A friend goes to his neighbor in an emergency. But praying is not an emergency thing. Why, if my children only spoke to me when they wanted something, I'd be greatly grieved and disappointed. If my wife only spoke to me when she needed something, what kind of a marriage would we have? And yet some of God's children only speak to him when they need something, when there's an emergency. And our Lord is saying: pray like a son coming to a father. A son talks to his father. Ask, it shall be given you. A son seeks the father's will. Keep on seeking and you'll find. A son knocks at the door and the father keeps opening the door to him to lead him into a life of blessing. 

Oh, my friend, it's a beautiful thing to graduate from kindergarten in praying into grade school and then into high school—to pray as a son coming to a father. This is what our Lord means when he says: keep on asking. Keep on talking to your Father. Talk to him about everything and let him talk to you. Listen to his Word. Yield to his will. And then when you come, he's there to hear you, he's there to answer and to give you exactly what you need. How thankful we ought to be for the privilege of prayer. 

Lesson number one: we must pray. Lesson number two: we must pray in God's will. Lesson number three: we must pray as children coming to a loving, concerned heavenly Father.