The School of Prayer - Part 2

You and I have enrolled in the school of prayer. We’re looking together at Luke 11, and we’re discovering that there are four lessons that our Lord wants us to learn in the school of prayer. I’ve suggested that He wants us to graduate from kindergarten into the graduate school and pray the way He wants us to pray. 

The kindergarten lesson of prayer is this: we must pray. The disciples knew they needed to learn to pray. My friend, have you learned in your Christian life that you cannot get along without prayer? Then in Luke 11:2-4, we graduate into the grade school level of prayer, where our Lord teaches us this lesson: we need to pray in the will of God.

Praying outside the will of God is a waste of time. To pray our own will and not His will is to miss His blessing. True praying is not overcoming God's reluctance; true praying is laying hold of God's willingness. When my children come to me, they want to know my will. And when they do my will, I meet every need that they have. We discovered in the grade school lesson on prayer that we must pray in the will of God. And the Lord gave to us in Luke 11:2-4 a sample prayer, a model prayer. I don't believe our Lord gave us this prayer for us simply to memorize it and recite it; I think He gave it to us as a pattern in our praying. 

And it begins with relationship: Our Father. Unless you know God as your Father through Jesus your Savior, you cannot pray this way. It says "Our," and we pointed out to you that there are nine personal pronouns in this prayer and not a one of them is singular. They're all plural. It's "Our Father," "our daily bread," "our sins." When you pray, when I pray, we're a part of a great family of God, and we must pray in such a way that when God answers, the whole family gets the blessing.

I have often thought that I'm happy God controls the weather. How would you answer prayer about the weather? For example, here is a young lady who's going to get married and she's praying, "Oh God, give us a beautiful day for our wedding." And yet here's a farmer whose crops are burning up and he's praying, "Oh Father, we need rain so desperately." How would you answer that prayer? I have no right to pray anything to God that's going to hurt you if God answers.

Now we move into the high school level of prayer, and this is found in Luke 11:5-12. Unfortunately, this parable here has been greatly misunderstood by some people, and so we'll try to understand what our Lord is saying. 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. 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." 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. We sing that beautiful song, "What a Friend We Have in Jesus," and truly He is our friend. 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 verse two 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? 

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, 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. 

I have lived long enough to be thankful for unanswered prayer. I confess to you that there have been times I have come to my Father in heaven and I have insisted on certain things, and God did not answer. And I look back now and I say, "Father, I was asking for a serpent, but You gave me a fish. I was asking for a stone, but You gave me bread. I was asking for a scorpion—I didn't even realize how stupid my request was—but instead You gave me an egg." 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. Why, if my children only spoke to me when they wanted something, I'd be greatly grieved and disappointed. 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; a son seeks the Father's will; a son knocks at the door and the Father keeps opening the door to him to lead him into a life of blessing. 

And now we've come to the graduate school level of praying. It's in Luke 11:13. Our Lord concludes this whole lesson on prayer by saying this: "If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?" Now, the parallel reference here to Matthew 7:11: "How much more shall your Father in heaven give good things to them that ask him?"

You see, you and I today do not pray for the Holy Spirit. When you trusted Jesus Christ as your Savior, you received the gift of the Holy Spirit. That's a marvelous thing. Your body became the temple of the Holy Spirit, and your mind became a tool for the Holy Spirit of God to think in you and through you. It's a wonderful thing to know that you have the Holy Spirit within. No Christian has to go through any ritual, any ceremony, any special steps of dedication to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 

We must keep in mind that when our Lord spoke these words in Luke 11:13, the Holy Spirit had not yet been given. The Holy Spirit came at Pentecost. The Holy Spirit baptized the believers into one body. The Holy Spirit indwelt believers and filled believers for Christian service. "How much more," says our Lord, "shall your Father in heaven give the good things of the Holy Spirit?" Let's put these two verses together: the good things of the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him. Now, what is the graduate level of prayer? The graduate school level of prayer is this: we must pray for the best and the highest blessings. 

Now, what are those blessings? The blessings of the Holy Spirit. My friend, it isn't wrong to ask God for things. I have prayed about budgets, I have prayed about buildings, I have prayed about physical affliction. It's not wrong to pray about things. It's not wrong to pray about the material things of life. In fact, in the disciples' prayer back in Luke 11:3, Jesus teaches us to pray, "Give us day by day our daily bread." It isn't wrong for you to ask for your daily needs. Nor is it wrong to ask for bread for other people. But that isn't the highest prayer. It isn't wrong to come and ask bread, but it is wrong just to stay on that level. 

Suppose that your children only asked you for things. Suppose a son never came and said, "Father, what does it really mean to be successful in this life? Father, what's life all about? What is character? What is integrity?" What our Lord is saying is this: the highest blessings are not necessarily the material and the physical. The highest blessings are the spiritual, the blessings of the Holy Spirit. Now let me emphasize it again, please. I am not saying it's wrong to pray about material and physical things. I do it and you do it. What I am saying is this: God reminds us that it's wrong to stay only on that level. It is important that you and I as Christians graduate into the graduate school of prayer, and what is that? Praying for the best and the highest gifts of the Holy Spirit. 

What are those gifts? Christian character. Now let me repeat that: Christian character. The fruit of the Spirit is love, and joy, and peace, and longsuffering, and gentleness, and goodness, and meekness, and faithfulness, and self-control. These are the highest blessings. I've gotten a great deal of help in reading and studying the prayers of the Apostle Paul. Now, I'm sure that when Paul was in shipwreck, when he was spending a night and a day in the deep, he was praying for physical safety. I'm sure that when he went through those experiences he describes in Second Corinthians of hunger, and thirst, and nakedness, and peril, that he prayed for physical safety. I'm sure as a tentmaker Paul prayed for blessing upon his work because he was paying his bills. But I'm sure that's not the highest kind of praying Paul ever did. 

When I read his prayer in Philippians 1, when I read his two prayers in Ephesians 1 and Ephesians 3, when I read his great prayer in Colossians 1, I say to myself, here is a man who prayed for the highest spiritual blessings. You see, my friend, what God gives to us physically and materially depends on what we are spiritually. Once again, let's talk about our children. I can recall my children asking for things that they were not ready for; they hadn't grown up enough. Now God is this way with His children. God will not have any pampered children. God will not have—you'll excuse the term—any spoiled brats. God disciplines us. God deals with us in such a way that our character matches the blessings that He gives to us. 

You see, our Lord is saying here that an evil father, a father who's sinful, a father who doesn't have perfection, meets the needs of his children. How much more shall our perfect, loving, gracious Heavenly Father meet our needs—not our greeds, but our needs. I think, for example, of the Apostle Paul. That experience that he records in Second Corinthians chapter 12. Paul had a thorn in the flesh. Now, we don't know what that thorn in the flesh was. It must have been painful; it certainly was a handicap. Like our Lord in Gethsemane, Paul prayed three times. And God said to him, "Now Paul, I am not going to take this thorn away from you." And yet that physical handicap built his character. 

The most important thing in your life and in my life is to build Christian character. When our character is growing, then God can trust us with more blessings, and God can trust us with deeper experiences of testing. It's rather interesting that Sodom and Gomorrah were no temptation to Abraham. Abraham never looked twice at Sodom and Gomorrah; his only interest in those cities was because of Lot. Sodom and Gomorrah were a temptation to Lot. Now God never asked Lot to sacrifice one of his children, but God did ask Abraham to give Isaac. Lot could never have taken a test like that. What I'm saying is simply this: Christian character determines what God does in us, and for us, and through us. 

When you read Paul's prayers, such as in Ephesians, Paul is not praying about material things. Once again, let me remind you, I'm sure he did. But his highest praying is represented by praying for spiritual blessings. Listen to this prayer. Ephesians 3:14: "For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man"—that's spiritual—"that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled unto all the fullness of God." 

Do we ever pray like that? Jesus says the highest level of praying is to pray for the blessings of the Holy Spirit. I'm thinking of the Prodigal Son. There are two prayers of the Prodigal recorded in Luke 15. In the first prayer he said, "Father, give me. Give me the portion of goods that falls to me." And so he got things. And before long, all of those things were gone and he was left bankrupt. Well, he comes home and his prayer is not "Father, give me"; his prayer is "Father, make me." And an interesting thing happened: everything the Prodigal was looking for out in the far country, he got right back home. Now, why didn't the father give him the robe, and the ring, and the shoes, and the big party when he first left home? He wasn't ready for it. Somehow in that experience of the far country, this boy learned a lesson. He learned that it was far more important to build character than it was to get things. 

And so his second prayer represented a promotion in his spiritual life: "Father, make me." Now when you and I come to our Heavenly Father and say, "Father, make me. Build character into my life," then God can trust us with the ring, and the robe, and the shoes, and the party. But if we come and say, "Father, give me, give me, give me," we'll never grow in character and God can never really give to us all that He wants to give us. This explains why great saints of God have gone through great trials, because trials have produced character, and character has enabled them to receive more from the hand of God. We must pray for the highest and the best blessings, the blessings of the Holy Spirit, the blessings of Christian character. And my friend, when we have the kind of character that God knows He can trust, then He will entrust to us all the other things that we need.