A Nugget from New Life Network
(by Chris Musgrove of Future Now)
Scripture for the Day – June 20, 2019
The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. (James 5:16)
God heard Daniel’s prayer (Daniel 10) and the angel was sent from God the first day that Daniel began to fast and pray. The angel then told Daniel that the prince of the kingdom of Persia had withstood him twenty-one days until Michael, another angel, came to help him. The angel eventually broke through as Daniel continued to fast and pray. The angel then said something that always causes my spirit to jump within me. He told Daniel that he had come in response to his words.
As I was meditating on this passage one day I saw something that I had never seen before. If we know God sent the angel and we know that He sent him in response to Daniel’s words, then why did it take twenty-one days for the angel to get the message there? Doesn’t God have the power to get the angel to Daniel without any problem? Why did it take twenty-one days and why did the angel need Michael the archangel to come help him? Couldn’t God handle the situation? Doesn’t God have more power than the devil? These are questions that were running through my mind.
E.M. Bounds was a minister and author of eleven books, nine of which focused on the subject of prayer. A few years ago while on a visit to Billy Graham’s personal library I purchased several of his books. Mr. Bounds had this to say about prayer. “God has of his own notion placed himself under the law of prayer, and has obligated himself to answer the prayers of men. He has ordained prayer as a means whereby he will do things through men as they pray, which he would not otherwise do. If prayer puts God to work on earth, then, by the same token, prayerlessness rules God out of the world’s affairs, and prevents him from working.”
Yesterday I mentioned that John Wesley (Founder of the Methodist Church) said, “It seems God is limited by our prayer life – that He can do nothing for humanity unless someone asks Him.” If this is true, we owe it to ourselves to find out why it seems this way. Let’s go back to the book of beginnings to find out why.
Genesis 1:26-28: Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
The Amplified Bible in verse 28 says, “Let them have complete authority.” So God gave man authority and gave him one commandment. Genesis 2:16-17: And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
The only tree God told them not to eat from is the tree where Satan (the serpent) showed up to meet them. Isn’t that just like the devil? I tell young people this all the time, “The one place God tells you not to go is the one place where the devil will meet you.” In other words, the devil will meet you in disobedience. You need to cancel that meeting by
your obedience to God.
Remember, obedience is worship (Genesis 22:5).
