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[HOW TO PRAY, by R.A.Torrey]
CHAPTER IV
PRAYING IN THE NAME OF CHRIST AND ACCORDING TO THE WILL OF GOD
1. It was a wonderful word about prayer that Jesus spoke to
His disciples on the night before His crucifixion, "Whatsoever ye
shall ask IN MY NAME, that will I do, that the Father may be
glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask anything in My name, I will do
it."
Prayer in the name of Christ has power with God. God is well
pleased with His Son Jesus Christ. He hears Him always, and He also
hears always the prayer that is really in His name. There is a
fragrance in the name of Christ that makes acceptable to God every
prayer that bears it.
But what is it to pray in the name of Christ?
Many explanations have been attempted that to ordinary minds
do not explain. But there is nothing mystical or mysterious about
this expression. If one will go through the Bible and examine all
the passages in which the expression "in My name" or "in His name" or
synonymous expressions are used, he will find that it means just
about what it does in modern usage. If I go to a bank and hand in a
check with my name signed to it, I ask of that bank IN MY OWN NAME.
If I have money deposited in that bank, the check will be cashed; if
not, it will not be. If, however, I go to a bank with somebody
else's name signed to the check, I am asking IN HIS NAME, and it does
not matter whether I have money in that bank or any other, if the
person whose name is signed to the check has money there, the check
will be cashed.
If, for example, I should go to the First National Bank of
Chicago, and present a check which I had signed for $50.00, the
paying teller would say to me:
"Why, Mr. Torrey, we cannot cash that. You have no money in
this bank."
But if I should go to the First National Bank with a check
for $5,000.00 made payable to me, and signed by one of the large
depositors in that bank, they would not ask whether I had money in
that bank or in any bank, but would honor the check at once.
So it is when I go to the bank of heaven, when I go to God in
prayer. I have nothing deposited there, I have absolutely no credit
there, and if I go in my own name I will get absolutely nothing; but
Jesus Christ has unlimited credit in heaven, and He has granted to me
the privilege of going to the bank with His name on my checks, and
when I thus go, my prayers will be honored to any extent.
To pray then in the name of Christ is to pray on the ground,
not of my credit, but His; to renounce the thought that I have any
claims on God whatever, and approach Him on the ground of God's
claims. Praying in the name of Christ is not merely adding the
phrase "I ask these things in Jesus' name" to my prayer. I may put
that phrase in my prayer and really be resting in my own merit all
the time. But when I really do approach God, not on the ground of my
merit, but on the ground of Christ's merit, not on the ground of my
goodness, but on the ground of the atoning blood (Heb. 10:19), God
will hear me. Very much of our modern prayer is vain because men
approach God imagining that they have some claim upon God whereby He
is under obligations to answer their prayers.
Years ago when Mr. Moody was young in Christian work, he
visited a town in Illinois. A judge in the town was an infidel.
This judge's wife besought Mr. Moody to call upon her husband, but
Mr. Moody replied:
"I cannot talk with your husband. I am only an uneducated
young Christian, and your husband is a book infidel."
But the wife would not take no for an answer, so Mr. Moody
made the call. The clerks in the outer office tittered as the young
salesman from Chicago went in to talk with the scholarly judge.
The conversation was short. Mr. Moody said:
"Judge, I can't talk with you. You are a book infidel, and I
have no learning, but I simply want to say if you are ever converted,
I want you to let me know."
The judge replied: "Yes, young man, if I am ever converted I
will let you know. Yes, I will let you know."
The conversation ended. The clerks tittered still louder
when the zealous young Christian left the office, but the judge was
converted within a year. Mr. Moody visiting the town again asked the
judge to explain how it came about. The judge said:
"One night, when my wife was at prayer meeting, I began to
grow very uneasy and miserable. I did not know what was the matter
with me, but finally retired before my wife come home. I could not
sleep all that night. I got up early, told my wife that I would eat
no breakfast, and went down to the office. I told the clerks they
could take a holiday, and shut myself up in the inner office. I kept
growing more and more miserable, and finally I got down and asked God
to forgive my sins, but I would not say 'for Jesus' sake,' for I was
a Unitarian and I did not believe in the atonement. I kept praying
'God forgive my sins'; but no answer came. At last in desperation I
cried, 'O God, for Christ's sake forgive my sins,' and found peace at
once."
The judge had no access to God until he came in the name of
Christ, but when he thus came, he was heard and answered at once.
2. Great light is thrown upon the subject "How to Pray" by
1_John 5:14,15: "And this is the boldness which we have toward Him,
that if we ask anything ACCORDING TO HIS WILL, He heareth us; and if
we know that He heareth us whatsoever we ask, we know that we have
the petitions which we have asked of Him." (R.V.)
This passage teaches us plainly that if we are to pray
aright, we must pray according to God's will, then will we beyond a
peradventure get the thing we ask of Him.
But can we know the will of God? Can we know that any
specific prayer is according to His will?
We most surely can.
How?
(1) First by the Word. God has revealed His will in His Word.
When anything is definitely promised in the Word of God, we know
that it is His will to give that thing. If then when I pray, I can
find some definite promise of God's Word and lay that promise before
God, I know that He hears me, and if I know that He hears me, I know
that I have the petition that I have asked of Him. For example, when
I pray for wisdom I know that it is the will of God to give me
wisdom, for He says so in James 1:5: "If any of you lack wisdom, let
him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not;
and it shall be given him." So when I ask for wisdom I know that the
prayer is heard, and that wisdom will be given me. In like manner
when I pray for the Holy Spirit I know from Luke 11:13 that it is
God's will, that my prayer is heard, and that I have the petition
that I have asked of Him: "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?"
Some years ago a minister came to me at the close of an
address on prayer at a Y.M.C.A. Bible school, and said,
"You have produced upon those young men the impression that
they can ask for definite things and get the very things that they
ask."
I replied that I did not know whether that was the impression
that I produced or not, but that was certainly the impression that I
desired to produce.
"But," he replied, "that is not right. We cannot be sure,
for we don't know God's will."
I turned him at once to James 1:5, read it and said to him,
"Is it not God's will to give us wisdom, and if you ask for wisdom do
you not know that you are going to get it?"
"Ah!" he said, "we don't know what wisdom is."
I said, "No, if we did, we would not need to ask; but
whatever wisdom may be, don't you know that you will get it?"
Certainly it is our privilege to know. When we have a
specific promise in the Word of God, if we doubt that it is God's
will, or if we doubt that God will do the thing that we ask, we make
God a liar.
Here is one of the greatest secrets of prevailing prayer: To
study the Word to find what God's will is as revealed there in the
promises, and then simply take these promises and spread them out
before God in prayer with the absolutely unwavering expectation that
He will do what He has promised in His Word.
(2) But there is still another way in which we may know the
will of God, that is, by the teaching of His Holy Spirit. There are
many things that we need from God which are not covered by any
specific promise, but we are not left in ignorance of the will of God
even then. In Rom. 8:26,27 we are told, "And in like manner the
Spirit also helpeth our infirmity: for we know not how to pray as we
ought; but the Spirit Himself maketh intercession for us with
groanings which cannot be uttered; and He that searcheth the hearts
knoweth what is the mind of the spirit, because He maketh
intercession for the saints ACCORDING TO THE WILL OF GOD." (R.V.)
Here we are distinctly told that the Spirit of God prays in us, draws
out our prayer, in the line of God's will. When we are thus led out
by the Holy Spirit in any direction, to pray for any given object, we
may do it in all confidence that it is God's will, and that we are to
get the very thing we ask of Him, even though there is no specific
promise to cover the case. Often God by His Spirit lays upon us a
heavy burden of prayer for some given individual. We cannot rest, we
pray for him with groanings which cannot be uttered. Perhaps the man
is entirely beyond our reach, but God hears the prayer, and in many a
case it is not long before we hear of his definite conversion.
The passage 1_John 5:14,15 is one of the most abused passages
in the Bible: "This is THE CONFIDENCE that we have in Him, that, if
we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us; and if we know
that He hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the
petitions that we desired of Him." The Holy Spirit beyond a doubt
put it into the Bible to encourage our faith. It begins with "This
is THE CONFIDENCE that we have in Him," and closes with "WE KNOW that
we have the petitions that we desired of Him;" but one of the most
frequent usages of this passage, which was so manifestly given to
beget confidence, is to introduce an element of uncertainty into our
prayers. Oftentimes when one waxes confident in prayer, some
cautious brother will come and say:
"Now, don't be too confident. If it is God's will He will do
it. You should put in, 'If it be Thy will.'"
Doubtless there are many times when we do not know the will
of God, and in all prayer submission to the excellent will of God
should underlie it; but when we know God's will, there need be no
"ifs"; and this passage was not put into the Bible in order that we
might introduce "ifs" into all our prayers, but in order that we
might throw our "ifs" to the wind, and have "CONFIDENCE" and "KNOW
that we have the petitions which we have asked of Him."
