THE ECONOMICS OF PRAYER
(week 21/17)
OLUBI JOHNSON
Prayer is the currency of God’s Kingdom: God can do nothing on the earth except He does it THROUGH the prayers of men on the earth.
This is because God LEGALLY gave the authority of the earth to men (Genesis 1.26) who in turn through the disobedience of Adam (Romans 5.12-14) gave it to Satan (Luke 4.5-6, 2 Corinthians 4.4).
Psalms 115:16 KJV: The heaven, even the heavens, are the LORD’S: but the earth hath he given to the children of men.
So for God to intervene on the earth, He has to do it through the prayers of men releasing SUFFICIENT POWER to overcome the power of Satan.
There are two aspects to prayer:
- The LEGAL aspect: prayer MUST not be contrary to God’s Word (Numbers 23.19) and will (1 John 5.14-15).
Hebrews 6:17-18 AMP: Accordingly God also, in His desire to show more convincingly and beyond doubt to those who were to inherit the promise the unchangeableness of His purpose and plan, intervened (mediated) with an oath. (18) This was so that, by two unchangeable things [His promise and His oath] in which it is impossible for God ever to prove false or deceive us, we who have fled [to Him] for refuge might have mighty indwelling strength and strong encouragement to grasp and hold fast the hope appointed for us and set before [us].
Jeremiah 1:12 AMP: Then said the Lord to me, You have seen well, for I am alert and active, watching over My word to perform it.
Numbers 23:19 MSG: God is not like people. He tells no lies. He is not like humans. He doesn’t change his mind. When he says something, he does it. When he makes a promise, he keeps it.
- The POWER aspect: a SUFFICIENT measure of God’s power must be released THROUGH PRAYING MEN into the earth to bring the legal request of prayer into PHYSICAL MANIFESTATION in the earth.
James 5:16 AMP: Confess to one another therefore your faults (your slips, your false steps, your offenses, your sins) and pray [also] for one another, that you may be healed and restored [to a spiritual tone of mind and heart]. The earnest (heartfelt, continued) prayer of a righteous man makes tremendous power available [dynamic in its working].
Now, in the Old Testament, when men prayed in line with God’s Word and will the LEGAL aspect was fulfilled, BUT the power aspect was not, because men had not yet been born-again and so did not have the promise of eternal life (Hebrews 11.39, 1 John 2.25) in their spirits from which the power of God would have been generated and released in prayer; so God released the power into the earth SOVEREIGNLY from the air and NOT THROUGH THE SPIRITS of the unregenerate men.
Furthermore, even now in the New Testament, God many times answers prayers SOVEREIGNLY releasing the power INDEPENDENT of the men who prayed.
However, ALL THIS SOVEREIGN POWER must be RE-PAID (PRAYED) into the earth THROUGH the spirits of born-again men, for these sovereign prayers to be made LEGAL.
This is similar to God forgiving sins SOVEREIGNLY in the Old Testament BEFORE the Lord Jesus came to suffer and die and so make legal the sovereign forgiveness of sins in the Old Testament, that were temporarily covered by the blood of animal sacrifices.
Hebrews 9:13-15 NIV: The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. (14) How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God! (15) For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance—now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.
So, here we see God giving one Son (the Lord Jesus) to die for the sins of the world.
Hence there is a large prayer debt that must be repaid (prayed) by the New Testament end-time church that is praying in the spirit according to
Ephesians 6:18 NKJV: praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for ALL (both Old and New Testament) the saints—
Also, we pray for ALL MEN: God SOVEREIGNLY shows mercy to ALL MEN (Psalms 145.9; Matthew 5.45) daily and this also must be prayed back into the earth THROUGH the spirits of men:
1 Timothy 2:1 Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for ALL men,
Here, we see God giving MANY sons (Rom.8.29) to die (1 Cor.15.31) to self (Lk.9.23) to pray for the life (1 Jn. 5.16) of the church and the world, like Esther and Mordecai typifying the end-time church, risked their lives to pray for the life of the Jewish Nation in Persia (Esther 3-10).
ALL the sovereign power of God that has been released into and used in the earth hitherto MUST be paid back THROUGH the spirits of born-again, spirit filled New Testament saints:
Ephesians 3:20 NKJV: Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to THE POWER THAT WORKS IN US,
So when men pray the REQUESTS (that have been answered sovereignly) AND SOME of the POWER RELEASED ARE STORED IN HEAVEN.
Revelation 5:8 NKJV: Now when He had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each having a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.
Observe that here we see SOME of prayers of SOME of the saints stored in golden bowls held by elders sitting on the throne with God.
Revelation 8:3-5 NKJV: Then another angel, having a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense, which he should offer it with the prayers of ALL the saints upon the golden altar, which was before the throne. (4) And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, ascended before God from the angel’s hand. (5) Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and threw it TO THE EARTH. And there were noises, thunderings, lightnings, and an earthquake.
Here, we see the prayers of SOME of the saints being mixed with the stored prayers of ALL the saints on the altar before God’s throne rising up and being subsequently released into the earth. This symbolizes the mixing of the prayers of saints PRESENTLY ALIVE AND PRAYING on the earth being mixed with prayers of ALL saints: requests that have been answered sovereignly and power that has been stored up over the years by New Testament saints praying in the spirit (Ephesians 6.18, Romans 8.26-27).
This power that has been stored up is mixed with power that has been released by saints presently praying on the earth and together are used to pay for the prayer debt that has been incurred by God’s sovereign intervention over the centuries and millennia BEFORE the Lord Jesus can return fulfilling:
Hebrews 11:39-40 MSG: Not one of these people, even though their lives of faith were exemplary, got their hands on what was promised. (40) God had a better plan for us: that their faith and our faith would come together to make one completed whole, their lives of faith not complete apart from ours.
Act 3:21 NKJV: whom heaven must receive until the times of RESTORATION OF ALL THINGS (including prayers), which God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began.
Selah!
