THE ECONOMY OF PRAYER
(week 47/11)
Olubi Johnson
Prayer is communication between God in the spiritual realm and man in the physical realm through thoughts and words.
In this communication, God’s wisdom and power to create and establish God’s will, is released into the earth through the hearts and mouths of men.
For God to do anything on the earth, He must find a human vessel through whom He can release the wisdom and power to do it:
Genesis 1:26 KJV: And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
Psalms 115:16 KJV: The heaven, even the heavens, are the LORD’S: but the earth hath he given to the children of men.
When God does things on the earth sovereignly: without using a human vessel, the power used to do it must still be released into the earth through a human spirit, at some later date, to make it legal. This is because God has eternally subjected Himself to His Word: which is the law that governs both God and man; by doing this, the righteousness and justice of God remain eternally established.
Psalms 119:89 AMP: Forever, O Lord, Your word is settled in heaven [stands firm as the heavens]. [Ps. 89:2; Matt. 24:34, 35; I Pet. 1:25.]
God’s Word is eternally unchanging.
Psalms 89:34 KJV: My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips.
God is eternally bound to keep His own Word: He will neither change it nor break it!
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.
Isaiah 55:11 KJV: So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth:itshall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.
God is actively watching over His Word to see that it is accomplished!
Psalms 138:2 AMP: I will worship toward Your holy temple and praise Your name for Your loving-kindness and for Your truth and faithfulness; for You have exalted above all else Your name and Your word and You have magnified Your word above all Your name!
God has magnified His Word above His name: God’s Person is subject to His Word.
Psalms 89:14 KJV: Justice and judgment are the habitation of thy throne: mercy and truth shall go before thy face.
The divine authority of God’s throne is established in the righteousness and justice that He demonstrates by keeping and being subject to His own Word!
When men pray to God in the understanding, they give God legal access into the earth; however, when they pray in tongues (1 Cor. 14:2) and travail (Gal. 4:19; Is. 66:8, Col. 4:12) they give God power (Act. 1:8) access into the earth.
So it is instructive to note that before the Lord Jesus came to recreate the spirit of man, making it a legal vessel through which the power of God could be released into the earth, the power to answer all prayers was released into the earth by God sovereignly. God was waiting for the New Testament to come at which time He would now, as it were, repay the ‘prayer debt’ that was incurred during the Old Testament and during the New Testament (when men did not know how to pray effectually and fervently (Jam. 5:16) in the Spirit), through the born-again spirits of New Testament Christians who pray effectually and fervently in the Spirit.
Ephesians 6:18 KJV: Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;
1Timothy 2:1 KJV: I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men;
This was what was also done for sin: sins in the Old Testament were forgiven and covered temporarily until the Lord Jesus came and shed His blood for their remission: total cleansing and removal, in the New Testament.
Hebrews 9:15 NIV: 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.
Hebrews 9:28 NIV: so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.
Stated concisely: Christ’s sufferings paid for the ‘sin debt’; our sufferings (of self-denial to give time to fast and pray) pay for the ‘prayer debt’.
This is why we have been called into the fellowship of His sufferings:
Philippians 3:10 KJV: That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;
Economics is the study of the production, distribution and consumption of goods and services amongst a group of people.
When the rates of production and distribution are less than the rate of consumption: you have a weak economy; when the rates of production and distribution are greater than the rate of consumption: you have a strong economy.
We need to be strong ‘prayer economies’ individually and collectively, so that the power of God released through our prayers is far greater than the power we consume for our needs.
As this takes place, God is able to pay the ‘prayer debt’ incurred in both the Old Testament & New Testament (for Christians who do not know how to pray in the Spirit) and so can close this age in righteousness and glory.
Romans 9:28 AMP: For the Lord will execute His sentence upon the earth [He will conclude and close His account with men completely and without delay], rigorously cutting it short in His justice. [Isa. 10:22, 23.]
Romans 9:28 KJV: For he will finish the work, and cut it short in righteousness: because a short work will the Lord make upon the earth.
This is why the Old Testament saints could not be made perfect or complete without us, the New Testament saints:
Hebrews 11:39-40 NIV: These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised. (40) God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.
So it is vital now as we approach the close of this age, for every Christian to give quality time in prayer in the Spirit daily for all saints (Eph. 6:18) and all men (1 Tim. 2:1), to become strong prayer economies individually and collectively, as the power released through our prayers are synergized in the Spirit by the Holy Spirit!
