Table Charismata Matters

Sunday, November 20, 2016

The Possibilities of Faith by A.B. Simpson


The following is Chapter One of A.B. Simpson's book:
A Larger Christian Life [online Here or Here].


I've collected links to other great books by A.B. Simpson HERE.


THE POSSIBILITIES OF FAITH.
 

"If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth. "-Mark ix: 23.

These are bold and stupendous words. They open the treasure house of the Eternal King to sinful worms, and offer to the children of clay the privilege of God's own omnipotence and all the possibilities of His infinite resources. Side by side these two astounding declarations stand, "All things are possible with God;" "All things are possible to him that believeth."

I. Let us consider the possibilities of faith:--

  1. Salvation is possible to him that believeth. No matter how vile the sin, how many or how great the sins, how aggravated the guilt, how deep the corruption, how long the career of impenitence and crime, it is everywhere and forever true, "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life," "Believe on the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved." And thus alone can any soul be saved, for it is just as true forever, no matter what qualifications the soul may possess, whether the highest morality or the deepest depravity, "He that believeth not shall be damned." This blessed text opens the gates of Paradise and all the possibilities of grace to any and every sinner, and "whosoever will, may come, and take the Water of Life freely."

  2. Sanctification is possible to him that believeth. "Inheritance among them that are sanctified by faith that is in me," is still the inscription over the gates of our full inheritance. "Purifying our hearts by faith "is still the Divine process of full salvation. Thus alone can the soul be sanctified. It is not a work, but a gift of grace, and all grace must be by faith. It is not possible by painful struggling; it is not possible by penance and self-torture; it is not possible by sickness, suffering or self-crucifixion; it is not possible by moral suasion, careful training, correct teaching and perfect example; it is not possible even by the dark, cold waters of death itself. The soul that dies unsanctified shall be unsanctified forever. "He that is holy, let him be holy still: he that is filthy, let him be filthy still." But it is possible to him that believeth. It is the gift of Jesus Christ; it is the incoming and indwelling of Jesus Christ; it is the interior life and divine imparting of the Holy Ghost, and it must be by faith alone. And it is possible to any soul that will believe, no matter how unholy it has been, no matter how perverse it is; as mean perhaps and crooked as Jacob, as gross as David in his darkest sin, as self-confident as Simon Peter, as willful and self-righteous as Paul-it may be and shall be made as spotless as the Son of God, as holy as the holiness of Jesus Himself, who comes to dwell within, if we will only believe and receive.

  3. Divine Healing is possible to him that believeth. "The prayer of faith shall save the sick," is still the Master's unaltered word for His suffering church. And this faith must be the faith of the receiver, for in the epistle it is said, "Let not him that wavereth think that he shall receive anything of the Lord." Still it is as true as when the Master touched the eyes of the blind men to whom He said it, "According to your faith be it unto you." It matters not how serious the disease, it may be as helpless as the cripple's who could not in any wise lift herself up; as chronic as the impotent man who lay for thirty and eight years helpless at the pool; as obscure and as despised a case as the poor blind men who begged by the wayside and whom the multitude thought unworthy of Christ's attention, or as the sinful woman of Syro-Phoenicia, whom even the Saviour called a dog, and yet to her, as to others, the healing came when He could say, "Great is thy faith; be it unto thee even as thou wilt." It is not the faith which heals, it is the God that the faith touches; but there is no other way of touching God except by faith, and, therefore, if we would receive His Almighty touch, we must believe.

  4. All power for service is possible to him that believeth. The gift of the Holy Ghost is received by faith. The power of the apostles was in proportion to their faith. Stephen ''full of faith and power'' could meet all the wisdom of Saul of Tarsus and the synagogue of the Cilicians. The simple story of Barnabas is that "he was a good man. and full of faith and the Holy Ghost, and much people were added unto the Lord." The secret of effective preaching is not logic, or rhetoric, or elocution, but to be able to say, "I believed and therefore have I spoken." The success of some evangelists and Christian workers is out of all proportion to their talent or capacity in any direction, but they have one gift which they faithfully exercise, and that is expecting God to give them souls; and, therefore, they are never disappointed. The church has yet to see in the present generation the full possibilities of faith in the work of the Lord. The examples of a Moody and a Harrison are but types of what is possible for the humblest worker who, with a single eye to the glory of God and simple fidelity to the gospel of Christ, will dare to expect the mightiest results. Both these examples, perhaps the most marked instances of wide fruitfulness in the present generation, are persons without great natural gifts or educational advantages, and, therefore, the more encouraging as incentives to the work of faith. Humble toiler in the vineyard of the Lord, will you go forth to all the possibilities of faith in your work for Him as you realize the strength of your weakness and the might of your God? for it is "not by might or by power but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of Hosts."
    The day has come for God to reveal Himself through the very weakness of His instruments, and to prove once more that He has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, and the weak things to confound the things that are mighty.

  5. All difficulties and dangers must give way before the omnipotence of faith. By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been compassed seven days, and still the mightiest citadels of the adversary must give way before the steadfast and victorious march of faith. By faith Daniel stopped the mouths of lions, and was delivered, we are expressly told, because he believed in his God. It was not his uprightness of life, or courageous fidelity that saved him, but his confidence in Jehovah. Such faith has carried the intrepid Arnot through the jungles of Africa, and delivered the heroic Paton from the murderous fury of the savages of Tanna, and held back the stroke of death and the threatened disaster from many of us in the humbler experiences of our providential lives. Still the God of faith is as near, as mighty and as true as when He walked with the Hebrew children through the fire, and guarded the heroic Paul through all the perils of his changeful life. There is no difficulty too small for its exercise, and there is no crisis too terrible for its triumph. Shall we go forth with this shield and buckler, and prove all the possibilities of faith? Then, indeed, shall we carry a charmed life even through the very hosts of hell, and know that we are immortal till our work is done.

  6. All the victories of prayer are possible to him that believeth. "Whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, shall ye receive." "When ye pray, believe that ye receive the things that ye ask, and ye shall have them." It is not the strength or the length of the prayer that prevails, but the simplicity of its confidence. It is the prayer of faith that claims the healing power of the unchanging Saviour. It is the prayer of faith that reaches the soul that no human hand, perhaps, can approach, and sometimes brings from Heaven the answer before the echo of the petition has died away. Yonder in the city of Cleveland a brokenhearted wife is praying with an evangelist for her husband's soul. At that very hour an influence all unknown to himself is leading him into a prayer-meeting in Chicago at noon, and before that prayer is ended the choirs of Heaven are singing over a repentant soul, and the Holy Ghost is whispering to her heart that the work is accomplished, not less surely than when on the morrow the swift mail brings the glad tidings from his own hand. The prayer of faith has reared those enduring monuments on Ashley Down, where two thousand orphan children are fed every day by the hand of God alone, in answer to the humble, believing cry of a faithful minister. These are but patterns of what God has always been ready to do and hindered only by His people's unbelief. Beloved, these possibilities are open to each of us. We may not be called to public service, or qualified for instructive speech, or endowed with wealth and influence, but to each of us is given the power to touch the hand of omnipotence and minister at the golden altar of prevailing prayer. One censer only we must bring-the golden bowl of faith, and as we fill it with the burning coals of the Holy Spirit's fire, and the incense of the great High Priest, lo! there will be silence once again in Heaven, as God hushes the universe to listen, and then the living fire will be poured out upon the earth in the mighty forces of providence and grace by which the kingdom of our Lord is to be ushered in.

  7. All peace and joy are possible to him that believeth. The apostle's prayer for the Romans is that the God of hope shall fill them with all joy and peace in believing. It is God's will and purpose that the unbelieving soul shall be an unhappy soul, and that he shall be kept in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on God and trusting in Him. Would you then know the peace that passeth all understanding? Be careful for nothing, and steadfastly believe that the Lord is at hand, supreme above every circumstance, and causing all things to work together for good to them that love Him. Would you be happy in the darkest hour? Then trust in the Lord and stay yourself upon your God. Would you have the perennial overflowings of joy? Then learn to say, "Though now we see Him not, yet believing we rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory." The joy of mere paroxysmal emotion is like the cut flower of a brief winter's day, separated from the root and withering before another sun goes down. The joy of faith is the fruit and perpetual bloom that covers the living tree, or springs from the rooted plant in the watered garden.

    "The men of faith have found
    Glory begin below-
    Celestial fruit on hostile ground
    From faith and hope may grow."

  8. The evangelization of the world is to be given to faith. The most successful missionary operations of to-day are sustained wholly through faith in God and the power of prayer. If China is to be evangelized in the present century it will be due to the faith of one humble missionary who has dared to attempt great things for God and to expect great things from Him. There is no field for faith so vast and so sublime as the mission field to-day, and there is no limit to the possibilities which faith may claim. Oh, that some of us may rise to the magnitude of this great opportunity and become workers together with God for the greatest achievement of all the Christian centuries.

  9. The Lord's coming will, doubtless, be given at last to faith. There will be a generation who shall say, "Lo! this is our God, we have waited for Him." As yet it is our blessed hope, but it will some day become more. And reading both upon earth and sky the tokens of His coming, His waiting bride shall hear the glad cry, "The marriage of the Lamb is come." To Simeon of old it was made known that he should see the Lord's Christ, and to some shall be given in the last times the Morning Star that shall precede the Millennial dawn. The Lord help us so to understand our times and the work the Master expects of us to prepare His coming, that we shall be permitted to share its glorious recompense of faith and even hasten that joyful day.

  10. But beyond all that has been said this promise means that all things are possible to him that believeth. It is possible to have any or even many of the achievements specified and yet miss the all things of God's highest will. The meaning of this promise in its fullness is that faith may claim a complete life, a blessing from which nothing shall be lacking, a finished service, and a crown from which no jewel of recompense shall be found wanting. There are lives which are not wholly lost and yet are not saved to the uttermost. There are rainbows whose arch is broken, but there is a rainbow round about the throne whose perfect circle is the type of a completed record and an infinite reward. Many of us are coming short of all that God has had in His highest thought for us. When the king of Israel stood by the bedside of the dying prophet of the Lord, Elisha put his hand upon the hands of Joash and helped him shoot the arrows which were symbolic of faith and victory; but then the prophet required that the king should follow up this act of mutual faith by a more individual expression of the measure of his own expectation. Alas, like most of us, his faith evaporated long before its needed work was done. He smote thrice upon the ground and then he stayed. Too late for him to recover his lost blessing, the grieved and angry prophet upbraided him for his negligence and narrowness of heart, and told him sorrowfully that his blessing should be limited according to the measure of his own little faith. Never shall I forget the solemnity with which God brought this passage to my soul in a crisis of my life, and asked how much I would take from Him and how little would satisfy my faith. Thank God He enabled me to say with a bursting heart, "Nothing less than all Thy highest thought and will, even the all things of faith's greatest possibilities." The Lord help us to look forward ever to the time when all these opportunities shall be passing from our grasp, and to live each day under the power of those holy aspirations whose true value we shall then be able to understand, and evermore to say with Him who cherished the same lofty ambition, "I count not my life dear unto myself that I may finish my course with joy." Beloved, are you missing anything out of your life, your one precious, narrow span of earthly opportunity, the pivot on which eternity revolves, the one eternal possibility that never will return again? God is waiting to give you all, and all things are possible to him that believeth.
II. The reasonableness of faith. Why should God make all things dependent upon our faith?

  1. Because the ruin of the race began with the loss of faith, and its recovery must come through the exercise of faith. The poison Satan injected into the blood of Eve was a question of God's faithfulness, and the one prescription that the Gospel gives to unsaved sinners is, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved."

  2. Faith is the law of Christianity, the vital principle of the Gospel dispensation. The law of faith the apostle calls it in distinction from the law of works. The Lord Jesus expressed it in the simple formula which has become the standard of answered prayers and every blessing that we receive through the name of Jesus. God is, therefore, bound to act according to our faith and also according to our unbelief.

  3. Faith is the only way known to us by which we can accept a gift from God, and inasmuch as all the blessings of the Gospel are the gifts of grace, they must come to us through faith and in the measure of our faith, if they come at all.

  4. Faith is necessary as a subjective influence to prepare our own hearts for the reception of God and His grace. How can the Father communicate His love to a timid, trembling heart? How can God come near to a frightened child? I have seen a little bird die of terror in my hand, when I intended it no harm but tried in vain to caress it and win its love. And so the individual heart without faith would die in the presence of God in absolute terror, and be unable to receive the overflowing love of the Father which it could not understand.

  5. Faith is an actual, spiritual force. It is, no doubt, one of the attributes of God Himself. We find it exemplified in Jesus in all His miracles. He explains to His disciples that it was the very power by which He withered the fig tree, and the power by which they could overcome and dissolve the mightiest obstacles in their way. There is no doubt that while the soul is exercising through the power of God the faith that commands what God commands, that a mighty force is operating at that very moment upon the obstacle, a force as real as the currents of electricity or the power of dynamite. God has really put into our hands one of His own implements of omnipotence and permitted us to use it in the name of Jesus according to His will and for the establishment of His Kingdom.

  6. The pre-eminent reason why God requires faith, is because faith is the only way through which God Himself can have absolute room to work, for faith is just that colorless and simple attitude by which man ceases from his own works and enters into the work of God. It is the difference between the human and the divine, the natural and the supernatural. The reason therefore why faith is so mighty and indeed omnipotent is that it just makes way for the omnipotence of God. Therefore the two sentences are strangely and exactly parallel. "All things are possible with God." "All things are possible to him that believeth." The very same power is possessed by God and him that believeth, and the reason is that the latter is lost in, and wholly identified with, the former. How shall we illustrate the mighty distance between the earthly and the heavenly, the human and the divine, the finite and the infinite? Some one has said, take the strongest piece of artillery, load it to the muzzle with powder or dynamite, put in it the most perfect steel ball, be sure you have all the latest improvements in advance, then fire it, and your bullet will sweep through space at the rate of six hundred feet in a second. But in that second let God, with a single flash of light and without an effort or a sound, propel a ray from yonder sun or star or midnight lamp, and it will fly six hundred thousand miles. Six hundred feet, six hundred thousand miles! This is a feeble figure of the difference between the human and the divine. That ponderous gun with its slow but destructive power is a type of man's works. That gentle sunbeam and lightbeam with its silent, swift, beneficent minis-try is a type of God's infinite resources. This is the world into which faith introduces us. Surrendering its own insufficiency, it links itself with the all-sufficiency of God, and goes forth triumphantly exclaiming, "I can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth me," while approving Heaven echoes back, "All things are possible to him that believeth."
III. The possibility of faith. "If thou canst, believe."

  1. Of course we need scarcely say that faith is dependent upon obedience and rightness of heart and life. We cannot trust God in the face of willful sin, and even an unsanctified state is fatal to any high degree of faith, for the carnal heart is not the soil in which it can grow, but it is the fruit of the Spirit, and is hindered by the weeds of sin and willful indulgence. The reason that a great many Christians have so little faith is because they are living in the world and in themselves, and separated in so large a part of their life from God and holiness. When the Lick Observatory was built on the Pacific coast, it was necessary to go above the valleys and lowlands of the coast, where the fogs and mists hung heavily over the land, and select a site on the top of Mount Hamilton, above the fogs and vapors of the ground, and in clear, unobstructed view of the heavens. So faith requires for its heavenly vision, the highlands of holiness and separation, and the clear, pure sky of a consecrated life.
    Beloved, may you find in this the explanation of many of your doubts and fears, that your plane is too low, your heart is too mixed, and your life is too near this "present evil world."

  2. Faith is hindered by the weak and unscriptural way in which so many excuse their unbelief and lightly think and speak of the sin of doubting God. If we would have strong faith we must recognize it as an imperative and sacred obligation, and steadfastly and firmly believe God, and refuse ever to doubt Him. Let us not say we cannot believe. It is true, we cannot of ourselves, but all that God also provides, and He has provided for us the power to believe if we will choose to do so. Let us then no more condone and palliate our doubts as harmless infirmities and sad misfortunes, but "take heed lest there be in any of us an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God."

  3. Faith is hindered by reliance upon human wisdom, whether our own or the wisdom of others. The devil's first bait to Eve was an offer of wisdom, and for this she sold her faith. "Ye shall be as gods," he said, "knowing good and evil," and from the hour she began to know she ceased to trust. It was the spies that lost the land of promise to Israel of old. It was their foolish proposition to search out the land, and find out by investigation whether God had told the truth or not, that led to the awful outbreak of unbelief that shut the doors of Canaan to a whole generation. It is very significant that the names of these spies are nearly all suggestive of human wisdom, greatness and fame. And so in the days of Christ, it was the bondage of the Jews to the traditions of the fathers and the opinions of men, that kept them back from receiving Him. "How can ye believe," He asked, "which receive honor from men, and seek not that which cometh from God only?" This, to-day, has much to do with the limitation of the church's faith. The Bible is measured by human criticism, and the promises of God are weighed in the balance of natural probability and human reason. Our own wisdom is just as dangerous if it take the place of God's simple word, and therefore, if we would "trust the Lord with all our heart," we must "lean not to our own understanding."

  4. Self-sufficiency and dependence on our strength is also a hindrance to our faith.

    God, therefore, has to reduce us to helplessness before we can have much trust in Him. The hour of His mightiest interposition is usually the time of our greatest extremity.

    A secular weekly tells the story of a little fellow whose experience represents a good many older people. He had reached that epoch in a boy's life when he gets his first pants, and the uplift unsettled his spiritual equilibrium. Hitherto he had been a devout little Christian and usually joined his little sister every morning in asking the Lord's help and blessing for the day, but this morning, when he looked at his new pants, and felt himself a man, he stopped his little sister as she began to pray for him as usual, "Lord Jesus, take care of Freddie to-day, and keep him from harm," and like poor Simon Peter, in his own self-sufficiency, he cried out, "No, Jennie, don't say that; Freddie can take care of himself now." The little saint was shocked and frightened, but knew not what to do. And so the day began, but before noon they both climbed up into a cherry-tree, and while reaching out for the tempting fruit, Freddie went head foremost down into an angle between the tree and the fence, and with all his desperate struggles and his frightened sister's, he was utterly unable to extricate himself, and at last he looked up to Jennie with a look of mingled shame and intelligence and said, "Jennie, pray; Freddie can't take care of himself after all." Just then a strong man was coming along the road, and the answer to their prayer quickly came as the sturdy arms in a few minutes had taken down the fence and Freddie was free, and went forth a lesson for life, to walk like Simon Peter, with downward head and humble trust in a strength and care more mighty than his own.

    Truly this is the soil of faith! Wisely said Habakkuk, centuries ago, as he contrasted pride and confidence, "His soul which is lifted up is not upright in him; but the just shall live by faith."

    Beloved, has God brought you to the end of your strength? Rejoice and be exceeding glad, for it is the beginning of His Omnipotence, if faith will but fall into His mighty arms and cry like those of old, "Lord, it is nothing with Thee to help by many or with those who have no power. Help us, Lord, for in Thy Name we go against this great multitude."

  5. Faith is hindered by sight and sense, and our foolish dependence upon external evidences.

    The very evidence in which we must live and grow is the unseen, and therefore all outward things must be withdrawn before we can truly believe; and as we look not at the things which are seen but on the things which are not seen, they grow real, more real than the things of sense, and then God makes them real in actual accomplishment. But faith must first step out into the great unknown, and walk upon the water to go to Jesus, nay, walk upon the air; but where was something only void it will find the rock beneath, like the traveler in the Alps who had reached the end of the mountain path as it suddenly disappeared beneath a great mass of ice and snow and became a subterranean torrent, while the mountain rose sternly in front and the miles of desolation which he had traveled lay behind. What should he do? Suddenly his guide exclaimed, "Follow me!" and plunged into the descending torrent and then disappeared from his view under the great mountain which it tunnelled. It was an awful venture, but he must either follow or die, and plunging in, there was a sudden shock, and the whirl of waters and blackness of darkness, and then a burst of light, and he was lying on the banks of a quiet stream on the other side of the mountain, in the sweet valley below. The unseen way had led to life and light.

    So faith still walks in paths of mystery oft-times, but God will always make it plain. Is not this the hindrance to your faith, that you hesitate to believe before you venture upon the naked word of promise? Your faith alone is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. God help us to walk by faith and not by sight!

    Therefore God has to train us in the way of faith by difficulties, trials, and seeming refusals, until like the Syro-Phoenician woman, we simply trust on and refuse to be refused. He is always waiting to recompense our trust by the glad words, "Great is thy faith! Be it unto thee even as thou wilt."

  6. Finally, this faith is hindered most of all by what we call "our faith," and our fruitless struggles to work out a faith which after all is but a make-believe and a desperate trying to trust God, which must ever come short of His vast and glorious promises. The truth is that the only faith that is equal to the stupendous promises of God and the measureless needs of our life, is "the faith of God" Himself, the very trust which He will breathe into the heart which intelligently expects Him as its power to believe, as well as its power to love, obey, or perform any other exercise of the new life.
Blessed be His name! He has not given us a chain which reaches within a single link of our poor helpless heart, but that one last link is fatal to all the chain. Nay, the last link, the one that fastens on the human side, is as divine as the link that binds the chain of promise to His Throne of promise in the heavens. "Have the faith of God," is His great command. "I live by the faith of the Son of God," is the victorious testimony of one who had proved it true.

Beloved, in the light of this great provision, listen to the mighty promise now, and in His faith rise to claim, "If thou canst, believe. All things are possible to him that believeth," and cry, "Lord, I believe, nay, not I, but Thou! Help Thou my unbelief."

And now, beloved, this mighty engine of spiritual power is placed in our hands by Omnipotent love. Shall we claim, and by the help of God, rise to its utmost possibilities, and shall we from this hour turn it, like a heavenly weapon, upon the field of Christian life and conflict, and use it for all to which God has called us in the great conflicts of the age and for the Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ? Our lot has fallen upon momentous times; the last decade of this stupendous century has just begun, and it finds the Church of God awaking to the greatest campaign of the Christian centuries, the evangelization of the world, with a view to the preparation for our Lord's immediate coming. What a glorious possibility! It is one of the possibilities of faith.

Last night as I sat at my open window, far into the night watches, from one of the cottages yonder, I heard the voice of prayer go forth all night long. It was a ceaseless and mighty cry that the mighty God would work with all His power and glory, and though the same words were oft repeated by the same voice, it never seemed to grow monotonous, for there was so much that language could not express in that prayer that it touched my heart with tenderness and solemnity, and seemed like a prophecy of that which I trust is to go forth from this mighty convocation and be caught up by all the world until it shall be answered by the voices of heaven above, proclaiming, "The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ. Alleluia! The Lord God Omnipotent reigneth." Oh, shall we take this engine of omnipotence, the prayer of faith, and turn it toward the heavens, and turn it upon the earth, and turn it against every foe, until we shall find it wholly true, "All things are possible to him that believeth?"

It has been proposed that we should form, this day, a Prayer Alliance, for the evangelization of the world during this present century, and the speedy coming of our Lord Jesus. Beloved, can there be a grander opportunity for the practical application of this great theme, and shall we not with one heart, join hands in believing prayer, around the world, until the happy day when we shall join hands once more around the Millennial Throne and praise Him for the glorious fulfillment?


Friday, September 2, 2016

Duane Miller's Healing Caught on Audio Tape


The following audio is from a radio broadcast of Focus on the Family around 20 years ago. On it Dr. Dobson interviews Duane Miller about his sickness and how God healed him while he was preaching a sermon on God's sovereignty in healing. The actual healing was caught on audio tape and is played at the end of the interview.
Or download mp3 HERE

See also my blogpost:

Testimonies of the Supernatural Among Respected Christian Leaders





Wednesday, March 16, 2016

Prayer Possibilities by E.M. Bounds


The following is from chapters 4, 5 and 6 of E.M. Bounds' book The Possibilities of Prayer. I've collected links to all of Bounds' books on prayer HERE.


Chapter 4--Prayer-Its Possibilities


How vast are the possibilities of prayer! How wide is its reach! What great things are accomplished by this divinely appointed means of grace! It lays its hand on Almighty God and moves him to do what he would not otherwise do if prayer was not offered. It brings things to pass which would never otherwise occur. The story of prayer is the story of great achievements. Prayer is a wonderful power placed by Almighty God in the hands of his saints, which may be used to accomplish great purposes and to achieve unusual results. Prayer reaches to everything, takes in all things great and small which are promised by God to the children of men. The only limit to prayer are the promises of God and his ability to fulfill those promises. "Open thy mouth wide and I will fill it."

The records of prayer's achievements are encouraging to faith, cheering to the expectations of saints, and is an inspiration to all who would pray and test its value. Prayer is no mere untried theory. It is not some strange unique scheme, concocted in the brains of men, and set on foot by them, an invention which has never been tried nor put to the test. Prayer is a divine arrangement in the moral government of God, designed for the benefit of men and intended as a means for furthering the interests of his cause on earth, and carrying out his gracious purposes in redemption and providence. Prayer proves itself. It is susceptible of proving its virtue by those who pray. Prayer needs no proof other than its accomplishments. If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine." If any man will know the virtue of prayer, if he will know what it will do, let him pray. Let him put prayer to the test.

What a breadth is given to prayer! What heights it reaches! It is the breathing of a soul inflamed for God, and inflamed for man. It goes as far as the gospel goes, and is as wide, compassionate, and prayerful as is that gospel.

How much of prayer do all these unpossessed, alienated provinces of earth demand to enlighten them, to impress them and to move them toward God and his Son, Jesus Christ? Had the professed disciples of Christ only have prayed in the past as they ought to have done, the centuries would not have found these provinces still bound in death, in sin, and in ignorance.

Alas! how the unbelief of men has limited the power of God to work through prayer! What limitations have disciples of Jesus Christ put upon prayer by their prayerlessness! How the church, with her neglect of prayer, has hedged about the gospel and shut up doors of access!

Prayer possibilities open doors for the entrance of the gospel: "Withal praying also for us that God would open to us a door of utterance." Prayer opened for the apostles doors of utterance, created opportunities and made openings to preach the gospel. The appeal by prayer was to God, because God was moved by prayer. God was thereby moved to do his own work in an enlarged way and by new ways. Prayer possibility gives not only great power, and opens doors to the gospel, but it gives facility as well to the gospel. Prayer makes the gospel to go fast and to move with glorious swiftness. A gospel projected by the mighty energies of prayer is neither slow, lazy nor dull. It moves with God's power, with God's radiance and with angelic swiftness.

"Brethren, pray for us that the word of the Lord may have free course and be glorified," is the request of the apostle Paul, whose faith reached to the possibilities of prayer for the preached Word. The gospel moves altogether too slowly, often timidly, idly, and with feeble steps. What will make this gospel go rapidly like a race runner? What will give this gospel divine radiance and glory, and cause it to move worthy of God and of Christ? The answer is at hand. Prayer, more prayer, better prayer will do the deed. This means of grace will give fast going, splendor, and divinity to the gospel.

The possibilities of prayer reach to all things. Whatever concerns man's highest welfare, and whatever has to do with God's plans and purposes concerning men on earth, is a subject for prayer. In "whatsoever ye shall ask," is embraced all that concerns us or the children of men and God. And whatever is left out of "whatsoever" is left out of prayer. Where will we draw the lines which leave out or which will limit the word "whatsoever"? Define it, and search out and publish the things which the word does not include. If "whatsoever" does not include all things, then add to it the word "anything." "If ye shall ask anything in my name, I will do it."

What riches of grace, what blessings, spiritual and temporal, what good for time and eternity, would have been ours had we learned the possibilities of prayer and our faith had taken in the wide range of the divine promises to us to answer prayer! What blessings on our times and what furtherance to God's cause had we but learned how to pray with large expectations! Who will rise up in this generation and teach the church this lesson? It is a child's lesson in simplicity, but who has learned it well enough to put prayer to the test? It is a great lesson in its matchless and universal good. The possibilities of prayer are unspeakable, but the lesson of prayer which realizes and measures up to these possibilities, who has learned?

In his discourse in John fifteen, our Lord seems to connect friendship for him with prayer, and his choosing of his disciples seemed to have been with a design that through prayer they should bear much fruit.

"Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you. Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain; that whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you."

Here we have again the undefined and unlimited word, "whatsoever," as covering the rights and the things for which we are to pray in the possibilities of prayer.

We have still another declaration from Jesus:

"Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it to you. Hitherto ye have asked nothing in my name; ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full."

Here is a very definite exhortation from our Lord to largeness in praying. Here we are definitely urged by him to ask for large things, and announced with the dignity and solemnity indicated by the double amen, "Verily, Verily." Why these marvelous urgencies in this last recorded and vital conversation of our Lord with his disciples? The answer is that our Lord might prepare them for the new dispensation, in which prayer was to have such marvelous results, and in which prayer was to be the chief agency to conserve and make aggressive his gospel.

In our Lord's language to his disciples about choosing them that should bear fruit, he clearly teaches us that this matter of praying and fruit-bearing is not a petty business of our choice, or a secondary matter in relation to other matters, but that he has chosen us for this very business of praying. He had specially in mind our praying, and he has chosen us of his own divine selection, and he expects us to do this one thing of praying and to do it intelligently and well. For he before says that he had made us his friends, and had brought us into bosom confidence with him, and also into free and full conference with him. The main object of choosing us as his disciples and of friendship for him was that we might be the better fitted to bear the fruit of prayer.

Let us not forget that we are noting the possibilities of the true praying ones. "Anything" is the word of area and circumference. How far it reaches we may not know. How wide it spreads, our minds fail to discover. What is there which is not within its reach? Why does Jesus repeat and exhaust these words, all-inclusive and boundless words, if he does not desire to emphasize the unbounded magnificence and illimitable munificence of prayer? Why does he press men to pray, so that our very poverty might be enriched and our limitless inheritance by prayer be secured?

We affirm with absolute certainty that Almighty God answers prayer. The vast possibilities, and the urgent necessity of prayer lie in this stupendous fact that God hears and answers prayer. And God hears and answers all prayer. He hears and answers every prayer, where the true conditions of praying are met. Either this is so or it is not. If not, then is there nothing in prayer. Then prayer is but the recitation of words, a mere verbal performance, an empty ceremony. Then prayer is an altogether useless exercise. But if what we have said is true, then are there vast possibilities in prayer. Then is it far reaching in its scope, and wide in its range. Then is it true that prayer can lay its hand upon Almighty God and move him to do great and wonderful things.

The benefits, the possibilities and the necessity of prayer are not merely subjective but are peculiarly objective in their character. Prayer aims at a definite object. Prayer has a direct design in view. Prayer always has something specific before the mind's eye. There may be some subjective benefits which accrue from praying, but this is altogether secondary and incidental. Prayer always drives directly at an object and seeks to secure a desired end. Prayer is asking, seeking and knocking at a door for something we have not, which we desire, and which God has promised to us.

Prayer is a direct address to God. "In everything let your requests be made known unto God." Prayer secures blessings, and makes men better because it reaches the ear of God. Prayer is only for the betterment of men when it has affected God and moved him to do something for men. Prayer affects men by affecting God. Prayer moves men because it moves God to move men. Prayer influences men by influencing God to influence them. Prayer moves the hand that moves the world.

That power is prayer, which soars on high,

Through Jesus to the throne;

And moves the hand which moves the world,

To bring salvation down.

The utmost possibilities of prayer have rarely been realized. The promises of God are so great to those who truly pray, when he puts himself so fully into the hands of the praying ones, that it almost staggers our faith and causes us to hesitate with astonishment. His promise to answer, and to do and to give "all things," "anything," "whatsoever," and "all things whatsoever," is so large, so great, so exceeding broad, that we stand back in amazement and give ourselves to questioning and doubt. We "stagger at the promises through unbelief." Really the answers of God to prayer have been pared down by us to our little faith, and have been brought down to the low level of our narrow notions about God's ability, liberality, and resources. Let us ever keep in mind and never for one moment allow ourselves to doubt the statement that God means what he says in all of his promises. God's promises are his own word. His veracity is at stake in them. To question them is to doubt his veracity. He cannot afford to prove faithless to his word. "In hope of eternal life, which God that cannot lie, promised before the world began." His promises are for plain people, and he means to do for all who pray just what he says he will do. "For he is faithful that hath promised."

Unfortunately we have failed to lay ourselves out in praying. We have limited the Holy One of Israel. The ability to pray can be secured by the grace and power of the Holy Spirit, but it demands so strenuous and high a character that it is a rare thing for a man or woman to be on "praying ground and on pleading terms with God." It is as true today as it was in the days of Elijah, that "the fervent, effectual prayer of a righteous man availeth much." How much such a prayer avails, who can tell?

The possibilities of prayer are the possibilities of faith. Prayer and faith are Siamese twins. One heart animates them both. Faith is always praying. Prayer is always believing. Faith must have a tongue by which it can speak. Prayer is the tongue of faith. Faith must receive. Prayer is the hand of faith stretched out to receive. Prayer must rise and soar. Faith must give prayer the wings to fly and soar. Prayer must have an audience with God. Faith opens the door, and access and audience are given. Prayer asks. Faith lays its hand on the thing asked for.

God's omnipotent power is the basis of omnipotent faith and omnipotent praying. "All things are possible to him that believeth," and "all things whatsoever" are given to him who prays. God's decree and death yield readily to Hezekiah's faith and prayer. When God's promise and man's praying are united by faith, then "nothing shall be impossible." Importunate prayer is so all powerful and irresistible that it obtains promises, or wins where the prospect and the promise seem to be against it. In fact, the New Testament promise includes all things in heaven and in earth. God, by promise, puts all things he possesses into man's hands. Prayer and faith put man in possession of this boundless inheritance.

Prayer is not an indifferent or a small thing. It is not a sweet little privilege. It is a great prerogative, far-reaching in its effects. Failure to pray entails losses far beyond the person who neglects it. Prayer is not a mere episode of the Christian life. Rather the whole life is a preparation for and the result of prayer. In its condition, prayer is the sum of religion. Faith is but a channel of prayer. Faith gives it wings and swiftness. Prayer is the lungs through which holiness breathes. Prayer is not only the language of spiritual life, but also makes its very essence and forms its real character.

O for a faith that will not shrink

Though pressed by every foe;

That will not tremble on the brink

Of any earthly woe.

Lord, give us such a faith as this,

And then, whate'er may come,

We'll taste e'en here, the hallowed bliss

Of our eternal home.


Chapter 5--Prayer-Its Possibilities (Continued)


AFTER a comprehensive and cursory view of the possibilities of prayer, as mapped out in what has been said, it is important to descend to particulars, to Bible facts and principles in regard to this great subject. What are the possibilities of prayer as disclosed by divine revelation? The necessity of prayer and its being are coexistent with man. Nature, even before a clear and full revelation, cries out in prayer. Man is, therefore prayer is. God is, therefore prayer is. Prayer is born of the instincts, the needs and the cravings and the very being of man.

The prayer of Solomon at the dedication of the temple is the product of inspired wisdom and piety, and gives a lucid and powerful view of prayer in the wideness of its range, the minuteness of its details, and its abounding possibilities and its urgent necessity. How minute and exactly comprehending is this prayer! National and individual blessings are in it, and temporal and spiritual good is embraced by it. Individual sins, national calamities, sins, sickness, exile, famine, war, pestilence, mildew, drought, insects, damage to crops, whatever affects husbandry, enemies-whatsoever sickness, one's own sore, one's own guilt, one's own sin-one and all are in this prayer, and all are for prayer.

For all these evils prayer is the one universal remedy. Pure praying remedies all ills, cures all diseases, relieves all situations, however dire, calamitous, fearful, and despairing. Prayer to God, pure praying, relieves dire situations because God can relieve when no one else can. Nothing is too hard for God. No cause is hopeless which God undertakes. No case is mortal when Almighty God is the physician. No conditions are despairing which can deter or defy God.

Almighty God heard this prayer of Solomon, and committed himself to undertake, to relieve and to remedy if real praying be done, despite all adverse and inexorable conditions. He will always relieve, answer and bless if men will pray from the heart, and if they will give themselves to real, true praying.

This is the record of what God said to him after Solomon had finished his magnificent, illimitable and all-comprehending prayer:

"And the Lord appeared to Solomon by night, and said to him, I have heard thy prayer, and have chosen this place to myself for a house of sacrifice. If I shut up heaven that there be no rain, or if I command the locusts that they devour the land, or if I send pestilence among the people; If my people which are called by my name, shall humble themselves and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land; Now my eyes shall be open, and my ears attentive to the prayer that is made in this place. For now I have chosen and sanctified this house, that my name may be there forever."

God put no limitation to his ability to save through true praying. No hopeless conditions, no accumulation of difficulties, and no desperation in distance or circumstance can hinder the success of real prayer. The possibilities of prayer are linked to the infinite integrity and omnipotent power of God. There is nothing too hard for God to do. God is pledged that if we ask, we shall receive. God can withhold nothing from faith and prayer.

The thing surpasses all my thought,

But faithful is my Lord;

Through unbelief I stagger not,

For God hath spoke the word.

Faith, mighty faith, the promise sees,

And looks to that alone;

Laughs at impossibilities,

And cries, "It shall be done!"

The many statements of God's Word fully set forth the possibilities and far reaching nature of prayer. How full of pathos! Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me." Again, read the cheering words: "He shall call upon me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him and honor him."

How diversified the range of trouble! How almost infinite its extent! How universal and dire its conditions! How despairing its waves! Yet the range of prayer is as great as trouble, is as universal as sorrow, as infinite as grief. And prayer can relieve all these evils which come to the children of men. There is no tear which prayer cannot wipe away or dry up. There is no depression of spirits which it cannot relieve and elevate. There is no despair which it cannot dispel.

"Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great things and difficult, which thou knowest not." How broad these words of the Lord, how great the promise, how cheering to faith! They really challenge the faith of the saint. Prayer always brings God to our relief to bless and to aid, and brings marvelous revelations of his power. What impossibilities are there with God? Name them. "Nothing," he says, "is impossible to the Lord." And all the possibilities in God are in prayer.

Samuel, under the judges of Israel, will fully illustrate the possibility and the necessity of prayer. He himself was the beneficiary of the greatness of faith and prayer in a mother who knew what praying meant. Hannah, his mother, was a woman of mark, in character and in piety, who was childless. That privation was a source of worry and weakness and grief. She sought God for relief, and prayed and poured out her soul before the Lord. She continued her praying, in fact she multiplied her praying, to such an extent that to old Eli she seemed to be intoxicated, almost beside herself in the intensity of her supplications. She was specific in her prayers. She wanted a child. For a man child she prayed.

And God was specific in his answer. A man child God gave her, a man indeed he became. He was the creation of prayer, and grew himself to a man of prayer. He was a mighty intercessor, especially in emergencies in the history of God's people. The epitome of his life and character is found in the statement, "Samuel cried unto the Lord for Israel, and the Lord heard him." The victory was complete, and the ebenezer was the memorial of the possibilities and necessity of prayer.

Again, at another time, Samuel called to the Lord, and thunder and rain came out of season in wheat harvest. Here are some statements concerning this mighty intercessor, who knew how to pray, and whom God always regarded when he prayed: "Samuel cried unto the Lord all night."

Says he at another time in speaking to the Lord's people, "Moreover, as for me, God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you."

These great occasions show how this notable ruler of Israel made prayer a habit, and that this was a notable and conspicuous characteristic of his dispensation. Prayer was no strange exercise to Samuel. He was accustomed to it. He was in the habit of praying, knew the way to God, and received answers from God. Through Samuel and his praying God's cause was brought out of its low, depressed condition, and a great national revival began, of which David was one of its fruits.

Samuel was one of the notable men of the old dispensation who stood out prominently as one who had great influence with God in prayer. God could not deny Samuel anything he asked of God. Samuel's praying always affected God, and moved God to do what would not have otherwise been done had Samuel not prayed. Samuel stands out as a striking illustration of the possibilities of prayer. He shows conclusively the achievements of prayer.

Jacob is an illustration for all time of the commanding and conquering forces of prayer. God came to him as an antagonist. He grappled Jacob, and shook him as if he were in the embrace of a deadly foe. Jacob, the deceitful supplanter, the wily, unscrupulous trader, had no eyes to see God. His perverted principles, and his deliberate overreaching and wrongdoing had blinded his vision.

To reach God, to know God, and to conquer God, was the demand of this critical hour. Jacob was alone, and all night witnessed to the intensity of the struggle, its changing issues, and its veering fortunes, as well as the receding and advancing lines in the conflict. Here was the strength of weakness, the power of self-despair, the energy of perseverance, the elevation of humility, and the victory of surrender. Jacob's salvation issued from the forces which he massed in that all-night conflict.

He prayed and wept and importuned until the fiery hate of Esau's heart died and it was softened into love. A greater miracle was wrought on Jacob than on Esau. His name, his character, and his destiny were changed by that all-night praying. Here is the record of the results of that night's praying struggle: "As a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed." "By his strength he had power with God, yea, he had power over the angel and prevailed."

What forces lie in importunate prayer! What mighty results are gained by it in one night's struggle in praying! God is affected and changed in attitude, and two men are transformed in character and destiny.


Chapter 6--Prayer Its Possibilities (Continued)


THE possibilities of prayer are seen in its results in temporal matters. Prayer reaches to everything which concerns man, whether it be his body, his mind, or his soul. Prayer embraces the very smallest things of life. Prayer takes in the wants of the body, food, raiment, business, finances, in fact everything which belongs to this life, as well as those things which have to do with the eternal interests of the soul. Its achievements are seen not only in the large things of earth, but more especially in what might be called the little things of life. It brings to pass not only large things, speaking after the manner of men, but also the small things.

Temporal matters are of a lower order than the spiritual, but they concern us greatly. Our temporal interests make up a great part of our lives. They are the main source of our cares and worries. They have much to do with our religion. We have bodies, with wants, pains, disabilities, and limitations. That which concerns our bodies necessarily engages our minds. These are subjects of prayer, and prayer takes in all of them, and large are the accomplishments of prayer in this realm of our being.

Our temporal matters have much to do with our health and happiness. They form our relations. They are tests of honesty and belong to the sphere of justice and righteousness. Not to pray about temporal matters is to leave God out of the largest sphere of our being. He who cannot pray in everything, as we are charged to do by Paul in Philippians, fourth chapter, has never learned in any true sense the nature and worth of prayer. To leave business and time out of prayer is to leave religion and eternity out of it. He who does not pray about temporal matters cannot pray with confidence about spiritual matters. He who does not put God by prayer in his struggling toil for daily bread will never put him in his struggle for heaven. He who does not cover and supply the wants of the body by prayer will never cover and supply the wants of his soul. Both body and soul are dependent on God, and prayer is but the crying expression of that dependence.

The Syrophoenician woman prayed for the health things. In fact the Old Testament is but the record of God in dealing with his people through the divine appointment of prayer. Abraham prayed that Sodom might be saved from destruction. Abraham's servant prayed and received God's direction in choosing a wife for Isaac. Hannah prayed, and Samuel was given to her. Elijah prayed, and no rain came for three years. And he prayed again, and the clouds gave rain. Hezekiah was saved from a mortal sickness by his praying. Jacob's praying saved him from Esau's revenge. The old Bible is the history of prayer for temporal blessings as well as for spiritual blessings.

In the New Testament we have the same principles illustrated and enforced. Prayer in this section of God's Word covers the whole realm of good, both temporal and spiritual. Our Lord, in his universal prayer, the prayer for humanity, in every clime, in every age and for every condition, puts in it the petition, "Give us this day our daily bread." This embraces all necessary earthly good.

In the Sermon on the Mount, a whole paragraph is taken up by our Lord about food and raiment, where he is cautioning against undue care or anxiety for these things, and at the same time encouraging a faith which takes in and claims all these necessary bodily comforts and necessities. And this teaching stands in close connection with his teachings about prayer. Food and raiment are taught as subjects of prayer. Not for one moment is it even hinted that they are things beneath the notice of a great God, nor too material and earthly for such a spiritual exercise as prayer.

The Syrophoenician woman prayed for the health of her daughter. Peter prayed for Dorcas to be brought back to life. Paul prayed for the father of Publius on his way to Rome, when cast on the island by a shipwreck, and God healed the man who was sick with a fever. He urged the Christians at Rome to strive with him together in prayer that he might be delivered from bad men.

When Peter was put in prison by Herod, the church was instant in prayer that Peter might be delivered from the prison, and God honored the praying of these early Christians. John prayed that Gaius might "prosper and be in health, even as his soul prospered."

The divine directory in James, fifth chapter, says: "Is any among you afflicted, let him pray Is any sick among you? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him."

Paul, in writing to the Philippians, fourth chapter, says: "Be careful for nothing; but in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God." This provides for all kinds of cares-business cares, home cares, body cares, and soul cares. All are to be brought to God by prayer, and at the mercy seat our minds and souls are to be unburdened of all that affects us or causes anxiety or uneasiness. These words of Paul stand in close connection with what he says about temporal matters specially: "But now I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at the last your care of me bath flourished-again: wherein ye were also careful, but ye lacked opportunity. Not that I speak in respect to want, for I have learned in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content."

And Paul closes his epistle to these Christians with the words, which embrace all temporal needs as well as spiritual wants:

But my God shall supply all your need, according to his riches in glory, by Christ Jesus.

Unbelief in the doctrine that prayer covers all things which have to do with the body and business affairs, breeds undue anxiety about earth's affairs, causes unnecessary worry, and creates very unhappy states of mind. How much needless care we would save ourselves if we but believed in prayer as the means of relieving those cares, and would learn the happy art of casting all our cares in prayer upon God, "who careth for us!" Unbelief in God as one who is concerned about even the smallest affairs which affect our happiness and comfort limits the holy one of Israel, and makes our lives altogether devoid of real happiness and sweet contentment.

We have in the instance of the failure of the disciples to cast the devil out of the lunatic son, brought to them by his father, while Jesus was on the Mount of Transfiguration, a suggestive lesson of the union of faith, prayer, and fasting, and the failure to reach the possibilities and obligations of an occasion. The disciples ought to have cast the devil out of the boy. They had been sent out to do this very work, and had been empowered by their Lord and master to do it. And yet they signally failed. Christ reproved them with sharp upbraidings for not doing it. They had been sent out on this very specific mission. This one thing was specified by our Lord when he sent them out. Their failure brought shame and confusion on them, and discounted their Lord and master and his cause. They brought him into disrepute, and reflected very seriously upon the cause which they represented. Their faith to cast out the devil had signally failed, simply because it had not been nurtured by prayer and fasting. Failure to pray broke the ability of faith, and failure came because they had not the energy of a strong authoritative faith.

The promise reads, and we cannot too often refer to it, for it is the very basis of our faith and the ground on which we stand when we pray: "All things whatsoever ye ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive." What enumeration table can tabulate, itemize, and aggregate "all things whatsoever"? The possibilities of prayer and faith go to the length of the endless chain, and cover the unmeasurable area.

In Hebrews eleven, the sacred penman, wearied with trying to specify the examples of faith, and to recite the wonderful exploits of faith, pauses a moment, and then cries out, giving us almost unheard of achievements of prayer and faith as exemplified by the saints of the olden times. Here is what he says:

And what shall I say more? For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon, of Barak, of Samson, of Jephthah, of David also; and Samuel, and the prophets; Who through faith, subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions; Quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens; Women received their dead raised to life again, and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection.

What an illustrious record is this! What marvelous accomplishments, wrought not by armies, or by man's superhuman strength, nor by magic, but all accomplished simply by men and women noted alone for their faith and prayer! Hand in hand with these records of faith's illimitable range are the illustrious records of prayer, for they are all one. Faith has never won a victory nor gained a crown where prayer was not the weapon of the victory, and where prayer did not jewel the crown. If "all things are possible to him that believeth," then all things are possible to him that prays.

Depend on him; thou canst not fail;

Make all thy wants and wishes known:

Fear not; his merits must prevail;

Ask but in faith, it shall be done.





Friday, January 1, 2016

A Response to rgbrao/Raj on Prayer and Faith

(posted 12/10/2019)

Raj wrote in the comments of one of my blogposts:

OK. So I am going to think out loud and will make a comment here with respect to something in the above post.

Note that Murray does not explicitly tell us what in the Bible constitutes a promise. I have this same issue with John Piper and Jay Adams. They will tell you to claim God's promise, but they rarely give you examples of what God's promises are. At least in terms of what I have read. Anyway, I will spell out this issue in two ways.

(1) Collective: What promises are applicable to Christians today vs. the OT Israelites.
and
(2) Individually: What promises are specifically applicable to Jane Doe's situation today.
~~~~~~~

So? How does one know what is an applicable promise or is not an applicable promise?

~ We might respond and say, "Look. Isn't it obvious what the promises of God are? They are scattered throughout the Scriptures. There are even very many little books out there containing lists of Promises from the Bible."

Then this is where the problem comes. You go off and read "For I know the plans I have for you ... a hope and a future" (Jer. 29:11), and say to yourself, "This is a promise that I will put on my fridge."

But then along comes the apologist, who says "Hey! Wait a minute! That is only for the Israelites of old. That is not for you. That is N/A for us today."

So that is one problem - distinguishing what Promises are for us or not for us. Some might just be for the OT Israelites vs. what is for us today.

(2) Applicable/Non-Applicable to Jane Doe Specifically?
The next problem is this. You cannot open up the Bible and find a promise that God will give you a new Honda or a promotion at the workplace. You won't find it. These things are wants, not needs.

George Müller seemed to have circumscribed God's promises as being applicable to "...necessaries" only. So speaking in terms of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, God will definitely provide for you food, clothing or shelter (= bottom of Maslow's pyramid), however there is no guarantee that He will provide for you friendship (= midway up the pyramid). A person who might be in prison for life, and who comes to faith while there by way of reading a Bible, might fail to have friends for the rest of his life. The latter is not strictly speaking necessary for you to continue to live.

~ The above are two issues, that have come up for me here and there, in particular through Piper's work. I am sure you address them here and I will be continuing to read. Thanks for the blog! There is lots of food for thought here.

In Him,
~ Raj
P.S. For my devo tonight, I read 1 Samuel. It is interesting to note that Hannah, with respect to her barrenness basically had two options:
(1) Quit praying because surely a child was not the Lord's will,
or
(2) Keep praying anyway.

She opted for (2) and persevered in prayer for years. Amazing!

This, of course, is a continuation of our conversation in the combox HERE and then later in the combox HERE. I'm tempted to give the exceptions and qualifications to what I'm about to say up front, now, but have decided to leave them for the latter part of this blogpost.

I admit that there's a level of subjectivity on the topic of determining which promises can apply to New Covenant Christians. First off, I haven't been a Dispensationalist for nearly 20 years. I think Dispensationalism with its 1. strict discontinuity between Israel and the Church as well as its 2. strict distinctions between the [unconnected] Dispensations is a major foundation for why we allegedly shouldn't haphazardly claim a Biblical passage as applying to ourselves. However, I think Dispensationalism has been disproven by books like "Rightly Dividing the People of God" by Keith Mathison, and "House Divided: The Break Up of Dispensational Theology" by Greg Bahnsen and Kenneth Gentry. While I'm not a theonomist, I think Bahnsen's book "By This Standard" does a great job showing how all of the Tanakh applies to Christians in some sense. The last two books are freely online at theonomist Gary North's website HERE. But Mathison's book is a better introduction to the problems of Dispensationalism.More resources refuting Dispensationalism can be found at Monergism's website HERE.

Even many modern proponents of "Dispensationalism" think that Normative Dispensationalism (i.e. Classic, and Revised Dispesationalism) and [all the more] the various Ultra-Dispensational views have major problems. See the literature put out by Progressive Dispensationalists like Darrell Bock, Robert Saucy et al. They rightly deny a clear cut distinction between Israel and the Church, as well as affirming that the various Covenants progressively build upon each other. My personal views are closer to a mediating position between Covenant Theology, Dispensational Theology and New Covenant Theology, called Progressive Covenantalism. See  the book "Progressive Covenantalism: Charting a Course between Dispensational and Covenantal Theologies" edited by Stephen J. Wellum and Brent E. Parker. Even some Normative Dispensationalists are willing to say that "All of the Bible is FOR Christians, but not all of it is TO Christians". That's fair, but they don't take the "FOR" part seriously enough in my opinion. The Apostle Paul says, ALL Scripture is profitable for Christians [2 Tim. 3:15-16], and were inspired for our example and instruction [Rom. 15:4; 1 Cor. 10:11].

I'll answer your specific questions below. But here are some preliminary statements that will answer your questions generally/broadly. In my estimation God seems to respond to faith. Faith in the general goodness and power of God to help and bless. The woman with the issue of blood thought in her mind that if she could just touch the hem of Jesus' garment she would be made well. There was no divine promise for her to come to that conclusion. Some might argue that others were touching Jesus previously and that she decided to do so too and picked the hem/fringe of Jesus' garment in order not to ritually defile Him. But, it might also be that the reverse is the case. That those other people who were touching him did so because the story of her touching Him spread by word of mouth. That all you needed to do was touch Him to be healed. Nor is there any record of Jesus saying, if they want to be healed, they should touch Him. So, there's no recorded promise that touching Jesus would heal anyone. Yet, it worked.

The relevant passages include: Mark 3:10; 5:24ff.; Mark 6:56; Matt. 9:20ff. Matt 14:36; Luke 6:19; Luke 8:43ff.
To the best of my reconstruction, it seems that people started touching Jesus for healing because they first noticed that when HE touched them they were healed. So, they started touching Him for healing. Then, later the woman with the issue of blood decided to touch His hem and got healed. Then, after that, some people started to focus on just touching His garment because, apparently, they were getting more success in getting healed when they did so. Why? Probably because they were more actively believing. Maybe in a superstitious way which God nevertheless honored and responded to. There are other cases in the Bible where God might have honored superstitious faith, because it was ultimately in HIM, or ultimately in relation to Him and His reputation/honor. [cf. Gen. 30:37ff.; Acts 5:15; 19:11-12]

That pheneomenon of people touching Jesus and being healed seems to have been an outworking of the principle of Jesus' repeated statements that we can receive according to, or in proportion to, our faith. See for example: Matt. 9:22; Matt. 9:28-29; Matt. 8:13; Matt. 17:19-20; Matt. 9:2; Matt. 15:28; Mark 5:34; Luke 8:48; Mark 9:23; Mark 5:36; Luke 8:50; Luke 7:9-10; cf. Acts 14:9 (et cetera). As well as in keeping with the principle of Mark 9:23:

And Jesus said to him, "'If you can'! ALL THINGS are possible for one who believes."- Mark 9:23 ESV

Having said all that, I believe we can now, with warrant/justification, look at the general promises of the Old Testament and claim them for ourselves. "For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us" (2 Cor. 1:20 NKJV). Even some of the specific promises that were for individuals. Though, obviously not all of them, since some of them just cannot be applied outside of their original context. For example, the dreams of Joseph virtually constitute prophecies and promises. We may not claim those as promises that we will personally rule over our siblings or become virtual heads of states in THIS AGE. But generally speaking, and applied in a broader and looser sense, we see God's promises of rulership for believers in the Age to Come (Rev. 2:26-27; 3:21; 5:10; 20:4-6; Luke 19:17ff.; 2 Tim. 2:12; Dan. 7:22, 27, 18). The command to the Israelites to take the Promised Land by lethal [physical] force when necessary, along with God's promise of success, doesn't apply to New Covenant believers in the sense of their original context and meaning. But, by typology they can apply in terms of spiritual warfare. As Paul says,

3    For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh.
4    For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds.
5    We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ,
6    being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete.- 2 Cor. 10:3-6

Even some of the promises to individuals might apply. For example, the author of Hebrews applies to all believers a promise that originally applied to Joshua (cf. Heb. 13:5 with Josh. 1:5-9). As well as applying the statement of faith of a psalmist to all believers (cf. Heb. 13:6 with Ps. 118:6). Some Old Testament promises to individuals have New Testament counterparts such that it would seem that we can claim them too. For example, God's promise that he would guide Moses' speech have some parallels in the New Testament.

Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak."- Exo. 4:12

for I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which none of your adversaries will be able to withstand or contradict.- Luke 21:15

Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.- Col. 4:6

Examples could be multiplied with respect to many other OT promises.

Now for exceptions and qualifications.

Some Exceptions.
Exceptions would include things like: if we are believing for something that is contrary to the promises, or commands, or prophecies, or revealed decrees or revealed principles/methods/ways of God. Some examples: You may not pray to successfully rob a bank or seduce your neighbor's spouse, since those things would violate the commands against theft and adultery. You may not pray for Universalism since the Scriptures seem to clearly state not everyone will be saved. You may not pray for Jesus to never return because that violates God's promises and prophecies that Jesus WILL Return. You may not pray to receive your future glorified body now. Et Cetera...

You can pray for things contrary to God's secret decrees if you don't know it was decreed by God, yet is still in keeping with God's general promises. For example, there are many promises in the Scriptures regarding believing couples having children. An infertile Christian couple may claim those promises even though it might be the case that God hasn't decreed that they will have any children. Since, God's secret decree that they wouldn't have children was, as stated, Secret.  "The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law. (Deut. 29:29). As a continuationist, I believe God can supernaturally reveal His decrees on things which we normally wouldn't know. So, God could tell a Christian couple it's His will that they have children, or have no children, or to adopt, or to have both biological children along with adopted children.

One of the criticisms of my view is that this approach to God's promises can (obviously and truly) set people up for great disappointment. That it's pastorally foolish to promote such views because it can lead to disillusionment when people expect great things from God and they don't come to pass. That's why I recommend people would also become Calvinists so that they can better theologically understand and cope with disappointment and unfulfilled prayers. Since Calvinism makes the distinction between God's Revealed/prescriptive/preceptive Will and 2. God's Decretive Will. See my 6 types of God's Will in my blogpost:

Distinctions in God's Will from a Calvinist Perspective

I believe we should be willing to believe God's promises even if it means we're setting ourselves up for failure and disappointment. God has the right to disappoint us. God owes us nothing, and if in His grace and mercy He gives us promises, it would be ingratitude on our part for us to not strive to believe them and receive those things which He has promised. Nothing can take away or dilute the strong promises given in passages like John 14:12-14; 15:7, 16; 16:24; 1 John 3:21-22; 5:14-15; Matt. 17:19-20; 21:21-22; Mark 9:23; 11:22-24; Luke 17:5-6; Matt. 7:7-11; Luke 11:5-13; 18:1-8 et cetera.

But even some of those exceptions I've listed above might not be absolute. See for example Vincent Cheung's article Overriding Faith. He points out that even though Jesus specifically stated it was not His intention to heal the Syrophoenician's daughter, she still got the healing she was asking for because of her persistent faith. And CONTRARY to the initial expressed statement and intention of Jesus, who is God in the Flesh. There's a sense in which I agree with Cheung when he says, "Faith trumps everything". I recommend you read that article slowly and meditate on the argument that he masterfully presents in that article.

I've already mentioned my disagreements and criticisms I have with Vincent Cheung's views and approach, but I was more exhaustive HERE in terms of what I disagree with, AND some of the resources of his that I recommend. I don't always agree with the way Cheung states or argues his points. Since sometimes he overstates his claim. Or makes claims beyond what he can actually mount a good argument for. Nevertheless, the general sweep of his arguments and points are absolutely Biblical.

ONLY AFTER reading Faith Override, should you read:

All Things Are Yours by Vincent Cheung

The Extreme Faith Teacher by Vincent Cheung

Some qualifications.
All that I've said above is never meant to undermine or deny other Biblical teachings. For example, the Bible's teaching on how we WILL suffer, have difficulties and endure tribulation in this world [John 16:33; Acts 14:22], along with persecution [2 Tim. 3:12; John 15:20; Matt. 5:10-12 etc.]. Sometimes we might suffer lack as well. The Apostle Paul said he was able to do all things in the context of learning to be content with being in either a state of abundance OR a state of LACK [Phil. 4:12-13]. This is part of our discipline as children of God, without which we are illegitimate [Heb. 12:4-11].  I think some of this is partially mitigated by the possibility of the truth of Partial Preterism. If true, then some of the tribulation, difficulties and set backs implied in the pessimistic passages of the New Testament have their main fulfillment during the Apostolic Age. All the more if Post-Millennialism is true with its concomitant success of the Gospel in reaching and saving the majority of mankind and having effects in all areas of life. See my blogpost:

Why I'm Provisionally a Postmillennialist Succinctly Stated

Another Biblical doctrine that qualifies what I've said above is the teaching that we might sometimes incorrectly ask for things out of our sinful desires or rebellious wills contrary to God's [revealed and/or decretive] will.

The Apostle James says:

You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your [evil inordinate] passions/pleasures/desires.- James 4:3

The Devil's temptation of Jesus to turn stones into bread was a temptation for Jesus to violate God's present will for Him at that time and in that situation. It's not that the Father didn't want Jesus to have His hunger sated. It just wasn't proper for Jesus to satisfy His natural and understandable desire for food at that time and in that way. Because it was time for Him to overcome the Devil by successfully rejecting the Devil's enticements and temptations. Yet, on other occasions Jesus did transmute water into wine (instead of stones into bread). He even multiplied bread and fish to feed thousands of people on at least two occasions. He even had Peter catch a fish with a coin in its mouth to pay for both His and Peter's tax.

Now for your specific questions:

//Then this is where the problem comes. You go off and read "For I know the plans I have for you ... a hope and a future" (Jer. 29:11), and say to yourself, "This is a promise that I will put on my fridge."

But then along comes the apologist, who says "Hey! Wait a minute! That is only for the Israelites of old. That is not for you. That is N/A for us today."//

A denial of Jer. 29:11 as applying to believers I think only works if you assume Dispensationalism or a Dispensational-like hermeneutic. Something which even some anti-Dispensationalists are unintentionally guilty of. I've already addressed Dispensationalism and given book recommendations that show its errors. If you're only going to read one book, read Mathison's book. Furthermore, all the promises of God have their ultimate fulfillment in the Age to come. However, we can often [not always] have foretastes of them in this life. That promise in Jer. 29:11 can be claimed and stood upon by New Covenant believers in some sense in this life knowing that the ultimate fulfillment is in the Age to Come [i.e. full establishment of the Kingdom of God].

Normative Dispensationalists are wrong in thinking that the Kingdom is only future. The Kingdom is both "already" and "not yet" as popularized by Gerhardus Vos, and later by George Eldon Ladd. It's now a staple distinction accepted by many contemporary theologians.  It's the "already" sense in which we can enjoy foretastes of the Kingdom promises now. That includes things like healing, provision &c. But they aren't absolute guarantees. And they are often obtained by faith. By a faith that we must develop, but which God is in sovereign control over. In God's wisdom He knows and determines when we have [and when we will have] exercised "enough" faith, in terms of degree and temporal persistence, that it is appropriate and to our good to give us what we are asking and believing for. I've address this briefly when it comes to healing at the footnote HERE. Remember too that I said that God can also sovereignly grant things in the absence of faith.

Moreover, Jer. 29:11 has a parallel in Prov. 23:17-18:

17    Let not your heart envy sinners, but continue in the fear of the LORD all the day.
18    Surely there is a future, and your hope will not be cut off.- Prov. 23:17-18

That's a general promise that we ought to claim. Some Amillennialists might even argue that the Israelites to whom Jeremiah was communicating in Jer. 29:11 are in a similar/comparable situation as the Church is in today with respect to the Israelite Kingdoms [northern and/or southern kingdoms of Israel and Judah] and our situation in the Kingdom of God. If so, then that might be another reason for thinking it is appropriate for Christians to claim Jer. 29:11 for themselves.

To continue with your specific questions:

//(2) Applicable/Non-Applicable to Jane Doe Specifically?
The next problem is this. You cannot open up the Bible and find a promise that God will give you a new Honda or a promotion at the workplace. You won't find it. These things are wants, not needs.//

The English word "want" can mean "desire[s]" or "lack". For example, Ps. 23:1 states, "Yehovah/Yahweh, is my Shepherd, I shall now WANT". The word "want" there means "lack". If you need 1. money to survive and 2. need a job to have money, and 3. need a car to dependably go to work, then you are free to believingly ask God for all three things. Why assume a Honda is out of the realm of possibility? Maybe God has a Ferrari in store for you. However, it's less likely since that's a super-extravagance. But it's not outside the realm of possibility since value can be relative. In many cases an infertile BILLIONARE couple would GLADY give up many multiple millions of dollars to conceive a child. Something which most couples can easily do. Even to their sinful regret such that they seek an abortion. So, asking God for a Ferrari in one sense is insignificant in comparison to asking for a successful pregnancy and birth of a child. Asking for a Ferrari may be only asking for something that's worth $300,000, while asking for a child might be worth 100 million or 10 Billion to someone else. A bottle of water to a dehydrated man in the desert might be worth his entire trillion dollar fortune. God isn't impressed or moved or limited by our value system.  As Paul said, "He who did not spare his own Son but gave/delivered him up for us all, how will he not also along with him graciously/FREELY GIVE US ALL THINGS?" [Rom. 8:32]. And that God, "...gives us richly all things to enjoy [NKJV]/...who richly provides us with everything to enjoy [ESV]." Once again, I recommend you read the three article by Cheung in the order I gave them.

Don't put limitations on God since:

11    For the LORD God is a sun and shield; the LORD bestows favor and honor. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly.
12    O LORD of hosts, blessed is the one who trusts in you!- Ps. 84:11-12

He fulfills the desire of those who fear him; he also hears their cry and saves them.- Ps. 145:19

8    Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!
9    Oh, fear the LORD, you his saints, for those who fear him have no lack!
10    The young lions suffer want and hunger; but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing.- Ps. 34:8-10

In the context of Jesus talking about the Father providing our earthly needs, He says:

"Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.- Luke 12:32

By extension therefore we ought to expect the blessings of the Kingdom. In context Jesus tells us not to "seek" earthly things. I take Him to mean as if it were ultimately up to us to provide for ourselves these things. As if God weren't our Father and ultimately the source of such blessings. Notice Jesus says:

28    But if God so clothes the grass, which is alive in the field today, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith!
29    And do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be worried.
30    For all the nations of the world seek after these things, and your Father knows that you need them.
31    Instead, seek his kingdom, and these things will be added to you.

It's only then that Jesus says in verse 32:
"Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom."

The Lord isn't promoting indolence. But faith that the Father will provide for His children. The Father will provide, but we often need to gather in that provision by faith and works.

Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?- Matt. 6:26

31    Therefore do not be anxious, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?'
32    For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.
33    But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
34    "Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself.- Matt. 6:31-34

Three verses before the Lord teaches us to pray for our daily bread, He says, "Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him" (Matt. 6:8).

You made a distinction between needs and desires. But the Scripture address desires too.

Delight yourself also in the LORD, And He shall give you the DESIRES of your heart.- Ps. 37:4

He will fulfill the DESIRE of those who fear Him; He also will hear their cry and save them.- Ps. 145:19

If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you DESIRE/WISH, and it shall be done for you.- John 15:7
LORD, You have heard the DESIRE of the humble; You will prepare their heart; You will cause Your ear to hear,- Ps. 10:17

May He grant you according to your heart's [DESIRE], And fulfill all your purpose.- Ps. 20:4

You have given him his heart's DESIRE, And have not withheld the request of his lips. Selah- Ps. 21:2

I can't believe that in every single instance these passages never refer to desires over and above one's basic needs. What did the Father tell the elder brother of the Prodigal Son?

"And he said to him, 'Son, you are always with me, and ALL THAT I HAVE IS YOURS.- Luke 15:31

I think the correct interpretation of Ps. 37:4 is that if we truly desire God has your highest love and joy, then our desires for other things will be so affected and sanctified that they'll naturally be within God's will. That coupled with the fact that those who do delight in God are also obedient and believing leads to God all the more willing to grant those additional desires.

If we don't experience all good things, then it's either because we didn't have faith for it, or because God in His wisdom thought it wasn't for our ultimate good to have them. Of course, if Calvinism is true, then the only reason we did or didn't have faith for it is because of God's sovereign decision and wisdom. But one of the foundational teachings of the Reformers who held to a high view of providence [e.g.Calvin, Luther et al.] is that we ought to act and pray regarding the future in acknowledgement of our ignorance of what God has decreed with respect to the future. We don't know what God has decreed, and therefore ought to strive to bring about what is good, preferable and better in keeping with God's revealed/prescriptive/preceptive will, rather than fatalistically resign ourselves to the worst possibilities.

I believe what the following theologians say about salvation & election/predestination and how we are to make efforts by prayer, believing, striving and working should apply equally to other aspects of life like healing, provision, protection &c. Many Calvinistic theologians have said similar things regarding salvation and election and our ignorance of God's decrees regarding the future. Here are just a sample of quotations that exist among high predestinarians regarding this point:

"The decree of God does not affect my endeavour; for he that decreed my salvation decreed it in the use of means, and if I neglect the means I reprobate myself. No man argues thus: God has decreed how long I shall live, therefore I will not use means to preserve my life, I will not eat and drink. God has decreed the time of my life in the use of means, so God has decreed my salvation in the use of the Word and of prayer. As a man who refuses food murders himself, so he that refuses to work out his salvation destroys himself. The vessels of mercy are said to be prepared unto glory. Rom 9: 23. How are they prepared but by being sanctified? and that cannot be but in the use of means; therefore let not God's decree take thee off from holy endeavours. It is a good saying of Dr Preston, 'Hast thou a heart to pray to God? it is a sign no decree of wrath has passed against thee.’ "
- Thomas Watson, A Body of Divinity

If the events of things be not in our power, as you [[[i.e. Erasmus]]] say, how can it be in man to perform the causing acts? The same answer which you gave me, the same receive yourself! Nay, we are commanded to work the more for this very reason, because all things future are to us uncertain: as saith Ecclesiastes, "In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening hold not thine hand: for thou knowest not: which shall prosper, either this or that" (Eccles. xi. 6). All things future, I say, are to us uncertain, in knowledge, but necessary in event. The necessity strikes into us a fear of God that we presume not, or become secure, while the uncertainty works in us a trusting, that we sink not in despair.
- Martin Luther, The Bondage of the Will [translated by Henry Atherton] [pages 257-258 in the J.I. Packer & O.R. Johnston translation]

Since the future events are hidden and unknown to us we should be as industrious in our work and as earnest in the performance of our duty as if nothing had been decreed concerning it. It has often been said that we should pray as though everything depended on God, and work as though everything depended on ourselves.
- Loraine Boettner, The Reformed Doctrine Of Predestination, chapter 18
Hence as to future time, because the issue of all things is hidden from us, each ought to so apply himself to his office, as though nothing were determined about any part.
- John Calvin (Concerning the Eternal Predestination of God, (1552) trans. J.K.S. Reid, (London, James Clarke & Co. 1961, 171)

Wherefore, with reference to the time future, since the events of things are, as yet, hidden and unknown, everyone ought to be as intent upon the performance of his duty as if nothing whatever had been decreed concerning the issue in each particular case. Or (to speak more properly) every man ought so to hope for success in all things which he undertakes at the command of God, as to be freely prepared to reconcile every contingency with the sure and certain Providence of God. The Lord, moreover, promises His blessing upon the work of our hands. By this promise each godly man will acknowledge himself to be appointed of God, an instrument of His glorious Providence. And such godly one, relying on this same promise, will gird himself with alacrity to his undertaking, and will be persuaded that he is not casting into the air labour in vain; but, resting on the Word of God, he will believe that God, by His secret counsel, will direct all his labour to the issue that shall be best. In a word, as the Providence of God, rightly considered, does not bind our hands, but free them for work, so it not only does not hinder prayer, but strengthens and confirms its earnestness.
- John Calvin, A Defence of the Secret Providence of God, Introduction

Luther was the first of the Protestant Reformers. Watson and Boettner were both Calvinists, and Calvin is the person Calvinism is named after.

//George Müller seemed to have circumscribed God's promises as being applicable to "...necessaries" only. So speaking in terms of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, God will definitely provide for you food, clothing or shelter (= bottom of Maslow's pyramid), however there is no guarantee that He will provide for you friendship (= midway up the pyramid). A person who might be in prison for life, and who comes to faith while there by way of reading a Bible, might fail to have friends for the rest of his life. The latter is not strictly speaking necessary for you to continue to live. //

I wouldn't say it's an absolute promise. Since, in God's providence some genuine believers die of starvation, want/lack, sickness and due to accidents. Sometimes alone and lonely. Think of believers who died in the American Civil War, or the Holocaust, or the Inquisition, or the Great Plague in Europe from 1347 to 1351. Nevertheless, the general [and sometimes specific] promises is/are given for us to believe, and as we believe, God may grant us the fulfillment of His promises. Which include things like financial provision, healing, health, protection, families, friends (etc.). So, our focus ought to be in believing the promises of God, not on God's hidden decrees which we don't know until they are fulfilled and are part of our past. Focus on the Revealed God [Deus Revelatus], rather than the Hidden God and His Hidden purposes [Deus Absconditus]. There is no real contradiction between a "Theology of Glory" and a "Theology of the Cross". There's no real danger of an "Over-Realized Eschatology" as some theologians have claimed. In fact, Jesus asked: "...Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?" (Luke 18:8). The danger for Christians is not having too much faith, but not having enough faith or having [ill-informed] presumptuous faith.

God's promises of prosperity are given in order for us to have enough to fulfill God's plan for our lives. Our Assignment/Calling and smaller tasks. For one person that might just be a daily single bowl of rice because he's being persecuted in prison for the Gospel's sake. For another person it might be making BILLIONS of dollars because God wants him to fund Christian evangelism, missions, Bible translations/distributions, apologetics &c. Regarding having a friend in prison, Samuel Rutherford is a famous Calvinistic example. He found in prison the ultimate friend who sticks closer than a brother [Prov. 18:24], and who was born for adversity [Prov. 17:17]. Jesus the Son of God. Probably also the Father and the Holy Spirit too. Every Christian has at least three friends in the Triune God.

We can glory God in our sickness, by patiently enduring them. But that's not God's preferred and advocated method. God's method is for us to believe for our healing. If we fail to receive that healing, we will have at least glorified God in attempting/trying to appropriate the fulfillment of God's promises of healing. In God's providence He doesn't always bring it about that people are convinced  that such promises exist or apply to them. That's why some Calvinists are, in some sense, glorifying God by patiently putting up with sickness. But technically, and in another sense, that's not what's best. God will judge and reward us based on our convictions. Convictions that He ultimately worked in our lives to cause us to believe. Yet, we're also, in another sense, responsible for our theology and convictions. Including the erroneous aspects.

//P.S. For my devo tonight, I read 1 Samuel. It is interesting to note that Hannah, with respect to her barrenness basically had two options:
(1) Quit praying because surely a child was not the Lord's will,
or
(2) Keep praying anyway. //

For most Christians the fact that a prayer request isn't answered immediately is almost a sure sign that God doesn't want to grant it. It maybe a sign, but it's never a sure/guaranteed sign. There's still a possibility so long as it's not logically/temporally/metaphysically/conceptually/causally impossible, or if it doesn't violate the other qualifications and exceptions I gave above. Namaan needed to dip in the Jordan 7 times. Elijah to pray 7 times. Seven of course, is the number of perfection or fulness or extremity. We need to believingly persevere in prayer. See again the articles by Cheung that I posted. Read them in the order I suggested.

It is not enough to begin to pray, nor to pray aright; nor is it enough to continue for a time to pray; but we must patiently, believingly continue in prayer, until we obtain an answer; and further, we have not only to continue in prayer unto the end, but we have also to believe that God does hear us and will answer our prayers. Most frequently we fail in not continuing in prayer until the blessing is obtained, and in not expecting the blessing.- George Muller

I also recommend John MacArthur's sermon Pray Boldly which I linked to HERE. What's ironic is that even though John MacArthur is vehemently against the Charismatic movement, that sermon of his has been criticized by some because he almost appears to be teaching a Charismatic understanding of presumptuous boldness in prayer. Speaking of sermons on prayer, see also Charles H. Spurgeon's sermon True Prayer–True Power!

If you respect A.W. Tozer as a spiritual writer, you might also benefit from this short article of his titled Our Unclaimed Riches.