Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas
Jeremy approaches Bible teaching with a passion for getting the basic doctrines explained so that the individual can understand them and then apply them to circumstances in their life. These basic and important lessons are nestled in a framework of history and progression of revelation from the Bible so the whole of Scripture can be applied to your physical and spiritual life.
Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas
NT Framework - Prayers Immutable Base
Do you want or even need your prayers to be answered? Is there a prayer that is guaranteed to be answered? Yes there is. The key is in praying in accordance with God's word and aligning ourselves in grace in His will.
More information about Beyond the Walls, including additional resources can be found at www.beyondthewalls-ministry.com
This series included graphics to illustrate what is being taught, if you would like to watch the teachings you can do so on Rumble (https://rumble.com/user/SpokaneBibleChurch) or on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtV_KhFVZ_waBcnuywiRKIyEcDkiujRqP).
Jeremy Thomas is the pastor at Spokane Bible Church in Spokane, Washington and a professor at Chafer Theological Seminary. He has been teaching the Bible for over 20 years, always seeking to present its truths in a clear and understandable manner.
Welcome to Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas and our series on the New Testament Framework. Today a smaller, bite-sized piece from the larger lesson. We hope you enjoy it.
Speaker 2:The doctrine of prayer. The first point in the doctrine of prayer, which we saw illustrated in Daniel 9 with Daniel's prayer, was prayer should avoid fatalism. What do I mean by that fatalism? What do I mean by that? A fatalistic view of the sovereignty of God? Some Christians have a very strong view of the sovereignty of God in the sense that they would say that all the details of life, every detail, is determined by God. So, for example, what color socks you put on this morning, what tie you bought last week if you still buy ties what purse you wore today, what color earrings and shape earrings you bought or put on today were determined by God that you would buy those and put those on today. So, the very strong view of the every detail of life determined by God. Sovereignty idea. In that view of sovereignty, what room is there for prayer? Let's say you want something to happen in history. That's why you're praying. Right, we just pray for Jane Orlop. Why? Because we want her to get well. We want her shoulder not to be broken.
Speaker 2:Now, if it's already determined what it is whatever will be will be then why are you praying about it? Prayer loses its impetus or motivation when you have a view of the sovereignty of God, that whatever will be will be and that's just the way it is. Why would you pray for someone's salvation if they're either going to be saved or they're not, and God's already determined it? Why waste your time praying? And of course, you'd have to back off from the whole thing and say, well, the prayers themselves would be determined by God. You know, it's this interesting way of trying to think about things, but fatalistic views of God's sovereignty crush prayer. Prayer is not really valid, because whatever's going to happen is going to happen anyway, whether you pray or not, right? So that idea should be avoided.
Speaker 2:Now, one way I've viewed sovereignty and tried to convey it to people, because God is sovereign. We don't question that. It's just a matter of what is your model? What does it look like If you have a ship that is setting sail from one port and it has a destination at another port? Now the origin and the destination are set at the beginning and the end, and then, as the ship sets sail, it's going across various waters and you are on the ship. You are human. Now you have freedom. It's freedom within the form of the ship. You can go down and eat dinner, you can go swim, you can look over the bow. You have all sorts of things that you can do on the ship. You can go down and eat dinner, you can go swim, you can look over the bow. You have all sorts of things that you can do on the ship. But there are also limitations. You can't do things that are not on the ship. You can't go visit someplace else. You're stuck on the ship and you're going to a certain conclusion, but during that journey you have some freedom.
Speaker 2:Right, and this is one model or possible way of looking at the plan of God. I'm sure it is inept, it is not perfect, but it is a way of at least conveying how the beginning and the end are set by God, as well as the route to get there. But yet within it, humans have freedom. Within this limited sphere. That opens up the possibility for room for prayer and asking God for this or for that. But guess what, if you pray for the second coming not to happen? That will not be answered. Why will that not be answered? Because that is part of the sovereign plan of god that is set.
Speaker 2:Okay, and that is what daniel was looking at. Daniel was saying now you got 70 years over here in jeremiah, but you told me there's going to be these four successive kingdoms. Now the angel described how both could work in the plan of God. He said well, jeremiah is about a partial restoration after 70 years, but the total restoration is after the 490 years. So Daniel wasn't going to change any of that by praying, right. But he also knew, hey, there's human responsibility and we need to as a nation confess our sin and what we have done. And so that is a part of his prayer. And that illustration of the ship hopefully gives a little bit of help as to a model for God's sovereignty. But that's the first point. Prayer should avoid fatalism. It kills prayer. We do not have a fatalistic view of the sovereignty of God.
Speaker 2:The second idea that we see in the doctrine of prayer is that prayer should be based on God's immutable word Again God. Like the second coming illustration, you could pray against that, but God is not going to answer prayers that are contrary to his word. So prayers should not be contrary to the plan of God and purpose of God, but they should be rather filled with his word. If we pray scripture, we can be certain that God will answer those prayers in his timing and in his way. We have to amend it with that. If we pray Scripture, we can be sure that God will answer those prayers. But he will do it in his time and he will do it in his way. Right, but we can be sure if we pray Scripture. Those are prayers that are going to be answered.
Speaker 2:Daniel based his prayer on the word of God in Jeremiah and the word of God that was given to him in Daniel 2. His whole prayer was based on the books of Jeremiah and what he had going on relative to his own books and writing. So that's a firm basis. We study the scriptures and we try to understand them. We don't understand, we pray. We ask the Lord show me how to understand them. We don't understand, we pray. We ask the Lord show me how this works. Explain this to me, help me understand, and the Lord will answer in His time and in His way. So prayer should be based on God's immutable Word.
Speaker 1:Thank you for joining us on Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas. If you would like to see the visuals that went along with today's sermon, you can find those on Rumble and on YouTube under Spokane Bible Church. That is where Jeremy is the pastor and teacher. We hope you found today's lesson productive and useful in growing closer to God and walking more obediently with Him. If you found this podcast to be useful and helpful, then please consider rating us in your favorite podcast app, and until next time, we hope you have a blessed and wonderful day.