03.03. The Way God Answers Prayer

The Way God Answers Prayer God answers joyously.

There is a ring of exultation in the words He speaks to Ananias, like the joyous ring of our Lord’s parable of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son. Rejoice with me! "Behold, he prayeth!" (Acts 9:11) There is joy in the heart of God the Father when His lost children begin to pray. He answers like the God He is. Ananias may parley with God, but God never parleys with man. The answering hand of God waits for the lifted hand of man, and the heart that answers always transcends the heart that cries. The answer to Saul of Tarsus was twofold: He gave a vision and sent a messenger -- a vision, and a man, each corresponding to the other. That is God’s way: first an assurance, and then the confirmation. That is the prayer of faith that never fails. God’s servants are partners with Him in the ministry of prayer. That is the mystery of spiritual co-operation. The Lord goes before the man He sends. Saul was prepared and waiting for the man he had already seen in a vision of God. Ananias found Saul prepared and waiting.

God gave to Ananias the sign of prayer as the proof of grace. It was His own sign, and it is the sign He still gives. Is there any proof that a man is a man of God like the fact that he is a man of prayer? Of Elijah it is said that he "prayed in his prayer" (James 5:17, A.V., margin). Of some men it is said that they live in at atmosphere of devotion; but it is one thing to live in an atmosphere of prayer and another to "pray in our praying."

Finney went to a weekly prayer meeting, where they prayed much and got no answers. Muller prayed and answers came, and that is why all men believed him to be a man of God. When I was a very small boy, not more than six or seven years of age, I was sent on an errand to the house of a neighbor named Davenport; it was about nine o’clock in the morning. I knocked, lifted the latch, and stepped inside. On the hearth, kneeling at a chair on which was an open Bible, was Mrs. Davenport, praying. She was unaware of my presence. I stood in silent awe for a moment, and then quietly stepped out and closed the door. It is more than sixty years since that morning, but from then till now I have known that Mrs. Davenport was a saint of God, because she prayed. It is God’s infallible sign, and it is the only sign that even the world accepts as an infallible proof.

Prayer made all the difference to Saul of Tarsus, and it always makes all the difference. It brought a new assurance of God, a new confirmation of faith, a new fellowship of the people of God, a new experience of healing, a new vocation, a new inheritance, a new power. Prayer changes things; Prayer makes all things possible, for it links the praying soul to the omnipotence of God. Do we pray? Do we pray in our praying? Does God put His seal on our prayers?

Lord, teach us to pray!

Prayer is the contrite sinner’s voice Returning from his ways, While angels in their songs rejoice, And cry, "Behold he prays."

Prayer is the Christian’s vital breath, The Christian’s native air, His watchword at the gates of death;