Obedience the Path to Power in Prayer - Murray

Bear fruit, that the Father may give what ye ask;'

Or, Obedience the Path to Power in Prayer.

Ye did not choose me, but I chose you, and appointed you, that ye
should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should abide: that
whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, He may give it
you.'--John xv. 16.

The fervent effectual prayer of a righteous man availeth much.'--James.
v. 16.

THE promise of the Father's giving whatsoever we ask is here once again
renewed, in such a connection as to show us to whom it is that such
wonderful influence in the council chamber of the Most High is to be
granted. I chose you,' the Master says, and appointed you that ye
should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should abide;' and then
He adds, to the end that whatsoever ye,' the fruit-bearing ones, shall
ask of the Father in my name, He may give it you.' This is nothing but
the fuller expression of what He had spoken in the words, If ye abide
in me.' He had spoken of the object of this abiding as the bearing
fruit,' more fruit,' much fruit;' in this was God to be glorified, and
the mark of discipleship seen. No wonder that He now adds, that where
the reality of the abiding is seen in fruit abounding and abiding, this
would be the qualification for praying so as to obtain what we ask.
Entire consecration to the fulfilment of our calling is the condition
of effectual prayer, is the key to the unlimited blessings of Christ's
wonderful prayer-promises.

There are Christians who fear that such a statement is at variance with
the doctrine of free grace. But surely not of free grace rightly
understood, nor with so many express statements of God's blessed word.
Take the words of St. John (1 John iii. 22): Let us love in deed and
truth; hereby shall we assure our heart before Him. And whatsoever we
ask, we receive of Him, because we keep His commandments, and do the
things that are pleasing in His sight.'' Or take the oft-quoted words
of James: The fervent effectual prayer of a righteous man availeth
much;' that is, of a man of whom, according to the definition of the
Holy Spirit, it can be said, He that doeth righteousness, is righteous
even as He is righteous.' Mark the spirit of so many of the Psalms,
with their confident appeal to the integrity and righteousness of the
supplicant. In Ps. xviii, David says: The Lord rewarded me according
to my righteousness; according to the cleanness of my hands hath He
recompensed me. . . . I was upright before Him, and I kept myself from
mine iniquity: therefore hath the Lord recompensed me according to my
righteousness.' (Ps. xviii. 20-26. See also Ps. vii. 3-5, xv. 1, 2,
xviii. 3, 6, xxvi. 1-6, cxix. 121, 153.) If we carefully consider such
utterances in the light of the New Testament, we shall find them in
perfect harmony with the explicit teaching of the Saviour's parting
words: If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love;' Ye are
my friends if ye do what I command you.' The word is indeed meant
literally: I appointed you that ye should go and bear fruit, that,'
then, whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, He may give it
you.'

cont...

Let us seek to enter into the spirit of what the Saviour here teaches
us. There is a danger in our evangelical religion of looking too much
at what it offers from one side, as a certain experience to be obtained
in prayer and faith. There is another side which God's word puts very
strongly, that of obedience as the only path to blessing. What we need
is to realize that in our relationship to the Infinite Being whom we
call God who has created and redeemed us, the first sentiment that
ought to animate us is that of subjection: the surrender to His
supremacy, His glory, His will, His pleasure, ought to be the first and
uppermost thought of our life. The question is not, how we are to
obtain and enjoy His favour, for in this the main thing may still be
self. But what this Being in the very nature of things rightfully
claims, and is infinitely and unspeakably worthy of, is that His glory
and pleasure should be my one object. Surrender to His perfect and
blessed will, a life of service and obedience, is the beauty and the
charm of heaven. Service and obedience, these were the thoughts that
were uppermost in the mind of the Son, when He dwelt upon earth.
Service and obedience, these must become with us the chief objects of
desire and aim, more so than rest or light, or joy or strength: in
them we shall find the path to all the higher blessedness that awaits
us.

Just note what a prominent place the Master gives it, not only in the
15^th chapter, in connection with the abiding, but in the 14^th, where
He speaks of the indwelling of the Three-One God. In verse 15 we have
it: If ye love me, keep my commandments, and the Spirit will be given
you of the Father. Then verse 21: He that hath my commandments and
keepeth them, he it is that loveth me;' and he shall have the special
love of my Father resting on him and the special manifestation of
myself. And then again, verse 23, one of the highest of all the
exceeding great and precious promises: If a man love me he will keep
my words, and the Father and I will come and take up our abode with
him.' Could words put it more clearly that obedience is the way to the
indwelling of the Spirit, to His revealing the Son within us, and to
His again preparing us to be the abode, the home of the Father? The
indwelling of the Three-One God is the heritage of them that obey.
Obedience and faith are but two aspects of one act,--surrender to God
and His will. As faith strengthens for obedience, it is in turn
strengthened by it: faith is made perfect by works. It is to be
feared that often our efforts to believe have been unavailing because
we have not taken up the only position in which a large faith is
legitimate or possible,--that of entire surrender to the honour and the
will of God. It is the man who is entirely consecrated to God and His
will who will find the power come to claim everything that His God has
promised to be for him.

The application of this in the school of prayer is very simple, but
very solemn. I chose you,' the Master says, and appointed you that ye
should go and bear fruit,' much fruit (verses 5, 8), and that your
fruit should abide,' that your life might be one of abiding fruit and
abiding fruitfulness, that' thus, as fruitful branches abiding in me,
whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, He may give it you.'
O how often we have sought to be able to pray the effectual prayer for
much grace to bear fruit, and have wondered that the answer came not.
It was because we were reversing the Master's order. We wanted to have
the comfort and the joy and the strength first, that we might do the
work easily and without any feeling of difficulty or self-sacrifice.
And He wanted us in faith, without asking whether we felt weak or
strong, whether the work was hard or easy, in the obedience of faith to
do what He said: the path of fruit-bearing would have led us to the
place and the power of prevailing prayer. Obedience is the only path
that leads to the glory of God. Not obedience instead of faith, nor
obedience to supply the shortcomings of faith; no, but faith's
obedience gives access to all the blessings our God has for us. The
baptism of the Spirit (xiv. 16), the manifestation of the Son (xiv.
21), the indwelling of the Father (xiv. 23), the abiding in Christ's
love (xv. 10), the privilege of His holy friendship (xv. 14), and the
power of all-prevailing prayer (xv. 16),--all wait for the obedient.

cont...

Let us take home the lessons. Now we know the great reason why we have
not had power in faith to pray prevailingly. Our life was not as it
should have been: simple downright obedience, abiding fruitfulness,
was not its chief mark. And with our whole heart we approve of the
Divine appointment: men to whom God is to give such influence in the
rule of the world, as at their request to do what otherwise would not
have taken place, men whose will is to guide the path in which God's
will is to work, must be men who have themselves learned obedience,
whose loyalty and submission to authority must be above all suspicion.
Our whole soul approves the law: obedience and fruit-bearing, the path
to prevailing prayer. And with shame we acknowledge how little our
lives have yet borne this stamp.

Let us yield ourselves to take up the appointment the Saviour gives
us. Let us study His relation to us as Master. Let us seek no more
with each new day to think in the first place of comfort, or joy, or
blessing. Let the first thought be: I belong to the Master. Every
moment and every movement I must act as His property, as a part of
Himself, as one who only seeks to know and do His will. A servant, a
slave of Jesus Christ,--let this be the spirit that animates me. If He
says, No longer do I call you servants, but I have called you friends,'
let us accept the place of friends: Ye are my friends if ye do the
things which I command you.'

The one thing He commands us as His branches is to bear fruit. Let us
live to bless others, to testify of the life and the love there is in
Jesus. Let us in faith and obedience give our whole life to that which
Jesus chose us for and appointed us to--fruit-bearing. As we think of
His electing us to this, and take up our appointment as coming from Him
who always gives all He demands, we shall grow strong in the confidence
that a life of fruit-bearing, abounding and abiding, is within our
reach. And we shall understand why this fruit-bearing alone can be the
path to the place of all prevailing prayer. It is the man who, in
obedience to the Christ of God, is proving that he is doing what his
Lord wills, for whom the Father will do whatsoever he will: Whatsoever
we ask we receive, because we keep His commandments, and do the things
that are pleasing in His sight.'

LORD, TEACH US TO PRAY.'

----0----

Blessed Master! teach me to apprehend fully what I only partly
realize, that it is only through the will of God, accepted and acted
out in obedience to His commands, that we obtain the power to grasp His
will in His promises and fully to appropriate them in our prayers. And
teach me that it is in the path of fruit-bearing that the deeper growth
of the branch into the Vine can be perfected, and we attain to the
perfect oneness with Thyself in which we ask whatsoever we will.

O Lord! Reveal to us, we pray Thee, how with all the hosts of heaven,
and with Thyself the Son on earth, and with all the men of faith who
have glorified Thee on earth, obedience to God is our highest
privilege, because it gives access to oneness with Himself in that
which is His highest glory--His all perfect will. And reveal to us, we
pray Thee, how in keeping Thy commandments and bearing fruit according
to Thy will, our spiritual nature will grow up to the full stature of
the perfect man, with power to ask and to receive whatsoever we will.

O Lord Jesus! Reveal Thyself to us, and the reality of Thy purpose and
Thy power to make these Thy wonderful promises the daily experience of
all who utterly yield themselves to Thee and Thy words. Amen.

-from [i]With Christ in the School of Prayer[/i] by Andrew Murray