Effectual Prayer. ## What Are Its Conditions?
A CORRESPONDENT in Wisconsin writes us as follows: "In our last issue [May 15], I read of 'A Strong Warrior Fallen. . . . Seven expert physicians were called in council over his case. . . . Many prayers were offered in his behalf.' Then I turned to Matt. 18:19: 'If two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of My Father which is in heaven.' Matt. 21:22: 'And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.' John 14:13, 14: 'And whatsoever ye shall ask in My name, that I will do. . . . If ye shall ask anything in My name, I will do it.' John 15:16: 'Whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in My name, He MAY give it you.' It will be noted that all of the promises are positive except that one in John 15:16—'He MAY give it you.' "In the case of the 'Fallen Warrior,' was failure due to lack of 'belief'? What is 'belief'? Is it believing that God CAN do, or that He WILL do, something?" These are fair questions and open up the whole subject of effectual prayer and its conditions. There is no question as to God's part; "no good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly;" and His wisdom and His power are sufficient. The great question is, Do we meet the conditions? Some of these conditions our correspondent has presented in the scriptures he has quoted—ask, believe, agreement in asking in His name. These in the last analysis may include all, but they are not all that are given in the Scriptures. Let us note them, and briefly consider: 1. Faith. "And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive." Matt. 21:22. Surely, the promise is positive. Faith is living, operative belief. It is always founded on God's word. God has said it; shall it not be performed? He has promised; will He not "make good"? "No word of God shall be void of power." Then ask, believing. But it is said, This has been done many times; God has been asked; the lips which asked have praised Him for hearing, but time has passed on, and the thing asked for has not materialized. What and where is the difficulty? It is not with God. Therefore we need—our faith needs—the guidance of His word that we may better understand what faith means. 2. "In His Name." "Whatsoever ye shall ask in My name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye ask anything in My name, that will I do." The name of the Son of God stands for His character; the character includes the mind, the disposition, the motive. What was the character, disposition, mind, of Christ Jesus? "Have this mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus; who, existing in the form of God, counted not the being on an equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant." Phil. 2:5-7. The name of Jesus stands for the utter abjuration of self, the giving up of self, self-renunciation, the denial of self. Having the same mind is to renounce self. "If any man will come after Me," says Jesus, "let him deny himself." To ask in His name, therefore, is to ask wholly unselfishly. He who does not do this does not ask in the name of Jesus, and has no divine assurance that his prayer will be answered. 3. Abiding in Christ. "If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatsoever ye will, and it shall be done unto you." John 15:7. This means life-union with Christ. It means feeding upon the life of His word. It means that His law is the highest law we know. It means that we will ask for nothing which is not in harmony with His word. 4. According to His Will. "And this is the boldness which we have toward Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us." 1 John 5:14. God "worketh all things after the counsel of His will." Eph. 1:11. It therefore follows that if we would have God work for us, we must be in harmony with His will. Our hearts must be open to the channel in which His blessings flow. In some things we know His will; for He has revealed it in His word. In such case we may ask in all confidence. He has said, for instance, "For this is the will of God, even your sanctification," your separation from sin, and your setting apart to His service. With all your heart you may pray, and know that it is His will. And when you pray, believe, for the blessing is yours. In some things we do not know His will. A parent, a child, a brother, a sister, a friend, a strong soldier of God, may be sick unto death. It may seem to us that the loved one, the useful one, ought to live. And we plead for his life, his healing. Others think as we, and together we plead that God will spare. But the loved one dies. God saw the future which is veiled to us. He knew the temptations, the trials, the conflicts, the pitfalls which awaited the sleeping one, and has suffered him to fall. In God's infinite wisdom it is better. There is no one in greater danger than a strong successful soldier of God. He is a shining mark for the devil; and among his most potent weapons are the arrows of flattery, the deadly draughts of idolatry. God knows it, and in mercy to man and people, He permits His servant to sleep. Paul was a mighty man of God, but possessed of an infirmity, for the removal of which he earnestly sought God three times; the Lord told Him that its removal was not His will, and Paul was left to seek greater grace. Paul's gift of healing was such that the sick were healed by handkerchiefs which he had touched; yet on another occasion he writes, "Trophimus have I left at Miletum sick." Why?—It was evidently not God's will to then heal him. Sometimes the most blessed thing for the time being is to die. See Isa. 57:1; Rev. 14:13. 5. Obedience. "And whatsoever we ask, we receive of Him, because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight." 1 John 3:22. This is implied in great part in the previous condition, harmony with God's will. To His will the lowest sinner may yield, and find forgiveness and acceptance. Obedience means the continuous yielding to His will, the doing of the things which God chooses, the constant yielding of our wills to His, that His will may be wrought in us. "Our wills are ours; we know not how; Our wills are ours to make them Thine." Obedience is the final crucial test of Christian faith and love. Let us not be deceived. We have no "faith," we do not "ask" "in His name," we do not "abide" in Him, we are not in harmony with His will, if we are not honestly, devotedly, willingly obedient to His word, His commandments. "Faith, if it have not works, is dead in itself." "If ye love Me, ye will keep My commandments." "Ye are My friends, if ye do the things which I command you." "This is the love of God, that we keep His commandments." With all God's conditions every soul can comply. If he fail, the fault is his own. But the wise Christian's prayer will never fail; for he will ever plead as did the Master, according to the will of God. Jesus prayed: "Abba, Father, all things are possible unto Thee; take away this cup from Me: nevertheless not what I will, but what Thou wilt." Mark 14:36. The desire, the prayer, of the human Jesus was for the removal of the cup, but above this was the doing of God's will; and that prayer was answered in the crucifixion and the glory which followed. Presumably the true prayers for the "strong warrior" were thus offered, and God let him fall asleep and rest till the morning dawns. Let us pray; but let us pray in faith, in self-renunciation, in accordance with His blessed will.