Prayer and the Direction of God’s Promises

Praying on the basis of God’s promises requires discernment. While it is vital to trust that every Word of God carries His blessing, prayer must not be reduced to a mechanical claiming of promises that predetermines the Spirit’s work. Prayer must leave room for the Spirit to breathe. Even when the content of prayer seems sound, if its order presumes the Spirit’s final outcome in advance, the essence of prayer is distorted. Faith in God’s promises must first look to the promise already fulfilled—the salvation given through Jesus Christ. The greatest promise, eternal life through Christ’s death and resurrection, must be the primary direction of our prayers. To “claim” promises should be examined carefully: does it truly express hope for completion in partnership with the Spirit? Overemphasis on claiming promises risks our faith interfering with the Spirit’s outward movement, restricting His transcendent freedom—and in turn, restricting ourselves. Such prayer, insofar as it includes “faith and obedience lived under God’s promises,” is not wrong, but it diverges somewhat from the direction of our present discussion. Ultimately, the discipline of prayer is about developing a methodology that embraces both the inward movement of drawing near to God and the outward movement of participating in His work.