Lord, Teach Us To Pray! Part 190

Prayers of the Old Testament
The Prayer of David continued...

‘David inquired of the Lord’ this was the pattern of his life, and after inquiring of the Lord, and receiving the answer to his query, David acted on the information he’d received without delay.

Although a flawed man, David never once assumed he knew better than God, or thought himself above the correction of God.

When our desire is to walk in the will of God, we inquire of Him. When our desire is to do as God would have us do, we receive His counsel and act upon his directives.

One of the worst things we can do is take God’s counsel under advisement. I’ve heard this term from the lips of men who I assumed knew better than to tempt the Lord their God by inquiring of Him, then discounting and ignoring His words in lieu of their own notions, opinions, or plans.

If your heart is set upon something, and you have no desire to do as God commands but as you see fit, don’t tempt the Lord by inquiring of Him.

Inquire of the Lord only when you are ready to obey, to upturn your entire life, and walk away from everything you have meticulously built thus far. If you are not ready to obey completely, then there’s no point in inquiring of the Lord.

‘Lord, lead me and I will follow, but don’t ask me to quit my job, leave my city, have contact with homeless people, or give more than ten percent after taxes.’

What’s the point? Why even pray the prayer?

If we start out by telling God what we’re not willing to do for Him, then our first priority ought to be getting our hearts right, then asking Him to assign us a task or duty.

I do what I do because God commanded it of me. If He tells me to keep going, I keep going. If He tells me to stop, I stop. And if He tells me to walk away from it all, I won’t even take the time to pack a bag.

True obedience obeys even when what is asked of us is in our detriment, when it hurts the flesh, when it wounds our pride, and when, in the eyes of the world it sets us back rather than moves us forward.

Before bending our knee or uttering the first words of a prayer, we must be prepared to receive an answer our flesh will not like or bristle against. Not every answer we receive from the Lord will be positive, or joyous. Sometimes God asks us to do the hard thing, the difficult thing, the thing we most don’t want to do, and as obedient children we must lay aside our preferences, and do as commanded.

If every believer made at a habit to inquire of the Lord with consistency, there would be many a giant of the faith walking about today, full of the presence, power and authority of God. When we inquire of the Lord we are submitting to His authority over us, and humbling ourselves to the point of following His guidance for our lives.

Instead of inquiring of the Lord, nowadays most believers think themselves little gods, and being little gods – at least in their own minds – they are able to justify the path they choose to follow, no matter how far removed from the truth of Scripture it might be.

There are times when God will not answer though we inquire of Him. Like David, Saul was disciplined in regards to inquiring of the Lord. Even after he rebelled, disobeyed, and did what God had commanded him not to do, Saul continued to inquire of the Lord, but the Lord did not answer His queries.

Saul spoke, but God was silent. Saul inquired, but God did not answer, because a wall had been erected between God and Saul; a wall of disobedience and rebellion which God could not overlook.

When Saul saw God would not answer, he even went to the prophet of the Lord, asking him to inquire of God on his behalf, but it was too late by far. God had already rejected Saul from being king, and had chosen another to take his place.

Due to their lack of relationship with Him, God will not allow Himself to be inquired of by certain people, even if they attempt to use surrogates to do so.

Ezekiel 20:1-3, “It came to pass in the seventh year, in the fifth month, on the tenth day of the month, that certain of the elders of Israel came to inquire of the Lord, and sat before me. Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying, ‘Son of man, speak to the elders of Israel, and say to them, ‘thus says the Lord God: ‘Have you come to inquire of Me? As I live,’ says the Lord God, ‘I will not be inquired of by you.’”

The elders of Israel had come to Ezekiel inquiring of the Lord, but the Lord’s only answer was that He would not be inquired of by them. Even though they attempted to use Ezekiel as a conduit, as an intermediary between themselves and God, God saw through it and rebuked them for having the gall to come inquire of Him without first removing the abominations and idols from before their eyes.

If we inquire of the Lord and He does not answer, it is paramount we search our hearts, repent of what our conscience convicts us of, and then inquire of the Lord again.

God has good reason for not answering our query and it is never that He was busy, on vacation, doing something else, or overwhelmed by all the prayers.

Diligent study of the scriptures reveals it is man not being in harmony with God and His will that keeps Him from answering when we inquire of Him. God’s hand is not short, His hearing is not impaired, and He is not shortsighted. If fault lies with anyone, it is with us, and once we patch the rift, and return to walking in His will, He will answer our petitions.

With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea Jr.