THE PROTOCOLS OF PRAYER
If one is
looking for an actual “prayer” by a man or woman of God in the Book of James,
it will be a fruitless search. The reason is that God has given something
even more beneficial to us, direct from Him, through the writings of the Lord’s
half-brother – Old Camel Knees! There are literally dozens and dozens of
prayers in all the books of the Bible, apart from all the Psalms, which is the
actual Prayer Book of the Bible! The average Christian can use the Book of
Psalms, as written, to pray the Scriptures and enrich an already maturing
Christian life.
But what James teaches mines the depths and sheer width of the Kingdom of God,
through Prayer, which basically can hardly be found anywhere else. To
that end, I selected three verses to show this magnificent oration and
illumination which embosses the already shining prayer warrior we are becoming,
through “The Prayers of the Bible”. James 1:21 right off the bat, after he
tells us to ask for wisdom from God when we need discernment, correction and
direction, points us to the protocols of Prayer.
Protocol
#1:
Practice
Humility and Repentance.
"Therefore, lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive
with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls” (James
1:21).
This is
almost verbatim, similar to 2 Chronicles 7:14 where God says of wayward Israel
(and therefore ALL His people) “if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land".
So the first
protocol of prayer is humility....meekness (as James says). All he is teaching
here, on behalf of the Savior, is that we MUST be like the humble suffering and
meek Savior – Jesus Christ. Meekness is not weakness as we, who are called by
His Name, instinctively know. God resists the proud but gives Grace to
the Humble. This is not just words, but Truth. Almighty God will not allow
ANYONE, not even Billy Graham or your lovely praying grandmother, to approach
His Throne with an angry, arrogant and prideful attitude. Just like meeting the
highest official of any country on earth, one must observe the same type of
protocols when approaching the Supreme Judge and Jury of the Universe –
Almighty God. Repentance, the mechanism for forgiveness, cannot even come into
play until a humble spirit exists in the Christian.
Protocol
#2:
Prescribed:
Faith and Friendship
“And the
Scripture was fulfilled which says “Abraham believed God and it was accounted
for him as righteousness” And he (Abraham) was called a friend of God”
(James 2:23)
This is a
great illustration from James. Abraham, the father of Judeo-Christian faith, is
called the friend of God more than one in Scripture. The great Webster’s
Dictionary defines a friend as “a person who you like and enjoy being with”.
What a perfect call on Abraham’s relationship with God! But think just who
Abraham was BEFORE God called him out of his pagan homeland on the other side
of the river in modern day Iraq! Abraham’s ancestral home, Ur of the Chaldeans,
is on the southwestern bank of the great Euphrates River and was home to the
moon god Nanna….the forerunner of another moon god religion today.
Abraham is
known as the first Hebrew which means “crossing over”. This crossing over has
nothing to do with crossing rivers or dangerous terrain, but a purposeful
leaving of the old godless system behind and stepping out in the unknown
adventure, BY FAITH, trusting fully in the One Who called you to do this in the
first place. The lesson for us who are grafted into the Tree of the Hebrews, as
those who have “crossed over” or “born again into the Kingdom of His Marvelous
Light” is this – He Who calls you to step out in Faith wants to be your Friend,
and mine, if we fully trust Him in constant conversation (or Prayer), just like
Abraham did!
Protocol
#3:
Practice
Self-control (in prayer)
“Out of the
same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to
be so” (James 3:10).
There are
several protocols in a believer’s prayer life, which can be more accurately
described as sub-sets of the two which we just looked at above. There is almost none more important than self-control in what we think or verbalize in our
conversations with Abba Father. What comes into our heads and hearts while we
are praying to the Lord that is either distracting or completely ungodly is not
from God or us. Those are the machinations of the evil one, bent on throwing us
off course. What experience in spiritual warfare will teach us is how to combat
those distractions. We either ignore them and move on or rebuke the evil one,
taking those thoughts captive and presenting them to the Lord to dispose of
them.
What we must
guard against is actively praying against a person who is against us or even
against God. We certainly never pray a curse upon anyone. This is absolutely
not our job. Discipline, judgment and removing His protection over another
person is all God’s business. There is nothing wrong with praying a troublesome
person into God’s Hands to change their hearts and actions or barring that, for
His protection from them. I have done that with one of my own supervisors from
a couple decades ago who hated the way I looked, hated my family and all I did
in ministry. For almost a decade that person was Jekyll and Hyde from day to day,
spitting fire like a dragon at me one day, and acting normal the next. That
sort of conduct only strengthened my prayer life as it was not a good thing to
face such a person each and every day. What started happening was an increasing
frequency of this particular supervisor coming around to my desk to ask for
pray for this or that member of her family! Of course, that was
perfectly in order and done, as requested. Eventually, after she moved on and
began another life, a pastor friend of mine reported he led her to the Lord and
she was a member of his church.
This is what James is speaking about – out of the mouth proceeds blessing if we
stay silent in persecution like Jesus and pray situations and people into the
more than capable Hands of the Lord….which can ultimately lead to their own
salvation or we can double down and get on the wrong side of God. The Lord, through James, is telling us "hey, listen to this Word - this is how it should be...how you approach Me, and how I respond"! There is nothing easier than following these simple Protocols of Prayer. We have not even mentioned the actual blessings which pour down from Heaven if these are observed, even a fraction of the time! So let us press on!
