Chapter 6
THE LAW OF PRAYER
Illustrating the Fact That God Is the God of Order
"If ye then being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give?" (Verse 13).
That little confidential word, "If" suggests the idea of law, and there are seven laws of prayer.
1. The law of parenthood -- "If ye be mg evil know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give?" Think of the most generous father possible but, the most loving and thoughtful possible and you have but a faint illustration of your heavenly Father. His loving heart surpasses all human beings.
2. The law of sincerity -- "If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me." (Psa. 66:18). Sincerity from the Latin means freedom from wax; from the Greek it indicates strength of fiber, no weakness can be detected. It is sincere. So God would have us free from guile, free from sin, and pure in all our purposes and desires.
3. The law of character -- "And whatsoever ye shall ask in My name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son, If ye shall ask any thing in My name, I will do it." (John 14:13, 14). His name means His character and what He has done for us. In other words it involves what He has done for us and in us.
4. The law of abiding -- "If ye abide ill Me and My words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you." (John 15:7). The reverent study of the Word of God is here involved. In order that the words of Christ may dwell in us there must be both a study of the Word "and a practice of it. See "The Word of God" by the author.
5. The law of obedience -- "Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God, and whatsoever we ask we receive of Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight." (1 John 3:22). This law of obedience, as is clearly revealed, involves the law of conscience. We must have a good conscience before God, our conscience bearing us witness in the Holy Ghost, that we are rendering obedience to God, His Word and will. Then, "we receive, because we keep His commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in His sight."
6. The law of unity -- "Verily I say unto you, whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever ye shall lose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again, I say unto you, That 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. For where two or three are gathered together in My name there am I in the midst of them." (Matt. 18:18-20). The word, "again" connects verse nineteen with verse eighteen as explanatory. That is to say, verse nineteen explains verse eighteen and reveals to us the wonderful possibility of united prayer. If two or three shall agree they can bind or release as the case may need. May God help His people. The devil knows this truth real well, and hence his constant effort to divide God's people.
7. The law of faith. -- "Therefore I say unto you, what things soever ye desire when ye pray believe that ye receive them and ye shall have them." (Mark 11:24). Note the order here, "believe that ye receive and ye shall, have." First faith, then receiving. "If thou canst believe all things are possible to him that believeth." Again, "according to your faith be it unto you." "By the law of faith." (Romans 3:27).
God is the God of order, the God of laws. This is revealed in the fact of the laws of nature, such as the law of gravitation, the laws of weather, the law of chemical affinity, the law of harmony, the law of health and disease. There are laws of salvation; laws to be observed in order to obtain and laws to be kept in order to retain. The laws aforementioned in their order are workable with respect to prayer. The little word, "If" suggests the law.