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really may be the purpose of the all-wise God.
This is the very opposite of what John aimed at in writing thus. He wished to
rouse us to boldness, to confidence, to full assurance of faith in prayer. He says,  This is
the boldness which we have toward Him, that we can say: Father! Thou knowest and I
know that I ask according to Thy will: I know Thou hearest me.  This is the boldness,
that if we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us. On this account He adds
at once:  If we know that He heareth us whatsoever we ask, we know, through this
faith, that we have, that we now while we pray receive  the petition, the special things,
 we have asked of Him. John supposes that when we pray, we first find out if our
prayers are according to the will of God. They may be according to God s will, and yet
not come at once, or without the persevering prayer of faith. It is to give us courage
thus to persevere and to be strong in faith, that He tells us: This gives us boldness or
confidence in prayer, if we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us. It is
evident that if it be a matter of uncertainty to us whether our petitions be according to
His will, we cannot have the comfort of what he says,  We know that we have the
petitions which we have asked of Him.
But just this is the difficulty. More than one believer says:  I do not know if
what I desire be according to the will of God. God s will is the purpose of His infinite
wisdom: it is impossible for me to know whether He may not count something else
better for me than what I desire, or may not have some reasons for withholding what I
ask. Every one feels how with such thoughts the prayer of faith, of which Jesus said,
 Whosoever shall believe that these things which he saith shall come to pass, he shall have
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whatsoever he saith, becomes an impossibility. There may be the prayer of submission,
and of trust in God s wisdom; there cannot be the prayer of faith. The great mistake
here is that God s children do not really believe that it is possible to know God s will.
Or if they believe this, they do not take the time and trouble to find it out. What we
need is to see clearly in what way it is that the Father leads His waiting, teachable child
to know that his petition is according to His will.1 It is through God s holy word, taken
up and kept in the heart, the life, the will; and through God s Holy Spirit, accepted in
His indwelling and leading, that we shall learn to know that our petitions are
according to His will.
Through the word. There is a secret will of God, with which we often fear that
our prayers may be at variance. It is not with this will of God, but His will as revealed
in His word, that we have to do in prayer. Our notions of what the secret will may
have decreed, and of how it might render the answers to our prayers impossible, are
mostly very erroneous. Childlike faith as to what He is willing to do for His children,
simply keeps to the Father s assurance, that it is His will to hear prayer and to do what
faith in His word desires and accepts. In the word the Father has revealed in general
promises the great principles of His will with His people. The child has to take the
promise and apply it to the special circumstances in His life to which it has reference.
Whatever he asks within the limits of that revealed will, he can know to be according to
the will of God, and he may confidently expect. In His word, God has given us the
revelation of His will and plans with us, with His people, and with the world, with the
most precious promises of the grace and power with which through His people He will
carry out His plans and do His work. As faith becomes strong and bold enough to
claim the fulfilment of the general promise in the special case, we may have the
assurance that our prayers are heard: they are according to God s will. Take the words
of John in the verse following our text as an illustration:  If any man see his brother
sinning a sin not unto death, he shall ask and God will give him life. Such is the general
promise; and the believer who pleads on the ground of this promise, prays according to
the will of God, and John would give him boldness to know that he has the petition
which he asks.
But this apprehension of God s will is something spiritual, and must be
spiritually discerned. It is not as a matter of logic that we can argue it out: God has
said it; I must have it. Nor has every Christian the same gift or calling. While the
general will revealed in the promise is the same for all, there is for each one a special
different will according to God s purpose. And herein is the wisdom of the saints, to
know this special will of God for each of us, according to the measure of grace given us,
and so to ask in prayer just what God has prepared and made possible for each. It is to
communicate this wisdom that the Holy Ghost dwells in us. The personal application of
the general promises of the word to our special personal needs it is for this that the
leading of the Holy Spirit is given us.
It is this union of the teaching of the word and Spirit that many do not
understand, and so there is a twofold difficulty in knowing what God s will may be.
Some seek the will of God in an inner feeling or conviction, and would have the Spirit
lead them without the word. Others seek it in the word, without the living leading of
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the Holy Spirit. The two must be united: only in the word, only in the Spirit, but in
these most surely, can we know the will of God, and learn to pray according to it. In
the heart the word and the Spirit must meet: it is only by indwelling that we can
experience their teaching. The word must dwell, must abide in us: heart and life must
day by day be under its influence. Not from without, but from within, comes the
quickening of the word by the Spirit. It is only he who yields himself entirely in his
whole life to the supremacy of the word and the will of God, who can expect in special [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]