The Power of Prayer and the Prayer of Power

And all things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive. – Matthew 21:22

Reuben A. Torrey

• Publisher: Aneko Press
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9781622456499
• eBook ISBN: 9781622456505
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord, But the prayer of the upright is His delight. – Proverbs 15: 8Prayer is the key that unlocks all the storehouses of God's infinite grace and power. All that God is, and all that God has, is at the disposal of prayer; but we must use the key. Prayer can do anything that God can do, and since God can do anything, prayer is omnipotent. No one can stand against the person who knows how to pray, who meets all the conditions of prevailing prayer, and who really prays, and if they are willing to pay the price. The price is prayer, much prayer, much real prayer, prayer in the Holy Spirit. List of Chapters
Ch. 1: The Power of Prayer
Ch. 2: What Definite and Desirable Results Will Definite and Determined Prayer Produce?
Ch. 3: What Prayer Can Do for Churches, for the Nation, and for All Nations
Ch. 4: How to Pray So as to Get What You Ask
Ch. 5: Who Can Pray so as to Get What They Ask?
Ch. 6: Praying in the Name of Jesus Christ
Ch. 7: The Prayer of Faith
Ch. 8: Praying Through, and Praying in the Holy Spirit
Ch. 9: Hindrances to Prayer
Ch. 10: Prevailing Prayer and Real Revival

Chapter 5

What God Looks for in Us

Whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight. (1 John 3:22)

In the last chapter we looked at what God tells us in His Word as to how to pray so as to get what we ask. We now take up the subject of who can pray so as to get what they ask.

The impression that many people have is that all the promises in the Word of God in regard to God answering prayer are made to everybody, and that anybody can claim these promises; but this is very far from the truth. God’s promises to answer prayer are made to certain specified people, and God is very careful in His Word to tell us just who these people are whose prayers He promises to answer.

One of the most common sources of misinterpretation of the Word of God is taking promises that are made to one class of people and applying them to an entirely different class. Of course, when people claim promises that were never to them, disappointment is the inevitable result. They do not get what they ask, and they think that God’s promise has failed. But God’s promise has not failed. Rather, someone has claimed the fulfillment of that promise who had no right to do so. God tells us in the plainest possible words, words that any intelligent person can understand, just whose prayers He promises to answer.

One of the most definite and plainest descriptions to be found in the Bible of whose prayers God will answer is found in 1 John 3:22: Whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight.

Have you ever noticed what a remarkable statement the apostle John makes in this verse? He says that whatever he asked of God, he got, Whatever we ask we receive from Him. John says that he never asked one single thing from God that he did not get. How many of us could say that whatever we ask of God, we get? Many of us doubtless could say that we get many of the things for which we ask. Others could say that we get some of the things for which we ask. Some of us would probably have to say that we do not know if we have ever gotten one thing that we have asked from God. But John says, “Whatever I ask of God, I get.” Then John goes on to tell us why he could say this, and by telling us why, he tells us how we, too, can get into such a relationship with God that we can also say, “Whatsoever I ask, I get.”

God Answers the Prayers of Those Who Keep His Commandments

Let us read 1 John 3:22 again: Whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight. Whenever you find the word “because” in the Bible, or “wherefore” or “therefore,” you should look at it very carefully, for these words point out the reason for things. John says here that the reason God gave him whatever he asked was because he, and the others whom he includes with himself in the word “we,” keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight.

There are two parts to John’s description of those whose prayers God always answers. The first part of the description is We keep His commandments. God hears the prayers of those who keep His commandments – those who study His Word each day to find out what His will is, and who, when they discover what His will is, do it every time they find it.

God demands reciprocity. He demands that we listen to His Word before He listens to our prayers. If we have a sharp ear for God’s commandments, then God will have a sharp ear for our petitions; but if we turn a deaf ear to one of God’s commandments, God will turn a deaf ear to all of our petitions. If we do the things that God asks us to do, then God will do the things that we ask Him to do; but if we do not pay close attention to God’s Word, God will pay no attention whatsoever to our prayers. To put it all in a single sentence, if we want God to answer our prayers, we must study God’s Word diligently each day to find out what the will of God is – and then we must do His will every time we find it.

Here we touch upon one of the most common reasons why prayers are not answered: those who pray are neglecting to read and study the Word of God, they are not studying it for the specific purpose of finding out what God’s will is for them, or else they are not doing that will every time they find it out.

In my first pastorate there was a lady who was a consistent church attender, but she was not a member of the church. She was one of the most intelligent women in the community. One day someone told me that this lady had previously been a member of the church of which I was pastor. So one Sunday morning, as I was walking home from church, I walked along with this lady, who lived on the same street that I lived upon. When we reached my front gate and I was about to turn in, I said to her, “They tell me you were previously a member of this church of which I am pastor.”

She replied, “Yes, I was.”

“Well,” I said, “why are you not a member now?”

She answered, “Because I do not believe the Bible.”

I said, “You do not believe the Bible?”

“No,” she said, “I do not believe the Bible.”

I asked, “Why do you not believe the Bible?”

She replied, “Because I have tried its promises and found them untrue.”

I asked, “Will you tell me one single promise in the Word of God that you ever tried and found untrue?”

She said, “Does it not say somewhere in the Bible that whatever things we desire when we pray, we will have them if we believe that we receive them?”

I said, “It says something that sounds a lot like that.”

She said, “My husband was very sick. I prayed for his recovery and I fully believed that God would raise him up, but he died. Did not the promise fail?”

“No, not at all,” I said.

“What?” she exclaimed. “The promise did not fail?”

“No,” I replied, “the promise did not fail.”

“But,” she said, “does it not say that whatever things we desire when we pray, we will have them if we believe that we receive them?”

I said, “It says something that sounds a lot like that.”

“Just what does it say?”

I replied, “Mark 11:24 says, All things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they will be granted you. Do these “you”s refer to you?

She said, “What do you mean?”

I replied, “Are you one of the people to whom this promise is made?”

“Why,” she said, “isn’t it made to every professing Christian?”

I said, “Certainly not. God defines very clearly in His Word just to whom His promises to answer prayer are made.”

“I would like to see God’s definition,” she said.

I said, “Let me show it to you,” and I opened my Bible to 1 John 3:22 and read it to her: Whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight. Then I said, “That is God’s definition of the “we”s and the “you”s whose prayers God promises to answer – those who keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight. Were you keeping His commandments? Were you doing the things that are pleasing in His sight? Were you living for the glory of God in everything?”

“No,” she said, “I certainly was not.”

“Then,” I said, “the promise was not made to you, was it?”

“No,” she said, “it was not.”

“Then it did not fail?”

“No, it did not.”

She saw her error, came back to God, and became one of the most active and useful members of that church. There are a multitude of men and women just like that woman: they take a promise that is made to someone else and apply it to themselves, and of course it fails.

What about you? That is, are you studying the Word of God every day of your life, earnestly and carefully, to find out what God wants you to do and how He wants you to live – and are you obeying God’s will every time you know it? If so, you are on praying ground and belong to the class whose prayers God will answer, and God will give you what you ask. If not, you do not belong to the class whose prayers God promises to answer.

I had another illustration of this same thing in our church in Chicago. I had in my church two women – one was the woman of the house, and the other one w...

Table of contents

• Contents
• Introduction
• The Power of Prayer
• The Definite and Desirable Results of Definite and Determined Prayer
• What Prayer Can Do for Churches, for the Nation, and for All Nations
• How to Pray
• What God Looks for in Us
• Praying in the Name of Jesus Christ
• The Prayer of Faith
• Praying Through, and Praying in the Holy Spirit
• Hindrances to Prayer
• Prevailing Prayer and Real Revival
• R. A. Torrey – A Brief Biography
• Other Similar Titles