
Coria Brock
January 18, 2025
Ecclesiastes 3:1, English Standard Version
“For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven.”
There are prayer groups rising up everywhere, both at churches and also in prayer closets, like in the movie “War Room.” There are also many Christians who are saying, “When the government and the schools are taking prayer and Bible out of the school, Christian should not just be quiet and pray. They should stand up and engage and fight.” So, the question I have for you is this: What do you think prayer is about? A tool, a weapon, a way to change God’s will? Is it the last solution we have, like some Christians mention, “All we can do now is pray”?
This is what I want you to pay attention to:
“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” (Matthew 6:9-10, NIV)
Jesus gives us a crystal-clear picture of who has the authority when we pray and surrender to. Heaven is higher than the earth, and it is all about the Father’s Kingdom and the Father’s will in the Father’s name. So, it is neither our thoughts but His thoughts, neither our ways, but His ways. (Isaiah 55:8-9)
Prayer is not meant as a means by which followers can change God’s will, but so the mind and heart of His followers could be transformed to have the perspective of the Lord and align with the will of God.
“That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, ‘Let us go over to the other side.’ … A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. … The disciples woke him and said to him, ‘Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?’ … He said to his disciples, ‘Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?’” (Mark 4:35-40, NIV)
What lesson did Jesus teach His disciples? A faith that trusts in His word! He is saying, “Why do you call on My name with fear of the storm? Do you still have no faith of what I told you, that we will go over to the other side?” Are we learning the lesson?
“’Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. … in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit. Then they gathered around him and asked him, ‘Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?’ He said to them: ‘It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.’” (Acts 1:4-8, NIV)
“When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly … All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.” (Acts 2:1- 4, NIV)
The Father has set the times and dates by His own authority, so wait for Him! There is nothing we can do to make it quicker or make it happen in our own way. It will come according to the Father’s will– suddenly!
“This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.” (1 John 1:5-14, NIV)
The Messiah did not come early or late because the Israelites prayed enough or not enough. It had nothing to do with their prayers for Him to come or not to come. It all happened exactly according to the will of the Father.