We run our website the way we wished the whole internet worked: we provide high quality original content with no ads. We are funded solely by your direct support. Please consider supporting this project.
Prayer and Co-Reigning with God
God’s primary objective is a world in which free agents love God and one another. For this to be possible, people need a stable environment and freely chosen, irrevocable, morally responsible say-so. Prayer is simply the spiritual side of our morally responsible say-so. We influence things by what we do through our bodies and in our communication with God.
More specifically, God’s most important goal in creation is for humans to enter into a personal relationship with him. Relationships and communication are two sides of the same coin. We relate to others only as we communicate with them and they communicate with us. Hence, it makes sense for God to design a world that strongly encourages our communication with him. He conditions what he will do and what happens in the world on the basis of whether or not his people align their hearts with his in prayer. He designed a world so that a great deal of it revolves around and hinges on our communication with him.
God designed the world not only so he will influence us but also that we might influence him. If we pray, things that should get done may get done. If we don’t, these things will not get done. Just as the outcome of events genuinely hangs in the balance of our morally responsible decisions and behavior on a physical level, so too on a spiritual level. Our prayer really does make a difference!
We may think of prayer as the central way our God-intended place of authority is restored. Because God is relational and his central goal for creation is love, almost everything he does is through mediators. God’s specific goal for humans from the start was to have us mediate his loving lordship over the earth. He created us to have dominion over the world (Gen 1:26-31). The NT declares that God wants a bride who will reign with him on earth (2 Tim 2:12). For this reason, God gives us say-so not just on a physical level but also on a spiritual level. He empowers us to pray.
We may think of prayer as an essential aspect of our co-reigning with God. He wants his will carried out on earth, but he wants it carried out in cooperation with us. Thus to a significant degree, God’s reign is applied on the earth only when we are co-reigning with him by agreeing with him in prayer.
God’s will is like a business check that must be cosigned in order to be validated. We the church are the cosigning party and prayer is our signature. (This illustration comes from Paul Billheimer, Destined for the Throne.). Hence the essence of prayer is, as Jesus taught, to align our will with the Father’s so that his rule is established on earth as it is in heaven (Mt 6:10). In prayer we begin our eternal job of mediating the Father’s will and reigning with Christ on earth.
—Adapted from Is God to Blame? pages 129-130
Photo credit: Alejandro Hernandez. via Visualhunt.com / CC BY
Category: General
Tags: Authority, Love, Prayer, Spiritual Warfare
Related Reading
Finger-Pointing and the Impulse to Judge
To no one’s surprise, yet to the sadness of many of us, several Christian spokespeople, including James Dobson, Mike Huckabee and Bryan Fischer, are blaming the shootings in Newtown, Conn, on abortion and gay marriage. This is sadly reminiscent of Jerry Falwell’s hurtful response to 9/11 when he divined that “the pagans,” “abortionists,” “feminists,” “gays,” “lesbians,”…
God’s Dream for the World
The future doesn’t yet exist—which is why it’s future instead of the present or past—this doesn’t mean I’m claiming the future is wide open. To the contrary, it’s very clear from Scripture that God has a great plan for the future, and this plan steers the course of history by setting limits on what can…
Corrective Love
drp via Compfight Kathy Escobar posted the other day about providing “corrective experiences” to those who have been hurt in the past. How many of us have approached Christians with our wounds and have been offered more of the same instead of the love and acceptance we’re longing for? How beautiful it would be if…
Book Review: Understanding Spiritual Warfare: Four Views
I just got the pre-release copy of Understanding Spiritual Warfare: Four Views, edited by my friends James Beilby and Paul Eddy (IVP, 2012). The introduction alone is worth the price of the book! It is the clearest, most comprehensive, yet most succinct overview of the concept of spiritual warfare throughout church history that I’ve ever…
The Spiritual Value of Doing Nothing
It is only when we cease from our striving and rest in the unconditional love of Christ that our soul begins to be nourished and restored. It is only then that we can experience a worth that attaches to our being and not simply our doing. It is only as we experience God’s acceptance of us as we are that…
Prayer When You’re Anxious
The following is adapted from a prayer exercise that Greg wrote for his book, Present Perfect. If you’re feeling anxious today (or even if you’re not anxious at all) we encourage you to spend a little time with it. As you read this, remind yourself that the only thing that ultimately matters is that you are submerged…