Prayer and Revelation - Online Christian Library

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spirit of man is his rational soul or mind, made in the image of God, and by it we graspand assimilate the content of Scripture. 69The same principle that we have just applied to the believer's moral development alsoapplies to all other aspects of the Christian life, including the prayer life. Just as a strongand meaningful moral life is founded upon an accurate understanding of Scripture, aprayer life that is acceptable in practice and rich in content must have theologicalunderstanding as its foundation. Just as moral improvement begins with scripturalinstructions, any enhancement of the prayer life begins with an enrichment of the innerlife.We find in Scripture examples of the prayer lives of great men. Jesus could meaningfullypray to his Father all night, and in the letters of Paul are prayers that are rich in inspiredtheological thinking. If your prayer life is weak, and your prayers are shallow in content,it would help very little to try to remedy the situation by praying even more. In fact, youwill probably produce and reinforce bad habits and false theology with such an approachto prayer. Rather, we must improve the prayer life by constructing a better foundation,that is, by building an inner life structured according to biblical precepts.The first chapter in this section urges you to dethrone experience as a source ofinformation for constructing your spiritual life in general, and your prayer life inparticular, since experience can teach us nothing. Then, the next chapter proceeds tooutline some elementary directions for building the inner life on the infallible foundationof biblical revelation.69 Man does not have a non-rational "spirit." What is called "spirit" in Scripture is the same part of man ashis rational mind. Thus man is body (physical) and soul (rational), and not body (physical), soul (rational),and spirit (non-rational).64
10. PRAYER AND EXPERIENCEOne day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciplessaid to him, "Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples." (Luke 11:1)Many of the books written on the subject of prayer suggest that the best way to learnabout prayer is by actually praying. They say that the best way to learn about prayer (ormost other things) is not by talking about it or reading about it, but by doing it. "Learningby doing" is a very popular theory of education, and these books are applying it to thequestion of how a person should learn to pray. If this theory of learning is correct, thenthere is limited value in spending hour after hour in trying to construct a biblical theologyof prayer; rather, our time is better spent by actually praying. Prayer is best learned byexperience.I disagree. In general, I oppose the theory of learning by doing. In particular, I oppose theidea that anything at all about prayer can be learned by experience. 70It is impossible to learn about prayer by experience because it is impossible to even beginwithout any previous instructions or assumptions not derivable from experience. What isprayer? Do I pray to someone or something? Who is this someone or something? Whatare the attributes of this someone or something? What is my relationship with thissomeone or something? Do I have immediate and direct access to this someone orsomething, or do I need a mediator to contact this someone or something? Who or what isthis mediator, and what are the attributes of this mediator? What is my relationship withthis mediator? Does it matter what physical posture or position I assume during prayer?For what or whom should I pray? How often, how long, and how intense should I pray?Should I persist in my requests, or should I present any petition only once? Experiencecan answer none of these questions, but we need answers to all of them and many othersto pray properly. In fact, even to ask the above questions presupposes some knowledgeand reflection on the subject.People tell us that we learn how to pray by experience, and that we can learn more aboutprayer by doing it than by talking about it or reading about it. But where is the biblicaljustification for such a claim? They want to give the impression that they are giving thisadvice because they take prayer seriously, and that they want other people to take itseriously as well. But I would say that their advice is sacrilegious – they are treating thepresence of God as a place for experimentation rather than a place of worship. If theBible already gives us many explicit instructions on prayer, then we better do theminstead of learn them during prayer. We abuse God's patience and mercy if we approachhim without first learning how to approach him, especially when he has already given usinstructions on the matter.70 For an explanation on why I oppose learning by doing, please read my book, Preach the Word.65
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PRAYER & REVELATIONVincent CheungCo
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PREFACEIn his book, With Christ in
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PRAYER AND THE TRIUNE GODThe doctri
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interpretation of Christianity, the
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of metaphysics (or reality), which
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nevertheless sound reluctant to blu
Page 13 and 14: 2. PRAYING TO THE FATHERThis, then,
Page 15 and 16: The above leads us to reject the no
Page 17 and 18: I urge you to read the sermon, "Sin
Page 19 and 20: 3. PRAYING BY THE SPIRITFor through
Page 21 and 22: First, we need to clarify what "gro
Page 23 and 24: The passage indeed implies that bel
Page 25 and 26: the limitations of our minds. Howev
Page 27 and 28: It is significant that when believe
Page 29 and 30: PRAYER AND THE DIVINE NATUREIn the
Page 31 and 32: 4. PRAYER AND SOVEREIGNTYI form the
Page 33 and 34: figures of speech; technically spea
Page 35 and 36: 5. PRAYER AND OMNISCIENCEAnd when y
Page 37 and 38: does not provide justification for
Page 39 and 40: that the man may receive the money
Page 41 and 42: Whatever we do, the principle remai
Page 43 and 44: this period of redemptive history i
Page 45 and 46: itself - that is, the physical obje
Page 47 and 48: 7. PRAYER AND MOTIVATIONAnd when yo
Page 49 and 50: sin that lingers. You must struggle
Page 51 and 52: 8. PRAYER AND OBEDIENCEIf anyone tu
Page 53 and 54: commands and remain in his love." I
Page 55 and 56: 9. PRAYER AND PERSISTENCEThen Jesus
Page 57 and 58: necessarily apply to our relationsh
Page 59 and 60: Then Jesus told his disciples a par
Page 61 and 62: to it intelligible information, 66
Page 63: PRAYER AND THE INNER LIFEThe inner
Page 67 and 68: cannot tell me if you can catch all
Page 69 and 70: Would you condemn me to justify you
Page 71 and 72: elieve! Trust God! This is what God
Page 73 and 74: Our culture favors the free express
Page 75 and 76: we cannot overemphasize the importa
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