God has chosen to respond to your prayer, as it is always up to Him to determine how to answer them!if you have the power to heal yourself or anyone else, please give glory to God, you didn't do it yourself. Not one bit came from you.
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God has chosen to respond to your prayer, as it is always up to Him to determine how to answer them!if you have the power to heal yourself or anyone else, please give glory to God, you didn't do it yourself. Not one bit came from you.
if you have the power to heal yourself or anyone else, please give glory to God, you didn't do it yourself. Not one bit came from you.
Please understand what I'm saying. My comment concerns God granting salvation. For salvation to occur, the person responds in faith to what God has done in their life.Correct. Only God can heal. So did my prayer have anything to do with God's Sovereign Grace to heal me? If not, what is the point of the prayer?
Please understand what I'm saying. My comment concerns God granting salvation. For salvation to occur, the person responds in faith to what God has done in their life.
Concerning your question about whether God responds to your prayer concerning healing... This is how I view it.
God knows everything. God knows what He is going to do and when He is going to do it. God knows what you are going to do and when you are going to do it.
Let's say God wants you to trust Him and have a closer relationship with Him. He knows you are going to get sick. He puts someone into your life that encourages you to pray as in relationship with God, maybe years or decades before you get sick.
When you get sick, God Holy Spirit brings to remembrance what you have been taught concerning prayer. You feel God Holy Spirit drawing you toward that relationship (even though you might not recognize it is God at the time)
You call on God in prayer for healing, trusting Him whether He heals you or not. You realize that physical health is not as important as spiritual health
God has succeeded in drawing you into a closer relationship with Himself, for your benefit.
Later, God will bring people into your life that are dealing with similar problems. You become the mentor, teaching them the importance if prayer in relationship to God.
You are not getting God's attention with your prayer for healing. God has been working in your life for decades getting your attention and bringing you to the point where you will demonstrate your love and trust for Him with your prayer. And it is for your benefit.
That is how I see it.
No. I don't see that as a good short summary.So a good short summary of what you said would be God causes one to pray, not just influences one to pray or gives one a choice to pray or not pray. For if one chose to pray on their own, even if influenced by God to do so, one would be doing a work towards one's healing and taking away from God's Sovereignty. But if God causes one to pray, then God has done all the work, if you are determining that prayer/faith must be seen as a work.
So a good short summary of what you said would be God causes one to pray, not just influences one to pray or gives one a choice to pray or not pray
For if one chose to pray on their own, even if influenced by God to do so, one would be doing a work towards one's healing and taking away from God's Sovereignty.
But if God causes one to pray, then God has done all the work, if you are determining that prayer/faith must be seen as a work.
Well said. No need to add anything. Thanks.No.
God changes the heart ( Ezekiel 11:19, Ezekiel 33:26, John 3:3, 2 Corinthians 5:17-21 ), and a believer prays to God with unfeigned words out of that new heart ( 2 Timothy 2:22 ).
The choice is theirs, but they will pray...because they know that He is their deliverer and Saviour.
Men pray to God everyday, but He only hears the prayer of the believer:
" The LORD [is] far from the wicked: but he heareth the prayer of the righteous." ( Proverbs 15:29 )
Those that are righteous are that way because God declared them righteous ( Romans 8:33 ) through the blood of His Son ( Romans 5:9, Ephesians 1:7 ), not by works of righteousness which they have done ( Titus 3:5-6 ). Their faith is evidence ( Hebrews 11:1 ) of their justification ( Romans 4:4-5, Romans 5:1-2 ), not a "pre-requisite".
If gaining eternal life were a matter of doing something to gain it, then it would be works ( Romans 11:5-6 ).
It is by grace, not works, so that no man may boast ( Ephesians 2:8-9 ).
Eternal life is a gift ( Romans 6:23 ) not a reward for good behavior ( again, Titus 3:5-6 ).
According to God's word, there is only one way to work for one's salvation...to keep every jot and tittle of the Law ( Galatians 5:3 ), but if one falters in only one commandment, he or she is guilty of the whole Law ( James 2:10 ).
I imagine you already know all this, but I listed it out just to cover the details.
I personally know of no man who has kept the Law from birth on up, save the Lord Jesus Christ.
He is the only one who has ever kept it perfectly.
His work on the cross is what we believe in and on, not our own paltry efforts and filthy "righteousness" ( Isaiah 64:6 ).
" Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt.
5 But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness." ( Romans 4:4-5 )
To the person that works for their salvation, God would end up being indebted to them, instead of being gracious to them.
Those that believe, their faith is counted for righteousness.
God's work in salvation is His alone ( Psalms 3:8, Psalms 62:1, Jonah 2:9 ).
If it were a matter of cooperation, then that would allow men the possibility of taking credit for their part in God saving someone...and He will not share that credit with anyone.
He is a jealous God ( Exodus 34:14 ) and He is merciful and compassionate with whom He will be merciful and compassionate ( Exodus 33:19, Romans 9:14-16 ).
He wants His children to be eternally grateful for His gift, and they know full well what it cost Him...His Son.
They also know that were it not for His gift, then they all would be thrown into Hell ( Revelation 20:15 ), where they deserve to be.
God does not cause the believer to pray, He does all the work necessary to bring a person to Himself ( Psalms 65:4 ), and He then is glorified in their prayer and thanksgiving for His unspeakable gift.
In a believer, prayer comes from the heart, not from feigned lips ( Psalms 17:1 ).
God looks upon His own ( 2 Timothy 2:19 )...He sees the heart ( 1 Samuel 16:7 ) and knows that they do not draw near Him with just their lips, but with their heart also.
Faith, on the other hand, is a gift ( Ephesians 2:8 ) that accompanies the gift of eternal life ( Romans 6:23, John 17:3 ) and is authored and finished by His Son ( Hebrews 12:2 ).
Faith is not a work, it is trust in Jesus' finished work on the cross, and God's words that bear witness to this.
Finally, it is a work of God for someone to believe on Christ ( John 6:29 ).
If a person does not believe, then God did not work.
May He bless you richly, sir.
Men pray to God everyday, but He only hears the prayer of the believer:
Is this what you teach your children?
This is unfortunate thinking.I am a one point Calvinist. I believe the scriptures declare people are given a decision to make and the free will to make it, believe or not believe. But once the choice is made and a call is made to Jesus, a rebirth takes place by the will and power of God, God sealing that person eternally, for one could not stop believing in that which they have a personal knowledge of is an absolute truth (i.e. regeneration, Christ in you).
Therefore, God will not answers their prayers, at least in the same way that He answers the prayers of His children.
Yes, He does make the rain to fall on the just and the unjust ( Matthew 5:45 ) and He is kind and merciful in this life even to the unsaved...
What do you teach your children, if I may ask?
It seems you are not sure considering your first statement was God only hears the prayers of believers.
his is why I asked you if you teach your children to pray. You said you have none to teach, then in a broader sense does your church teach the children to pray in SS?
The Scriptures.
Not sure how you would conduct a children's SS class or even your own children if you had any. Be kinda weird to say to them "Now we are going to pray, anyone here who understands and believes Jesus is the Son of God can pray with me, any others who are not sure or do not know, don't bother to pray because Jesus will not hear you"
What they should have done was to preach the Gospel to them... and only those who believed should have been allowed in, in my estimation.
Then may I suggest that you teach them all of the Scriptures?
"God loves the sinner, not the sin"
Sure He does...if they are one of His children.
Otherwise, He hates the worker of iniquity, and will cast those He does not love into eternal Hellfire.
Other than what John 3:16 seems to say, do you know of any Scriptures that clearly state that God loves all men?
and phrases it that way?
And what would be your standard as to who truly believes and who was just saying they believed?
No suggestion needed. Always teach the full counsel of God's Word. When you don't, things like Calvinism creeps in.
hen to be honest and true according to this view, you would tell your children over the years of their lives that God might or might not love them. They will have to wait and see. And then when you find out if God loves you, then you can go ahead and begin praying to Him.
Or, you could do as Jesus said to the Pharisees, "suffer not the little children to come unto me".
It says what it says.
The Gospel is not as complicated as Calvinist would make it out to be.
Since you say it is the believers that He uses this example of children for "allow" the little children to come , let me ask you..... this allowing, would it also apply to baby baptism? Can the little ones of believing parents be baptized while they are yet little? I mean since the kingdom of heaven is for such? It was after all the mothers who were bringing these little ones to Christ. Is it fair to say that little children should not be hindered? I am just curious because many say infant baptism is useless ?Here's the passage I think you are referring to:
" Then were there brought unto him little children, that he should put [his] hands on them, and pray: and the disciples rebuked them.
14 But Jesus said, Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven.
15 And he laid [his] hands on them, and departed thence." ( Matthew 19:13-15 )
First, I see that His disciples rebuked the people who brought to Him little children.
Then He tells them to suffer ( put up with, allow ) little children and to forbid them not to come...for OF such is the kingdom of Heaven.
He's using little children as an example of the children of God, not because He loves all the children of this world.
Again, if things are taught from pulpits often enough, they will be believed, good sir.
Why?
Because so many people hold teachers to a higher position...Bible teachers notwithstanding.
Do you believe that God loves everyone in the eternal sense?
Then why doesn't He save them?
Is salvation "of the Lord", or isn't it?
Is it entirely His work, or does man contribute something to His work, thereby polluting it and causing it to be a work of other than His grace alone ( Romans 11:5-6 )?
I agree.
It says what it says.
What does it say to you?
If you think it tells us that God loves everyone, perhaps you should build a case from Scripture for the concept, and see if God's love extends to, for example, all the people that He commanded the Israelites to wipe out when they were conquering the Promised Land...and didn't send in prophets or missionaries to preach His coming judgment to, like He did with Nineveh.
Jericho comes to mind.
Sodom and Gomorrha before that, in the days of Abraham.
Did He love the Egyptians that He drowned in the Red Sea?
That He killed the first-born of, during the plagues?
Did He love all the people He drowned in the Flood?
Did He love all the people in Asia that were dying and going to Hell when He forbid Paul and Silas to go into Asia with the Gospel ( Acts of the Apostles 16:6-7 )?
Perhaps you should prove it out from Scripture, rather than simply believing what was told to you by some pastor with good intentions, but didn't take all of God's words seriously.
The Gospel is everything that God tells believers through His word, about how and why He saves any of us.
It includes every detail about salvation.
There are over 31,000 "verses" in the AV, and what I see presented in most visible churches these days is a gospel that's limited to John 3:16, the "Romans Road" and about 30 other passages.
The rest of the Bible goes largely untouched by the vast majority of today's preachers...especially anything having to do with election, predestination, calling and so forth.
God tells believers, how and why they are saved... and Acts of the Apostles 13:48 is but one passage that defines it.
John 3:16 is another, while John 6:64-65 is yet another.
John 6:29, John 10:26, Ephesians 1:4-13, 2 Thessalonians 2:13-14, Philippians 1:29, and many others tell us more of those details.
In fact, the Bible is probably the most detailed book that was ever written...more so than even engineering technical manuals, as I see it, and it was written for our comfort and our education as His children.
It was never meant to be read or presented as a collection of "verses", but to be read as a whole, starting at the beginning and proceeding all the way to the end...Genesis to Revelation.
May He bless you richly, in both this life and the next, and I wish you well, sir.
Since you say it is the believers that He uses this example of children for "allow" the little children to come , let me ask you..... this allowing, would it also apply to baby baptism?
Can the little ones of believing parents be baptized while they are yet little?
I mean since the kingdom of heaven is for such?
Is it fair to say that little children should not be hindered?
I am just curious because many say infant baptism is useless ?
I" He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned." ( Matthew 16:16 )
Notice what is present in the passage above...
Belief in Jesus Christ.
Belief of the Gospel.
Baptism serves no purpose unless accompanied by belief.
Belief on Jesus Christ and His finished work for us on the cross.
I wish you well, sir.
IT IS "TO SUCH AS THESE"- NOT OF SUCH.I didn't say it was "for such"...Scripture says OF such.