By Micheal Cassidy

In my last article, I focused in on the important principle of praying in and into the Will of God. I mentioned the leper story in Mark 1:40 where he prayed “Lord, if you will, you can.” He was sure of the Power of God, but not the Will of God. As it transpired, it was the Will of God to heal him.

I would like now to think of some situations when we can be SURE we are praying in the Will of God.

For example, we are always on solid ground when we pray for the Will of God to be done, for nothing can be more IN the Will of God than praying FOR the Will of God. So keep this in mind as you pray for different people and situations.

There are also some prayer specifics which make this very clear. Thus in Luke 10:2, Jesus can say, “the harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few; pray therefore for the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into His harvest.” So, whenever one prays for more people to enter the Lord’s work, one is praying bang in the middle of how the Lord wants us to pray.

Another fascinating specific comes in Psalm 122:6, “pray for the peace of Jerusalem.” I am sure all of us at this time are extremely vexed, graunched and confused by what is going on in the Middle East in the conflict between Israel, Hamas and Gaza.

I feel stricken when I see the dreadful suffering of Palestinian women and children. But then, on Oct 7th 2023, Hamas went in unprovoked and slaughtered 1400 Israeli civilians. So, how on earth does one pray? I can’t be sure, but what I am sure about is that the Lord says, “pray for the peace of Jerusalem.” That is a prayer in the Will of God, and surely when God hears that prayer, the whole area will be positively affected.

So that is basically how I pray. But confusion returns when, for example, I try to pray about my shingles, which has plagued me for some 5 years. Surely it is the Will of God to remove it, but He doesn’t seem to do so. In such a situation, all I can do is fall back on the prayer, “Thy will be done” (Matt 6:10), and rest in the Pauline principle  recorded in 2 Cor 12:8,9 “three times I sought the Lord about this, that it should leave me; but He said to me “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.””

I close on an AE specific. We are called to evangelise the cities of Africa. So when we pray on a daily basis, as we do through Biggie’s Prayer schedule, for effective entry to any given African city, we are again praying plumb centre in the Will of God.

Prayer Points

  • Pray for Israel and Palestine
  • Pray that God would forgive their indifference and stamp out prejudices that lead to hatred
  • Pray for peace within their walls and peace within themselves