Bill Johnson - Prayer That Makes a Difference
The Lord invites us into the inner chambers, if you will, of the King of all Kings, the Lord of all Lords, the great I Am, to converse with Him so that, through the conversation, certain events can be changed and certain things can be affected on earth because of our dialogue. From the beginning, it starts in Genesis chapter one and goes to the end of the book, that God’s primary design for us is to be co-laborers. He didn’t create us as robots and program us to do specific things; we are living entities who, through surrender, yield our will to His purposes. We find that He shapes our heart and mind, our thinking, until we become recalibrated to His dream for the planet. He said to pray for His will to be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Can you imagine Him saying, «Now pray this prayer; it’s not going to happen, but it’ll keep you busy and positive while nothing occurs, and that’s my design for you: that nothing happens?» It’s silly; we would never give an assignment like that in our own areas of responsibility. The Lord gave us a specific assignment because of His dream. Praying His prayer links me to His dream, links me to His process, and engages me with the One who can actually make these things happen—that I cannot possibly achieve on my own.
So we have an assignment to pray on earth as it is in heaven. Through our engagement, our interaction with Him, we allow Him to fulfill the cries and dreams of our hearts. That’s part of the revelation of Him as a Father: that the things we pray for actually happen. John 16 contains a very important verse; there are four instances in three chapters—John 14, 15, and 16—where the Lord says, «Ask for whatever you want, and it’ll be done for you.» We know this isn’t an invitation to become arrogant, independent, and selfish, building our own empire. Instead, it’s an invitation to die until we can represent His heart and see a continuous flow of answers to prayer that keep us filled with joy. God designed us with the capacity for overflowing joy, and He said the way to enter that fulfillment is through answers to prayer.
In John 16, it says, «Whatever you ask for will be done for you, that your joy may be full.» Here’s the process: engage with this, pray until something happens, and the result is an absolute overflowing fullness of joy. It’s the design; you are designed for joy. You are designed to pray and make a difference, and those two things working together keep you fulfilled. In Proverbs 12, it says, «Hope deferred makes the heart sick.» The second part is just as important: «Desire realized is a tree of life.»
Desire realized is this life-giving fruit of fulfilled desires. How are they fulfilled in the believer’s life? Through prayer. It’s the automatic implication that when you engage with God, things happen because you met with Him. Those responses from God—the fulfilled answers and dreams—are the tree of life for you. So we were designed to live with ongoing answers to prayer, and the problem is if I’m not getting answers to prayer. We tend to pray just enough to ease our conscience but not enough to make a difference. We have many relief valves in our lives, and when the Lord moves us to pray for the government, we tend to relieve the pressure by criticizing the government.
This eases our conscience just enough to remove the pressure when, in fact, the pressure is supposed to be a divine invitation to enter the courts of God and make a difference through prayer. To stand before the Lord and accuse people is a misuse of my authority; He will defend the person I’m accusing and will not bless the curses of one of His priests, if you will, because we haven’t been given that assignment. So if I am designed to live with overflowing joy due to answers to prayer, and I’m not getting answers, then I must find my joy in the discipline of prayer. If I find joy in the discipline of prayer, then I’m training my heart to celebrate form and not impact. What is religion? Form without power—it’s the beginning of the end when there are no answers to prayer, and we must find joy in the fact that we prayed, while we’re actually designed by the Lord to see things happen around us.