Chapter 2
What is the Purpose of Prayer?
The purpose of prayer is to enable
mankind to effectively dominate or govern the planet earth.
The Bible says, “God gave them his
blessing and said: Have a lot of children!
Fill the earth with people and bring
it under your control. Rule over the fish in the
ocean, the birds in the sky, and every animal on the
earth.” (Gen
1:28) (CEV)
Rule the planet!
What an awesome task to give to
humans.
That’s why it was absolutely
critical that Adam maintain a consistent dialog with God; to get the knowledge he
needed to effectively rule the planet.
Did
Adam do this successfully – No,
he failed! This
is what began the mess we’re in today.
Ask yourself this question. Did God
know the devil was about to deceive Eve?
Of course He did, He’s omniscient
– He knows ALL things!
Did He want
to warn
Adam so he could avoid the deception? Yes, He did,
the Bible
declares - “God is love!”
And a loving God would want to warn His children
away from danger.
Then
why didn’t He?
Why
didn’t God warn Adam about the devil’s plan and
show
him how
to avoid the trap that was set for him and Eve?
It’s because there was a
communication breakdown between God and man and it wasn’t God’s fault.
From
the time God said to Adam and Eve, “Have
dominion over the earth”
He established a principle that
governs the human race up to today, God effectively removed Himself from the
day-to-day running of the earth’s business, allowing Adam to be the
Steward of the operation while He (God) remained The Overseer.
He also allowed humans the ability
to use their free will to act contrary to His will…
if
they chose.
Does this mean that God no longer
had ALL power?
Of course not!
It simply meant He chose to delegate
His authority to run the day-to-day affairs of the planet over to Adam
and his descendants.
God was and still is in control of
how things ultimately turn out but He chose not to directly exercise His
authority over the day-to-day administration of the affairs of the earth contrary to the
will of man.
The
Bible says, “The LORD has kept the heavens for
himself, but he has given the earth to us humans.”
(Ps. 115:16) (CEV)
He
chooses instead to work in partnership with Mankind as
we allow Him to.
Through the process of prayer, which
is basically open communication between us and God and vice-versa He
is able to consistently direct our paths giving us insight into things we
can’t normally understand.
For instance, a circling helicopter
can direct a motorist through busy city streets to avoid bumper-to-bumper
traffic or an accident, because the person in the helicopter can see things
from the air the driver on the ground cannot.
The person in the sky has a bird’s
eye view so he can direct the driver to avoid problems the driver can’t
foresee.
Similarly, God has an eternal
perspective on things – He can see the past, the present
and the future all at
the same time –
So, He can direct us into safety and
away from danger, but only if we allow Him to.
All we need to do is ask Him for
directions and be humble enough to follow His lead.
After God set the precedent by
establishing communication with man and gave him authority to rule the earth
He then expected Adam to seek His counsel on how to govern the planet.
He expected Adam to initiate communication with Him to receive
the instructions he needed to effectively administrate earth’s affairs.
Remember, Adam was now the Steward
– He was now in charge! He was the President
and Chief Executive Officer of the company called, Earth,
Inc.
while God remained the Owner.
This is the purpose of prayer - To
effectively administrate the day-today affairs of the earth according to
the measure of authority given to each us...
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