Prayer 3: Prayer invokes the New Covenant

A recently converted agnostic argued, “Man, God can hear my thoughts before I even pray. He knows what is needed and is going to do what He was going to do anyway, so why pray?”

The respondent brought perspective to that by saying, “that’s like saying your wife knows what you are thinking so why bother telling her?” 

The answer is “because she needs to hear it”. So communication is essential to prayer, but it is so much more than that. 

Prayer is rooted in strong fundamentals.

The relational perspective can be sentimental, so let’s put some meat on the bone

South Africa implemented the most progressive constitution in the world, about 20 years ago. It is almost as hallowed, as a symbol of a century long struggle for liberty, as the US constitution is to all Americans. The only difference is that it is almost of divine value to Americans.

The problem for most South Africans is that they have such mixed perspectives on what they actually have, but largely because of the cynical abuse thereof by the ruling party. It is all good and well to have a constitution, hallowed as it might be, but a big so what if it is undermined.

To my mind, the one thing that will destroy South Africa more surely than anything else, will be the devaluing of its own constitution.

Guess what will destroy the individual? When He devalues his own value or worth in life, by letting himself go – through drugs, excesses, and so on.

Constitutional integrity is the bedrock of nations and of God’s kingdom

Israel had a superb constitutional framework, eons ahead of its time, with a healthy separation of powers, checks and balances, and a legal framework rooted in the ten commandments, which shaped every subsidiary law or regulation.

Yet, their kings were a law unto themselves. They successively undermined the foundation of their state, until the critical pillars of King, Prophet and Priest, could no longer uphold the social weight. Then the society then imploded and the people were enslaved by their follies.

Happily, the New Testament is devoid of the essential weakness of the Old system, because the three pillars and its legal framework do not depend on human folly. It is all objectively detached from everyday life and guaranteed by God, not human whim.

I need to elaborate. First of all, God did not vest His covenant in us. We only entered into it, we did not co-craft it. What I mean is that God swore by Himself that it was so. He could swear by no greater (Hebrews 6:13), so He swore by Himself.

An illustration of that is found in early scripture, when Abraham ‘covenanted’ with God. God caused a deep sleep to come over Abraham, so that he was not directly implicated, but only inherited the outcome. God passed through the pared elements of that covenant. Abraham just witnessed it.

Basically, God was saying, ‘do to me what was done to these sacrifices, if I ever fail to honor or live up to this covenant’. When Abraham woke, it was done and, as such, he could not spoil, undermine or alter it. He could only embrace it. Its sustainability was guaranteed by God.

A new covenant was needed, and the old fell away

The New Covenant equivalent of all that is not written in the blood of animals (Hebrews 10:14), which was a temporary dispensation, but in the shed blood of God, when God below (Jesus) represented man before God above (the Father).

When that happened, God turned away from the Son and refused to judge that sacrifice subjectively. 

He judged it on the basis of His predefined righteous standard. Thus Jesus said, for our ears, “why have you forsaken me?”

He had to turn away, lest He be accused of saying, “that’s my boy down there, surely that’s good enough”. No, God refused to settle for a convenient patch-kit. It had to be water-tight.

Then, when it was done, He turned back and said, “I see your travail and I am satisfied” as in, “It is done”. Jesus echoed that for our ears by shouting, “It is finished”. Then He died.

The new covenant vests in better promises, which is the key to prayer

The notion that God can just intrude on life and subjectively do as He whims, flies in the face of a meticulously crafted, objective constitution, that is wholly reliant on His detached judgment and stewardship of that constitution.

God, as such, is the Supreme Judge of Heaven’s Constitutional court.

Now we return to prayer and see in proper context why South Africans are poorer for not knowing what they have and how to exercise their constitutional heritage. It is technically worthless, because if one can undermine one aspect, then nothing is sacrosanct and all is moot.

However, to the saints of God who enter God’s court, through a new and living way (Hebrews  10:20), with boldness (legal authority), to find strong (legal) refuge (Hebrews 6:18) before an inscrutably righteous judge, have the power to change their world through prayer.

God cannot and will not intrude on life, lest He be forced to recuse Himself as the judge of what He instigates. However, because of what Jesus did, we have the favor of the court and the right to defend others, to fight for a righteous court or to petition His throne.

Prayer has a powerful, yet objective foundation

Prayer does not hinge on speculative favor, as in ‘if God hears me or favors me’ or ‘if I deserve this’ – It is rooted in a favor that is predefined by the cross, which is, in turn, ensured by the presence in that court of our advocate and the wounds that vouch for our position in Him.

Whatever else we say of prayer, it comes down to a fundamental understanding of our legal prerogatives within His constitution, but where the relationship does come in, is in understanding the difference between a righteous cause (for which the court exists), and an unrighteous one.

Clearly, as the judge of all, God will not defend or advocate an unrighteous cause. That would be self-negating. So, we need to pray in the will of God, yet in so doing, with the understanding that we have the power to move the hand of God. 

(c) Peter Missing: bethelstone@gmail.com