How to Succeed at God's Work

I thought we were supposed to be praying for God's will
1John 5:14 Now this is the confidence we have before Him: Whenever we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.
Luke 22:42 “Father, if You are willing, take this cup away from Me—nevertheless, not My will, but Yours, be done.”
 
Right you are, Recovering IFB. I just haven't gotten that far yet. And I appreciate your post.

Ransom, we are told that rejecting God's Word and disobedience both keep us from getting prayers answered. As long as you continue to disobey God's commands not to be a scorner, your prayers will not be answered.

Matthew, I did answer your question--I posted several Scriptures showing that God does not always answer prayer. If you want to debate about whether or not God will actually do what He says, you'll have to find somebody else.
 
Vince Massi said:
Ransom, we are told that rejecting God's Word and disobedience both keep us from getting prayers answered. As long as you continue to disobey God's commands not to be a scorner, your prayers will not be answered.
Click to expand...

I wasn't praying to you, dimbulb. I was commenting on your shoddy theology.
 
Ransom, your contempt for God's Word is pretty strong. Normally, you attack His Word by scorning me when I teach it. On one occasion, you slipped up and referred to the Word of God as "empty" and "vapid. In a recent post, you referred to the Word of God as "vapid BS."

Your scorning is not a minor sin. The Scriptures state that God scorns scorners and that He does not allow them to have wisdom.

To be fair, Ransom, your belief that God's promises of answered prayer are "vapid BS" is not dishonest--God does not answer your prayers. Nothing that the Scriptures say about how to get your prayers answered applies to you.

Ransom, everything you need to know about answered prayer is contained in Psalm 66:18 "If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me." Until you turn from your scorning, you need not waste your time with any Scripture on getting your prayers answered.
 
Vince Massi said:
Ransom, your contempt for God's Word is pretty strong. Normally, you attack His Word by scorning me when I teach it. On one occasion, you slipped up and referred to the Word of God as "empty" and "vapid. In a recent post, you referred to the Word of God as "vapid BS."

Your scorning is not a minor sin. The Scriptures state that God scorns scorners and that He does not allow them to have wisdom.

To be fair, Ransom, your belief that God's promises of answered prayer are "vapid BS" is not dishonest--God does not answer your prayers. Nothing that the Scriptures say about how to get your prayers answered applies to you.

Ransom, everything you need to know about answered prayer is contained in Psalm 66:18 "If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me." Until you turn from your scorning, you need not waste your time with any Scripture on getting your prayers answered.
Click to expand...

Rest assured that when you see a man with a great deal of religious design in his shop window, you may depend on it; He keeps a very small stock of it within.  Spurgeon
 
It is too bad that Vince and  a lot of charismatic preachers weren't around 2000 years ago. We could have done away with most of the NT. After all, there is no reason Paul should have been in prison; He should have been able to pray himself out and back to having a large, prosperous, and fruitful ministry.

Peter was writing to exiles and told them to not think it was strange concerning their fiery trials and to (as exiles) submit themselves to their taskmasters. If they had only known, they should have been able to pray themselves back to their homeland with their families around in nice homes with nice incomes and good health and enjoy fruitful ministries.

Revelation should actually be kaput because if John had only know what Vince knows he would not have had to be exiled to Patmos. He should have been able to pray himself out and back home to his ministry, family, health, prosperity etc.

In all honesty I am not that sharp. (in case you hadn't noticed) I will listen to a sermon or someone's blog etc. and say to myself, "Man that is pretty good." Many times when I actually am reading through the NT I have to go back and say, 'wait a minute." It just doesn't add up.

However, I know that we are all scorners and that is why we can't enjoy the benefits of being unscornful like Vince. Oh yeah, We better add Peter, Paul, John and a host of others to the list of scorners or they would have been able to pray themselves out of their situations. Have a nice day!

And, when I get a glorified body and the sin nature is all gone I'm afraid that I will still think Vince is an idiot!
 
Vince Massi said:
On one occasion, you slipped up and referred to the Word of God as "empty" and "vapid.
Click to expand...

No, Vince, I referred to your theology as vapid and shoddy. If you are incapable of telling the difference between an attack on the Scriptures and one on yourself, it doesn't speak highly of your comprehension skills, does it? (And I didn't use the word "empty," either, which means you are seeing what is not there.)

Or, perhaps, you think a critique of your teaching is an attack on the word of God? If so, how incredibly arrogant of you.

Either way, you do not come across as fit to teach.

To be fair, Ransom, your belief that God's promises of answered prayer are "vapid BS" is not dishonest--God does not answer your prayers.
Click to expand...

To be fair, Vince, you have absolutely no standing whatsoever to tell anybody whether or not God answers their prayers. It is merely one more proof of your arrogance that you presume to do so.

Your theology is shoddy because it is obviously poorly reasoned.

It is vapid because it lacks scriptural substance. You base it on your personal anecdotes about supposed answers to prayer but dismiss counterexamples as proof of scorning. (There's that arrogant spirit in evidence again, Vince. You realize God hates that, right?)

And, yes, it is empty. Nearly 170 posts in, and you still haven't said anything remotely memorable or useful.

When you're stuck in a hole, Vince, you stop digging. I guess Joe Combs and the other hacks at Hyles-Anderson never got to that lesson, eh?
 
BALAAM said:
After all, there is no reason Paul should have been in prison; He should have been able to pray himself out and back to having a large, prosperous, and fruitful ministry.
Click to expand...

"Three times I pleaded with 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'" (2 Cor. 12:8-9)

Hmmm. Kind of sounds like "no" to me. But Vince said God doesn't do that. Paul must have been a scorner, because his experience doesn't line up with Vince's experience.
 
Vince Massi said:
Ransom, your contempt for God's Word is pretty strong. Normally, you attack His Word by scorning me when I teach it. On one occasion, you slipped up and referred to the Word of God as "empty" and "vapid. In a recent post, you referred to the Word of God as "vapid BS."

Your scorning is not a minor sin. The Scriptures state that God scorns scorners and that He does not allow them to have wisdom.

To be fair, Ransom, your belief that God's promises of answered prayer are "vapid BS" is not dishonest--God does not answer your prayers. Nothing that the Scriptures say about how to get your prayers answered applies to you.

Ransom, everything you need to know about answered prayer is contained in Psalm 66:18 "If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me." Until you turn from your scorning, you need not waste your time with any Scripture on getting your prayers answered.
Click to expand...

You are really dense aren't you?  Ransom never referred to the Word in those terms but you inane use of the Word.  Here's a clue for you old dull one...your poor teaching and idiotic interpretation of Scripture does not equal Scripture!
 
1 John 3:22-23 tells us "And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight. And this is His commandment: that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another, as He gave us commandment."

Here, God gives us two overlapping promises to answered prayer : obey God and do the things that please Him, and accept Christ and love the brethren.

A side effect of answered prayer is that it reflects on the character of both God and the person receiving the answer. If an ungodly man gets His prayers answered, it implies that God is pleased with his sins. That's why obedience MUST be accompanied by good works. And that is why salvation MUST be accompanied by love of the brethren. This way, God shows what pleases Him and what does not.
 
"'Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know." Jer.33:3

Almost every missionary who comes here to the Gringo Zone goes home empty-handed after two years. Southern Baptists, one KJO,and Pentecostals alike have returned home in failure. Some are from mission boards, and some are not. The majority do not have a single convert or bring a single person to church.

When my wife and I arrived in Mexico ten years ago, none of the churches had a youth activity.  I felt led to start a dog-walking activity. We gathered at the Baptist church, walked across the street to the animal shelter, and walked dogs. Then I bought everybody a Coke. The activity expanded to include orphans, neighborhood kids, and kids from another church.

Today, God is blessing us with over 25 kids every Saturday for the Neighborhood Bible Study in a park. The difference? The church we attend believes that God answers prayer, expects God to answer prayer, and claims God's promises of answered prayer.
 
"Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart." Jer.29: 12-13

Similar to yesterday's passage about calling on God, this passage promises that if we call on God and seek Him, we'll find Him. Sometimes a Christian realizes that He and God are no longer working together. There is no success and no blessing. If you think back to your days working a bus route at HAC, and compare it to today, you might realize that you've lost something.

God promises that if you'll seek Him, you'll find Him. The blessings and success and fellowship with God that you used to have are still there, because God is still there.
 
2 Chronicles 7:14 is a little off-topic, but it's important.

"if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land."

Sometimes a Christian takes a massive defeat. He gets fired, divorced, or even arrested. It's bad enough when he's innocent; it's worse when he's guilty. But no matter how bad it is, this verse tells you how to get your disaster turned around.

Some years ago, a woman preacher here in Mexico began a smear campaign on me, with some success. I claimed this verse and sought God. He spoke to me about how sloppy I had become on Bible reading and several other things. The campaign is still in progress but is mostly unsuccessful.
 
Vince Massi said:
2 Chronicles 7:14 is a little off-topic, but it's important.

"if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land."

Sometimes a Christian takes a massive defeat. He gets fired, divorced, or even arrested. It's bad enough when he's innocent; it's worse when he's guilty. But no matter how bad it is, this verse tells you how to get your disaster turned around.

Some years ago, a woman preacher here in Mexico began a smear campaign on me, with some success. I claimed this verse and sought God. He spoke to me about how sloppy I had become on Bible reading and several other things. The campaign is still in progress but is mostly unsuccessful.
Click to expand...

Were you trying to push this third grade Sunday School lesson on her?
 
""Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened."  Matt 7:7-8

Now, here God gives us an absolute guarantee of answered prayer. If you don't give up, God will eventually answer your prayer. But why doesn't He just answer it right away?

Sometimes God does, but other times He needs to work on you to remove obstacles to getting your prayers answered. There might be sin in your life, there might be other areas that need attention, your timing might be off, etc. But if you keep asking, seeking, and knocking, God will snaswer your prayer.
 
Have to make a brief detour, Folks.

You sometimes run into a Christian who has managed to seize a position God didn't give him, and he has to explain away God's promises of blessings, since God is not blessing him.

"God answers all prayer; He just says 'No'" is one of their major doctrines, since God does not answer their prayers. And another one is "Old Testament promises of success don't apply to us," since those promises really do not apply to them.

Does Christ cancel OT promises of blessing? 1 Cor 1:20  "For no matter how many promises God has made, they are "Yes" in Christ. And through Him the "Amen" is spoken by us to the glory of God."

Are some parts of the Bible useless for equipping us for service today? " All scripture is God breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” 2 Timothy 3:16-17.

Do some parts of Scripture teach Jews, but not Christians?  "For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope." Romans 15:4

Did God record things for the benefit of the OT Jews that are useless for NT Christians? "These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the culmination of the ages has come." 1 Cor 10:11

It's all right, Christians. You are allowed to claim OT promises of blessings.
 
Vince Massi said:
You sometimes run into a Christian who has managed to seize a position God didn't give him
Click to expand...

No such thing. "The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps" (Prov. 16:9)

You have a very childish view of God's providence.
 
Ransom said:
Vince Massi said:
You sometimes run into a Christian who has managed to seize a position God didn't give him
Click to expand...

No such thing. "The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps" (Prov. 16:9)

You have a very childish view of God's providence.
Click to expand...

Funny how many MOGs believe in God's sovereign "election" when it comes to their position of authority but not to the salvation of the soul.  ;)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top