The phrase "in Jesus' name" means a prayer is about to end. But what does it mean to offer our prayers in Jesus' name. On the next Haven Today, Charles Morris is joined by Dr. Bryan Chapell as they talk about a transforming process of beginning our prayers in the name of Jesus. Don't miss a program called "Praying Backwards".

November 9, 2005

Praying Backwards with Dr. Bryan Chapell

If you hear the phrase, “In Jesus’ Name” what does that tell you? It’s kind of like the closing credit of a movie. It’s a signal that a prayer is about to end. In the next few minutes let’s do something different. Let’s take that simple phrase and move the meaning to the front. Begin by praying – really praying – in Jesus’ name first. I’m Charles Morris and welcome to Haven Today. In a few minutes we’ll be joined by a person who prays as well as a person who studied prayer. Later we’ll tell you how to get the book by the same name as this program, “Praying Backwards”. Now let’s start by asking for the Lord’s blessing.

Song:
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You have found your way to Haven Today and we’re talking about praying, praying backwards. And we’re getting that term from our special guest that we have on the program today. We’re going to go to St. Louis now and Dr. Bryan Chapell who’s the president of Covenant Theological Seminary. Brian, my brother in the Lord, welcome to Haven Today.
BC: Thank you Charles. I love being with you. Thank you so much.
CM: I asked you on the program yesterday, what in the world does it mean to pray backwards which is part of the title of your brand new book?
BC: That’s right. Well let me assure you again praying backwards has nothing to do with standing on your head or turning around 3 times and facing East, I mean praying backwards has nothing to do with the position of your body. It’s just this very simple notion. If you were to begin your prayers where you normally end, how would it change them? I mean, where we normally end is we say, “in Jesus’ name, amen.” I mean most of us since we were little tikes prayed that way. You say, “Why do you do that?” Well, we remember that in the Bible even in the Old Testament, when prophets spoke, they spoke in the name of the Lord, when armies went forth they went forth in the name of the Lord. Even when David went up against Goliath, he said to Goliath, “You come with sword, javelin and spear. I come in the name of the Lord.” And that’s because when you do anything in the name of the Lord you’re doing it for his glory and for his purposes. And praying backwards isn’t so much about the order of the words we use; it’s about the order of our priorities. If we really prayed, “Lord, in Jesus name, this is what I’m asking,” we might not pray like little children, “Lord, I want a new red bike, in Jesus’ name. I want a pony, in Jesus’ name”. That’s not really in Jesus’ name, that’s in the child’s name. And sometimes as adults we pray very childlike prayers, don’t we? “Lord, please give me more money, in Jesus’ name. Please lower my taxes in Jesus’ name.” In Jesus’ name is not just a sanctified period, not just a “roger wilco, Lord I’m over and out here”. It’s saying, “Lord everything I just prayed I’m asking that it would occur for the glory of Jesus. And if we started that way, even in our heart’s priority, say, “Lord, everything I’m going to ask now is for the priorities of the glory of your Son, we would have such confidence that God was going to hear our prayers, because we know he delights – he’s zealous for – the glory of his own Son. And when that’s the kind of prayer we’re offering, we can be confident that he will hear us.
CM: That’s exciting Bryan. I want to just confess something to you here and I want you to take the “Dr.” off of the front of your name for a minute and I want you to just be a pastor as I say this. Bryan, I see a couple of problems out there in the Christian world today. One, some of us don’t pray. But two, and this is where I’m going to just confess this to you and ask for how I personally can deal with this, I pray a lot as a believer in Jesus Christ. I pray every day, but I don’t always pray expecting God to answer. I think that’s a sin maybe, but that’s where I am.
BC: Well, Charles I understand and I think the Lord understands. Don’t you love it that in the Bible even the disciples ask Jesus twice, beginning of his ministry and end of his ministry, “Lord, teach us to pray?” You know, you’re kind of thinking, “No wait. You’ve been with Jesus for 3 years and you’re still saying teach us to pray?” You know if even the Apostles could say, “Can you teach me again how to pray?” Maybe it’s OK if I ask those questions too. Jesus seemed to understand and I think he will understand us too.
CM: Well what advise do you have for us?
BC: Well, I think of it this way, you know, I love it when the Bible gets so real and personal and even transparent such as when the Apostle Paul says in Romans 8, “We don’t know what we should pray for.”
CM: Yes.
BC: I think, “Hey, I can identify with that person! He’s an Apostle and yet he says we don’t know what we should pray for”. And I think that’s me at times. So, you know, I’ve been taught, you know, God can answer, you know, one of three ways. He can say, “yes,” he can say “no” he can say, “not yet”, but you know what I think God also reminds us in scripture? He can say, “I will answer exceedingly, abundantly above all that you would ask or even think.” And believe it or not Charles, I think that is how he answers most of the time. It’s just that we haven’t got our eyes open to see it the way he’s seeing. And it’s in that very section of scripture where Paul says, “We don’t know what we ought to pray for” that I think God’s explaining it to us. Let me continue the verse, because it ends with the verse we all love, you know second only probably to –
CM: Sure
BC: John 3:16
CM: 8:28, right.
BC: It’s that verse that says – exactly, Romans 8:28 – “All things work together for good to them that love God and are called according to his purpose.” We forget that that great promise is actually the conclusion of some teaching on prayer. And in that teaching, the Apostle starts out by saying we don’t know what we ought to pray about. So what happens? “So the Holy Spirit intercedes for us with groanings too deep to utter. And God who knows the mind of the Spirit answers in accord with his will.” Now I think, what does all that mean? It means I’m like you, I pray about important things. I pray about the salvation of people I love and I’m sorry, I have to confess sometimes I fall asleep in my own prayers.
CM: That’s right, yes.
BC: But what’s God doing? He tells me that his Holy Spirit is interceding for me with groanings too deep to utter. That’s the language of the Bible for the groans of childbirth. I’m falling asleep and the Holy Spirit is saying, “Lord, hear him! Lord, hear him!” as in the pains of childbirth. And not only is the Spirit speaking with great fervency, but the Spirit is speaking with laser precision. He’s saying this, “Lord, conform his prayers to your will.” And the way I think of it – forgive me Charles, I just have to think in very simple images sometimes – it’s like when I used to watch my mom decorating cakes. And she would use one of those icing funnels, remember what that looks like?
CM: Right, right yes.
BC: You glop the icing in one end and then you kind of squeeze the icing out and at the other end it comes out and you decorate. I think, all right, here’s what God’s saying: I don’t even know what I ought to pray like, but my prayers are going into God’s purposes like the glop in one end of the funnel, because I don’t know exactly what I ought to pray. And then the Holy Spirit is, with greater fervency and strength than I can bring, is squeezing out my prayer and then at the other end is that decorator tip. And that’s the work of the Spirit. So that even though my prayers are ill formed – I’m just a finite creature. I don’t know what’s going to happen in my next breath – and yet God, who knows all things, is using my prayers to bring out the beautiful design of his world upon my life so that, now believe it or not, all things work together for good to them that love God and are called according – I mean, that’s better than a new red bicycle. That’s even better than a pony. To have God say, “If you will pray to me, in ways you cannot even fathom, I’m going to work all things together for good.” It’s a mystery beyond what I can explain. But it’s the promise of God that he’s bending the universe, changing the world by my prayers for my good and the glory of his Son.
CM: You know, when I hear you discuss that and unpack Romans 8 a little bit for us, that can really give us in our hearts a boldness and expectation, even those of us who pray routinely and maybe even persistently. But we need a boldness and realizing that God has a role by praying for us and through us in the Spirit and by the power of the Spirit, that gives us a boldness in our hearts and minds, doesn’t it?
BC: It really should. I mean I think of a time that I was driving home from college in a car that was a Plymouth Cricket. Now I don’t know if you remember a Plymouth Cricket Charles?
CM: I do, yes. I didn’t have one, but I remember them.
BC: I think Chrysler imported it for only one year. I mean it was that kind of quality car.
CM: That’s right.
BC: And I had that car, and I was driving back from college and it broke down, like it always did. I was, I was still miles from home. And even though I think I was still a couple hours away, I called my father.
CM: Sure.
BC: Now, you might think, “Well, gee that was going to inconvenience him for you to call your father so far away, I mean that was a terrible thing –“ No, listen! That’s my father. And because he’s my father I know he loves me and cares about me and the fact that he cares about me, means I’m willing to call him. I’m willing to inconvenience – I can be so bold as to call from hours away about my need. And God is saying, “Listen, I love you so much I sent my son for you. And beyond that, my Spirit is now conforming your prayers to my purposes, so call out to me. I want to hear your prayers, even over and over again.” You know, I have a son who’s currently in Europe, and, you know, when he calls I say, “Are you bothering me again?” No, that’s not what I say. I say, “Oh great! Good to hear from you thanks son! Oh thanks”. And to think that God with a bigger heart than mine
CM: Yes.
BC: is listening when I pray should make me bold and persistent and just with these perceptions, he loves me, he’s given his Spirit to help my prayers, he’s promising to do exceedingly above all that I would ask or even think. And he’s going to love me like a father. Why shouldn’t I be bold? I’ll be bold.
CM: Yes, yes. Dr. Bryan Chapell is the president of Covenant Theological Seminary. He’s got a new book out called, “Praying Backwards: Transform your prayer life by beginning in Jesus’ name” and we’ll tell you how to get a copy of that a little bit later. Bryan, let’s talk about something that we all know about, you’ve hinted about, but how do we really pray in the will of our Father so that we can have an expectation and believe the promise that the prayer will be answered?
BC: Yes, that’s a tough one, isn’t it?
CM: It is!
BC: I remember one time a friend of mine who’s a nurse was working with a dear family and they began to pray that one of their family members, really the matriarch of the family that she would be healed and she didn’t. She was not healed. And at the end of that time why the husband of that dear woman spoke to my friend and said, “God said he would heal and he didn’t so we’re done with that prayer thing.” You know they thought they were praying in accord with God’s will and then God didn’t do what they wanted and they said, well then he doesn’t do what he says. But what God says is that he will answer the prayer of faith. And you think, well, wait, I did have faith that God would do what I wanted. But you see that’s not ultimately the right order of faith. My faith is not in my wisdom. My faith is not even in the object of my prayer, the thing that I want. Ultimately the prayer of faith is faith in the fatherhood of God, that he will do what he knows is best, that what Jesus prayed for is the right thing when Jesus said, “Lord this is what I want, yet not my will but your will be done.” People say, “Oh you shouldn’t pray that way, that’s just hedging your bets. No, you pray for what you want and you say but Lord do your will.” It’s not hedging my bets. I’m not going to feel guilty about praying the way that Jesus did. So that’s the first step of praying according to God’s will, it’s yielding my will to his will. Saying, “Lord you’ve commanded me to pray for my desires, so here are my desires, here’s the thing that I want, and yet Lord ultimately, not my will but your will be done.” With this great commitment of my heart, my faith is not in my wisdom. I’m just a finite human creature. I’m not going sidle up to God and say, “Lord, I don’t even know what’s going to happen in the next minute, but I know in the universe, I’ve got it figured out what you ought to do.” I don’t do that. My faith is in the wisdom of God. And I know, for instance in healing, he can heal in this life or he can take someone to himself for the perfect healing of body and soul forever. In that situation people say, “Oh, that’s just going to Heaven. That’s not real prayer of faith healing.” Who says? Why is this the only reality in which God can work, this earthly reality? He transcends this earth. And my faith is in God’s will above my will. So that’s one thing, I’m going to pray according to God’s will when I have trust in his fatherhood. The other aspect of praying in God’s will is what I think about as staying between the fence posts. How do I know I’m praying according to God’s will? Well, one of the things that God has done is that he has given us his word of what is right. If I pray to be a better thief, well I know that’s outside of God’s will because his word tells me not to steal. I also know if I’m saying, “Lord, let me have a safe trip to Africa to be a missionary where I have no job, no money, no income and just take care of my family anyway.” So no wait a second. God has revealed in his word the standards of responsibility. If you are responsible for a family, then maybe God wants you to in Africa, maybe, maybe not, but there’s no question he wants you to take care of your family because that’s in the Word of God.
CM: Yes
BC: So when we pray within God’s will we are staying within the fence posts of Christian righteousness and Christian prudence. And in between those fence posts we can move with great confidence that we are in God’s path, in God’s plan and he can steer us the way he wants us to go. I think of the college students, you know, who are staying, you know, “Let’s see. Should I go to college A or college B, because one’s in the will of God and one’s out of the will of God?” Now listen, if you’re making a choice over which is a better party school, then I’ll say one is in God’s will one is not, but if the choice is really these are both good schools, and I don’t absolutely know God’s will so I’m going to make a prudential judgment, what I think is best according to my gifts and God’s calling and purposes upon my life. Then I make a choice and I don’t think the other one is necessarily evil. And I certainly believe God is strong enough to move me in a good direction if I’ve made a choice that he wants to steer me from. I don’t have to automatically believe one thing is in the will of God and one’s not in the will of God if the Word of God does not reveal that. I think of it this way: if I had a basket full of apples I wouldn’t say, “Let’s see, which apple should I eat because one of these is according to the will of God and all the others are not according to the will of God. So there’s one good apple and all the other apples are evil! Well, I don’t say that. I say, “Lord thank you for the basket of apples. Thank you for all these good choices.”

CM: Sure and you look for a good apple, you look for a good apple and you just eat it then, don’t you?
BC: Exactly.
CM: That’s right.
BC: And I think we make lots of choices that way in life praying, “Lord, help me make choices according to your priorities”, rather than trying to figure out the Bible as a crystal ball. That’s not praying according to the will of God. Praying according to the will of God is acting within the standards of righteousness in scripture and then trusting God with the rest.
CM: Wow. Amen. Thank you. Bryan Chapell our guest here on Haven Today and the author of “Praying Backwards: Transform your prayer life by beginning in Jesus’ name”. Thanks for being with us Bryan.
BC: Charles, my pleasure.

Song: Change My Heart O God
Performed by:

Steve Ragsdale ministering to us with music and Dr. Bryan Chapell being with us on a program where we’ve talked about a novel concept, praying, but praying backwards, a concept where we begin by praying in the name of Jesus. I hope our time has been helpful to you, this idea of praying backwards beginning our prayers in Jesus’ name. It’s a way to truly pray, “Not my will, but your will be done.” We have Dr. Bryan Chapell’s book, “Praying Backwards” here at Haven Today and I’d like to make it available to you. Now we ask for people to help us out because we are supported by the gifts of God’s people and so we’re asking for a gift of $25 or more to Haven Today. And if you’ll ask for it by name, we’ll be happy to send you Dr. Chapell’s book, “Praying Backwards”. You can get in touch with us and read more about this book by going online to haventoday.org, that’s haventoday.org. Or you can call us now toll free if you’re in North America at 1-800-65-HAVEN, that’s 1-800-65-HAVEN. I’m going to give you our mailing address now as well if you’d like to get in touch with us that way. You can write to us and send your check to:

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And if you didn’t get around to sending us a prayer request yesterday there’s still time because we’re still in the business of praying. You can go to haventoday.org and you can push the little button that says “Prayer”. We’d like to pray for you. I’m Charles Morris. Join me again tomorrow when again we will be a program that takes you to grace and together we’ll find Jesus Christ as our Savior in our lives here on Haven Today.