As we move towards the conclusion of praying to receive answers, let’s now focus on the promised work of the Holy Spirit in the lives of believers, particularly in these end times. For context we look at Ecclesiastes 3:1-12 (GNT) so every believer can gain an important and relevant understanding for today.

Everything that happens in this world happens at the time God chooses. He sets the time for birth and the time for death, the time for planting and the time for pulling up, the time for killing and the time for healing, the time for tearing down and the time for building. He sets the time for sorrow and the time for joy, the time for mourning and the time for dancing, the time for making love and the time for not making love, the time for kissing and the time for not kissing. He sets the time for finding and the time for losing, the time for saving and the time for throwing away, the time for tearing and the time for mending, the time for silence and the time for talk. He sets the time for love and the time for hate, the time for war and the time for peace. What do we gain from all our work? I know the heavy burdens that God has laid on us. He has set the right time for everything. He has given us a desire to know the future, but never gives us the satisfaction of fully understanding what he does. So I realized that all we can do is be happy and do the best we can while we are still alive.

Please pay attention to the underlined portions. Have you accepted that the events that occur in us, around us and with us are allowed and timed according to God’s choosing?
 
These times creep in on us except God grants us to recognise them. You now appreciate the importance of the admonition of the Lord to ‘watch and pray’. Yahweh gave us the desire to know the future but unlike the conclusion of Solomon in our text, He gives the seeking believer help to know it, when we seek according to His way! If we fail to do so, we will run and toil in travail under the burden stated in verse 10.
 
What Solomon did not have that led him to the conclusion in verse 12, we have in the promise of the Holy Spirit.

1. John 14:26 (AMPC)—But the Comforter (Counselor, Helper, Intercessor, Advocate, Strengthener, Standby), the Holy Spirit, Whom the Father will send in My name [in My place, to represent Me and act on My behalf], He will teach you all things. And He will cause you to recall (will remind you of, bring to your remembrance) everything I have told you.
2. John 15:26 (AMPC)—But when the Comforter (Counselor, Helper, Advocate, Intercessor, Strengthener, Standby) comes, Whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of Truth Who comes (proceeds) from the Father, He [Himself] will testify regarding Me, and
3. John 16:13,14 (AMPC)—But when He, the Spirit of Truth (the Truth-giving Spirit) comes, He will guide you into all the Truth (the whole, full Truth). For He will not speak His own message [on His own authority]; but He will tell whatever He hears [from the Father; He will give the message that has been given to Him], and He will announce and declare to you the things that are to come [that will happen in the future]. He will honor and glorify Me, because He will take of (receive, draw upon) what is Mine and will reveal (declare, disclose, transmit) it to you.

It comes therefore as no surprise the prayers made by Paul to the different churches he ministered to. We take only two examples to help pray correctly if we want to receive answers.

In his letter to the Ephesian Church—I have never stopped thanking God for you. I pray for you constantly, asking God, the glorious Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, to give you wisdom to see clearly and really understand who Christ is and all that he has done for you. I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can see something of the future he has called you to share. I want you to realize that God has been made rich because we who are Christ’s have been given to him! I pray that you will begin to understand how incredibly great his power is to help those who believe him. It is that same mighty power that raised Christ from the dead and seated him in the place of honor at God’s right hand in heaven, far, far above any other king or ruler or dictator or leader. Yes, his honor is far more glorious than that of anyone else either in this world or in the world to come. Ephesians 1:16-19 (TLB)

In his letter to the Colossian Church—I wish you could know how much I have struggled in prayer for you and for the church at Laodicea, and for my many other friends who have never known me personally. This is what I have asked of God for you: that you will be encouraged and knit together by strong ties of love, and that you will have the rich experience of knowing Christ with real certainty and clear understanding. For God’s secret plan, now at last made known, is Christ himself. Colossians 2:1,2 (TLB)

These two are but a few examples of prayers that move the hands of God. It is time to change and fit the mode set for us by the Lord Jesus Christ and the apostles who went before all. Will you? Selah


Pastor Afolabi Oladele