Cooperating with God's Sovereignty

“Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.  And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him” (I John 5:11, 12). 

There is to be a close collaboration between our praying and the will of God.  It ought to be understood that no matter how passionately we desire a thing, if it’s not according to the will of God—we should not want it, even if there were the possibility of our receiving it.  Illustrative of desiring a thing contrary to the Lord’s will and receiving it is Psalm 106:15:  “And He gave them their request, but sent leanness into their soul.”  “Leanness” here meant a very great plague (See Numbers 11:31-34.)

So in our praying establishing the “will of God” is critical.  Next a matter of “Timing” is another “track” upon which the sovereignty of God (or “the will of God”) rides.  “And behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon, and this man was just and devout, waiting for the Consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him.  And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ.  So he came by the Spirit into the temple.  And when the parents brought in the Child Jesus, to do for Him according to the custom of the law, he took Him up in his arms and blessed God and said:

‘Lord, now You are letting Your servant depart in peace, according to Your word; for my eyes have seen Your salvation which You have prepared before the face of all peoples, a light to bring revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of Your people Israel’” (Luke 2:25-32).

How sublime is this Temple scene (Simeon speaking to his own death and of the One bringing salvation to all peoples)—at the same time revealing another of God’s principles in which He seeks cooperation from us:  “Surely the Lord God does nothing, unless He reveals His secret to His servants the prophets” (Amos 3:7).  From His servant, Simeon, God announces His redemptive plan.

Doubtless there are a number of reasons why God is pleased to enlist the aid (cooperation) of His servants the prophets in revealing a thing, but for me two immediately come to mind:  (1) to pray a thing into manifestation and (2) declare the reality of a given thing.

Consider this.  For 400 hundred years there had been no recorded “prophetic word” spoken in Israel.  Now, as it’s recorded in the first two chapters of Luke, there’s a sudden burst of prophetic activity, all having to do with the Christ child and releasing the purposes of God.

This, I believe, is a pattern for days yet to come.