Come Up Here And See

Derek Prince’s book “Secrets of a Prayer Warrior” is an excellent teaching of aligning ourselves with the Lord in prayer. Derek’s teaching never focused on being selfish with our prayers. He teaches us through scriptures how to approach God in prayer, which brings answers. He believes there are eight conditions for answered prayer and they are:

• Come with Reverent Submission
• Have Faith
• Pray in the Name of Jesus
• Approach God Boldly
• Have the Right Motive
• Forgive Those Who Have Hurt You
• Be Directed by the Holy Spirit
• Ask According to God’s Word                                  Derek Prince

When I look at the listed titles of which each is important, it is hard to decide which way to go in this blog. Multitudes of books, short stories, and essays have been written on all these topics over the centuries. We will never stop learning about each of these steps of how to approach Almighty God in our prayers. 

The step that shines brightly is to “Come with Reverent Submission”. Our entitled society, our way of living is one where respect and honour for authority in all aspects has been abused, misused, stomped on, and kicked out of the window. The media tells us that we don’t have to have respect for our government, our parents, our employers, or our teachers. No matter who they are, we do not have to respect them. This feeling or opinion affects our relationship and honour for God. Many have been taught directly not to respect God.

• Cambridge describes reverence as showing great respect and admiration.
• Merriam-Webster describes submission as an act of submitting to the authority or control of another.

The Word of God tells us that Jesus was always heard because of His reverent submission to the Father. He lived his life the way we should live.

• Hebrews 5:7-8 NIV  During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, He offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the one who could save Him from death, and He was heard because of His reverent submission. ⁸ Son though He was, He learned obedience from what He suffered,

Since reverent submission is not understood in our culture, I looked up different translations of those words in Hebrews 5:7.

• NASB devout behaviour,
• AMP unfailing determination to do the Father’s will,
• CEB godly devotion,
• GNT humble and devoted,
• TLB strong desire to obey God at all times,
• ICB He left it all up to God

The International Children’s Bible of He left it all up to God is the best. It reveals to me the childlike faith that Jesus lived in response to His Father and an example for us to live. Jesus portrayed this the best in the Garden of Gethsemane. Three times, Jesus prayed or begged His Father that He did not want to go through all the suffering, the pain, the agony but He renounced His will and aligned Himself to the Father for our sake. Praise God. Where would we be without the cross? I am grateful that Jesus surrendered His will.

• Matthew 26:39, 42, 44 NKJV And He went a little beyond them, and fell on His face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will.”  He went away again a second time and prayed, saying, “My Father, if this cup cannot pass away unless I drink from it, Your will be done.” 44 And He left them again and went away and prayed a third time, saying the same thing once more.

Every day we must choose to renounce or resign by formal declaration of our will to God and surrender to His will. If we remember three truths of God that Derek teaches us about then it will be much easier to submit with reverence to God.

These truths or secrets to reverent submission are:

• God loves you and me more than we love ourselves.
• God understands us better than we understand ourselves.
• God wants only the best for us.                             Derek Prince

When we have a childlike faith in these truths of reverent submission, then we will love submission and know that when we submit, God hears us.

• Psalm 95:15 NASB He will call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will rescue him and honour him.
• James 4:7 NKJV Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.
• 1 John 5:14 NASB This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.
• Isaiah 65:24 NKJV “It shall come to pass That before they call, I will answer; And while they are still speaking, I will hear.

I want to encourage you that submission is a beautiful and safe place to be. I have too many testimonies of regret in my life where I found out the hard way that submission is the only way to live this life. Most of the time our submission to God is revealed in my submission to my husband, my employer, the daily people that you and I can see and touch.

One of the regretful consequences that I have of not submitting is that I was in a car accident, thankfully no one was hurt but I did lose my driver’s license for ten years. I know that we all have our own stories of consequences that we wish we would have submitted to our authority.

An excellent quote on submission is:

“God being Who and What He is, and we being who and what we are, the only thinkable relation between us is one of full lordship on His part and complete submission on ours.” A.W. Tozer  

Spirit of the Living God, I pray that You continue to teach us the beauty of Reverent Submission to You. Reveal to us why we should love submission is because of Who You are. Lord, we thank You for loving us more than we could imagine, in Jesus’ name, amen.

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Photo Credit to Todd Kent