Second Causes

How grateful I am that we have the resource of sites like "Monergism" and others that provide a vast amount of solid Biblical teachings for free. I would not have the understanding I do today, nor would I and my family have known the transformation we are experiencing without this ministry.Yesterday I heard a great message by Wayne Grudem on the gifts of the Spirit that corrected some of my wrong thinking. Since God in His grace was pleased to open my eyes to the truth of the gospel and the knowledge of His sovereignty in all things I have been somewhat confused about healing and how I pray and not contradict God's sovereign will. I have found myself in settings where asked to pray with others for specific ailments and unable to speak because my prayers would be in direct opposition to those who asked me to pray. A little background is necessary here; I have been part of "charismatic" assemblies all of my Christian life who seem to believe, but would not admit, that God is a tool in their hands vs. (what I believe) we are a tool in His. Their prayers are more like demands, and refusals to believe are viewed as weak faith or lack of a right understanding of God. Their understanding of God is one that does not desire that any of His children should suffer in any way, and all suffering is a direct result of Satan. So, we rebuke Satan, pray very specifically, right down to the molecular structure, speaking to the muscles, etc. commanding them to line up, and all in the name of Jesus. While there is a very little truth in this caricature, it does not represent a Biblical view of the character of God and ignores much of what scripture says about the authority of Satan.What God revealed to my heart yesterday I had learned before but did not know... yes that is possible. It is the Holy Spirit that brings a revelation of God and truth through scripture, preaching, etc., while I had heard and even learned this tuth I did not know it. It can be found in The Westminster Confession which has this beautiful statement; "God, from all eternity, did, by the most wise and holy counsel of his own will, freely, and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass: yet so, as thereby neither is God the author of sin, nor is violence offered to the will of the creatures; nor is the liberty or contingency of second causes taken away, but rather established." (WCF 3.1) The understanding of two words, "second causes" is what cleared up the whole matter for me yesterday.Yes God does heal! I knew that but how did I reconcile this with the truth that yes God is sovereign? He uses sickness, illness, pain, suffering of any and all types to fulfill His purposes on the earth, but He also uses the supernatural (Boy it scares me to say that word because of the gross distortions I have seen in the circles I travel in). Can we command God to do a thing? Should we command God to do a thing we see as proper with our wretched feeble humanistic sympathic minds? Do we really have that kind of authority? I have to admit I don't have the answers to those questions yet, but He in His divine will has ordained the use of "second causes", and that includes my prayers for the sick, it includes the laying on of hands, it includes the anointing of oil, it includes the preaching and teaching of the word, it includes personal study, it includes websites like monergism, it includes deep abiding friendships. Will He always heal... What's been your experience? What's been mine? No, of course He doesn't... Is He good regardless of whether or not He chooses to heal? Yes of course He is.I am constantly reminded when I think of the overemphasis on healing in the church today of the multitudes that followed Jesus after He fed them in John 6, until He explained the cost of being His disciple in that same chapter and they all went away except those He had chosen. It wasn't healings that caused the New Testament Church to grow, it was persecution. If it wasn't for the stoning of Steven they would've never left Jerusalem. So... pray for the sick, and especially for those whom He does not know yet. God may open a door to thier heart through your compassion. Perhaps prayer does a little more than just change me.

Prayer

I of all men am no expert in the practice or understanding of prayer, and even though I often long to spend time in prayer and see it as my chief work while in this world I most often ignore the spirit’s urgings.

I have heard recently that God will listen and lend His hand to our cause if we are only persistent, if we simply do not give up. This teaching was gleaned from the passage in Luke 18:1-9, the parable of the persistent widow. It’s important whenever we hear a passage of scripture that seems to contradict what we know about the character of God to examine it in light of all of scripture as best we can. One of the first things that came to mind for me was the Apostle Paul’s persistent plea that God remove the “thorn from his flesh” and God’s refusal to do the very thing that Paul saw as necessary to the advancement of his ministry. So what is our Lord saying in these passages?

I spent some time this morning in Matthew Henry and what I read there confirmed my own understanding of prayer, that it changes me. In prayer I do bring my problems to God simply because I show up… I am the problem, and I bring myself to Him. God’s refusal to answer certain things is designed to develop my character, and my persistence proves and exercises my faith. The greatest faith a man can have is the resolution that “whatever happens” God is good and He is working all things out for good (Romans 8:28), and that good is His glory and will ultimately be the best for us. I often wonder if those great saints who died and are continuing to die for our faith cursed the day they had to pay with their lives. History proves the opposite, many hugged the post on which they were tied and sang hymns extolling his majesty as they burned in the flames.

As you look through the letters Paul wrote to the church you see his manner and the content of his prayer. Eph 1:17-19 “ ,that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power.” Phil 1:9-11 “And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment, that you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ, being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.” Read also Col 1:9-18 which is a wonderful passage…

And finally I leave you with this prayer lifted up by George Whitefield which I believe God is honoring today 239 years after his death…

“Yea…that we shall see the great Head of the Church once more . . . raise up unto Himself certain young men whom He may use in this glorious employ. And what manner of men will they be? Men mighty in the Scriptures, their lives dominated by a sense of the greatness, the majesty and holiness of God, and their minds and hearts aglow with the great truths of the doctrines of grace. They will be men who have learned what it is to die to self, to human aims and personal ambitions; men who are willing to be ‘fools for Christ’s sake’, who will bear reproach and falsehood, who will labor and suffer, and whose supreme desire will be, not to gain earth’s accolades, but to win the Master’s approbation when they appear before His awesome judgment seat. They will be men who will preach with broken hearts and tear-filled eyes, and upon whose ministries God will grant an extraordinary effusion of the Holy Spirit, and who will witness ‘signs and wonders following’ in the transformation of multitudes of human lives.”

Prayer changes us not God.