prayer and evangelism

as we pray according to the will of God, our prayers will be answered according to the will of God. as we evangelise according to the will of God, our efforts will bear fruit according to the will of God.

what does it really mean to pray and evangelise according to the will of God?

"When Esther's words were reported to Mordecai, he sent back this answer: "Do not think that because you are in the king's house you alone of all the Jews will escape. For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father's family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?"" - Esther 4:12-14 (NIV)

rest assured that prayer and evangelism are the very means through which God works to save the elect. in the grand scheme of things, prayers will be answered as God sovereignly ordains and efforts to evangelise will bear fruit as God sovereignly ordains. the elect will not perish simply because we do not pray for them or make efforts to evangelise them. indeed, the elect will never perish.

God will rouse the elect (who know that they are the elect) to reach the elect (who do not know that they are the elect... yet).

from a divine perspective

there will be prayers which God will answer and prayers which God will not answer. there will also be efforts to evangelise which God will make bear fruit and efforts to evangelise which God will not make bear fruit.

from a human perspective

the question is not whether God will answer prayers or make efforts to evangelise bear fruit. there will always be prayers which God will answer and efforts to evangelise which God will make bear fruit. the question is whether we are praying the prayers which God will answer and whether we are making the efforts to evangelise which God will make bear fruit. in other words, the question is whether we are praying the right prayers and making the right efforts to evangelise.

from our perspective

"Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realise that Christ Jesus is in you - unless, of course, you fail the test? And I trust that you will discover that we have not failed the test." - 2 Corinthians 13:5-6 (NIV)

what we should be thinking about is whether our prayers are being answered (in Christ, not in and of ourselves) and our efforts to evangelise are bearing fruit (in Christ, not in and of ourselves).

of course, not all of us will have the opportunity to witness our prayers being answered and our efforts to evangelise bearing fruit.

"What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe - as the Lord has assigned to each his task. I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labour. For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, God's building." - 1 Corinthians 3:5-9 (NIV)

nevertheless, all of us should be praying and evangelising such that we have the assurance that our prayers will be answered and our efforts to evangelise will bear fruit. this means that we do not pray counter to God's revealed will (eg. asking for the sign gifts in this day and age) or evangelise counter to God's revealed will (eg. missionary dating).

if our prayers are consistently not being answered or our efforts to evangelise are consistently not bearing fruit, then how can we say - with assurance - that we are praying for the right things and making the right efforts to evangelise?

and if we are consistently not praying for the right things or making the right efforts to evangelise, then how can we say - with assurance - that we are praying and evangelising according to the will of God?

and if we are not praying and evangelising according to the will of God, then how can we say - with assurance - that we are truly saved? like the nature of faith, prayer and evangelism are not about salvation, but the assurance of salvation.

at the end of the day, God works to save the elect through prayers which are answered and efforts to evangelise which bear fruit. are we praying such that the prayers which are answered are ours (in Christ, not in and of ourselves) and evangelising such that the efforts to evangelise which bear fruit are ours (in Christ, not in and of ourselves)?