Commanding God

When it comes to prayer, the Family makes much of verses like Isaiah 45:11 where (according to Family teaching) we are actually given the authority to command God what to do.

Isaiah 45:11 Thus saith the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker, Ask me of things to come concerning my sons, and concerning the work of my hands command ye me. (KJV)

We are told that God said He is like the genie of Aladdin’s lamp Who is obligated to grant our requests, as long as we ask in faith. As long as we have enough faith we’ll be able to command God, work miracles, call on the ‘keys of the kingdom’, claim our needs supplied, and even obtain many things that couldn’t really be counted as needs. We are told that when the Bible says, “No good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly” it means that we can ask in prayer for pretty much anything we want, as long as we’re sure it’s a ‘good thing’. When Jesus said, “If you ask anything in My name I will do it” we are told He wanted to give us blanket approval to claim anything in prayer. We are told that God won’t answer prayers for things to ‘consume on our lusts’ (James 4:3), yet on the other hand He sometimes gives us those very same objects of our lusts that we prayed for and sends with it ‘leanness into our souls’ (Psalm 106:15).

Please note that this is not a comprehensive study on all the aspects on prayer. This page will focus on the particular aspect of whether we may command God in prayer.

As with a number of doctrines, the Family takes this one to the extreme, reasoning that if a doctrine is true, it must be true all the way. If God tells us He wants us to do something, then nothing should hold us back from obeying Him, right? Therefore as God wants us to ‘command Him’ in prayer, we should learn how to do this to the limit, shouldn’t we? We should claim mighty miracles, read as much Word as possible to boost our faith, practise the use of the ‘new weapons’ and we’ll be invincible, unstoppable, the spiritual super-heroes of the end-time, not to mention a financial power, miraculous healers and the leaders of the Christians during the tribulation.

It is easy to get carried away with the grandiose claims of miracle-working power bestowed on believers with great faith. It’s easy to read Isaiah 45:11 and think, “Well, that’s what it says, doesn’t it? And look at this promise and that one! As long as I build up by faith (through the Word) then nothing will be impossible to me! Wow!”

Before we focus on the results of this teaching, however, it is wise to have a good look at the teaching itself, the verses on which it is based, and what the Bible says in general about the subject. If we use the Bible as a reference tool to back up the doctrine we have been taught, then we are in grave danger of twisting its words to mean what they do not say. The Bible is not a reference book (like a dictionary) pulled down to look up specific items to strengthen our case. Rather, the Bible is our Master, the source of our doctrine, the origin of all true teaching, and we must allow ourselves to be taught by the Bible, rather than use it to lend weight to our own argument.

Making such a statement immediately requires the acknowledgement of two facts. Firstly that every word ever produced by the Family is subservient to every word in the Bible. Nothing that the Family writes can ever be on the same level as God’s Word in the Bible, including new revelations, prophecies ‘from Jesus’ and older MLs interpreting Bible passages. All must be judged by the Bible. Examining the Bible through the point of view of Family writings is like a servant in the White House claiming to speak the mind of the President. Rather, when the President speaks, the servant should refrain from inserting his own opinions into the message. In other words, he should sit down and shut up. Likewise it is the Bible that examines every Family word, every doctrine that the Family puts out, not the Family that examines the Bible. When there is a conflict, it is always the Family word that must be discarded. There must never be an occasion when we take what the Family says over what the Bible says, or we will immediately have shut out God’s voice. Secondly, the same holds true for every word published on this web site. The Bible is the ultimate and only authority. The purpose of this site is to point out a number of places where the Family has misinterpreted or misapplied the Bible, and to encourage all Family members, whether past, present or prospective to take the Bible as the only Word of God.

So, what’s the problem with ‘command ye Me’? That is what the Bible says, doesn’t it? Unfortunately, it does not. It seems that the Family has developed a bad habit of using the Bible like a promise box, cut up into individual verses and used when convenient. However when we look at the passage containing the verse, we get a very different picture. Cut the verse out of the Bible and read it on its own and we form a doctrine around commanding God what to do. Replace the verse into its chapter and we see that God was in fact rebuking those who would presume to command Him what to do!

Isaiah 45:9-12

9 “Woe to him who strives with his Maker! Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth! Shall the clay say to him who forms it, ‘What are you making?’ Or shall your handiwork say, ‘He has no hands’?

10 Woe to him who says to his father, ‘What are you begetting?’ Or to the woman, ‘What have you brought forth?’“

11 Thus says the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker: “Ask Me of things to come concerning My sons; and concerning the work of My hands, you command Me.

12 I have made the earth, and created man on it. I-- My hands-- stretched out the heavens, and all their host I have commanded.

(NKJ)

Woe to him who commands his Maker what to do! Read verse 11 from a different translation.

Isaiah 45:9-12

9 “Woe to him who quarrels with his Maker, to him who is but a potsherd among the potsherds on the ground. Does the clay say to the potter, ‘What are you making?’ Does your work say, ‘He has no hands’?

10 Woe to him who says to his father, ‘What have you begotten?’ or to his mother, ‘What have you brought to birth?’

11 “This is what the LORD says-- the Holy One of Israel, and its Maker: Concerning things to come, do you question me about my children, or give me orders about the work of my hands?

12 It is I who made the earth and created mankind upon it. My own hands stretched out the heavens; I marshaled their starry hosts.

(NIV)

What on earth, says God in the book of Isaiah, do you think you’re doing, telling Me what to do? I Who created the earth, I Who created you like a potter moulds a lump of clay, it is I Who command, not you!

God is our Sovereign Lord

There is a very big difference between the Family concept of ‘commanding God’ and the Bible verses on prayer and supplication. The Bible encourages us to pray, to beg the Lord for His mercy, to supplicate, implore, petition, but it does not give us the authority to tell God what to do.

1 Chr 29:10-12

10 Therefore David blessed the LORD before all the assembly; and David said: “Blessed are You, LORD God of Israel, our Father, forever and ever.

11 Yours, O LORD, is the greatness, the power and the glory, the victory and the majesty; for all that is in heaven and in earth is Yours; yours is the kingdom, O LORD, and You are exalted as head over all.

12 Both riches and honor come from You, and You reign over all. In Your hand is power and might; in Your hand it is to make great and to give strength to all.

We are to come before God as King David did, humbled by God’s power and majesty. When we come before Jesus as the Son of God, we are also to remember our place.

Eph 1:17-21

17 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,

18 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,

19 and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power

20 which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places,

21 far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come.

Coming before Jesus, we are humbled before Him Whose name is greater than any other, yet Who humbled Himself to die for us.

Phil 2:10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth,

Like the 24 elders in the book of Revelations, we fall flat on our faces before the Lamb Who was slain for us.

Rev 5:8 Now when He had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each having a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.

God is God. Reducing God (or Jesus) to a level where we can presume to direct His paths is nothing less than putting ourself higher than Him, which is tantamount to blasphemy.

One of the purposes of prayer.

Prayer is not informing God of our needs, for He already knows what we need. Neither is it a method of releasing God’s power to supply those needs. Rather, prayer conforms us to God’s will, it is not a means whereby we may conform God to our will. It is an expression of our helpless need and our utmost dependence on a loving Father’s mercy.

If we have the idea that we pray so that we can issue commands to God, we have it upside down. We pray so that God can issue commands to us, we pray to put ourself in the position of yielding to His Word in the Bible. We pray to submit, not to dictate. We cannot force God to do anything for us.

Jesus is with us when we pray unitedly, not to collect our requests, not to write down a list of what we want, but to change us to be conformed to His image, to speak to our hearts. He has the right to speak His desire, our place is to listen, to yield and to pray according to His will.

Matt 18:19-20

19 “Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven.

20 “For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.”

When Jesus told us to agree together in prayer, He did not give us authority to command Him, but rather cautioned us not to assume we know His will without finding out what the Holy Spirit has told other believers. In other words, the meaning is not for us to decide together as to what we should request from Him, as if He was obligated to listen to us when we come to Him en masse, but that we should each listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit and counsel together about what He has told us. If there is a conflict of opinions, then we should set our hearts to yield to the Holy Spirit until we are sure we know what to pray for. When we don’t know what to pray for, the Holy Spirit can show us all the same thing.

To make an example, suppose that someone has an affliction that we would like to be healed. The idea is not that we agree together that the person should be healed, and our agreement forces God to do want we want. Rather, we must first understand that if it is not God’s will for the person to be healed, then there is nothing we can do to make God do what we want. Next, if it is God’s will then He will get it done. If we don’t respond to the movement of the Holy Spirit, then He’ll get someone else to do the job, but it is always a work of the Holy Spirit.

Rom 8:26 Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.

The key in the next verse is the phrase, ‘according to His will’.

I Jn 5:14-15

14 Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.

15 And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.

Miracles can only occur when they are according to His will, not when it is only us who desire them. In John 14, Jesus did not give us blanket authority to ask Him for anything we want, but rather told us that He would work through us as His Father worked through Him. There is nothing we can do to make Him work through us, not even our most fervent prayers, unless it is His will. Again, if we remove a verse like John 14:14 from its place in the Bible, we can use it for our own self-glorifying purposes.

John 14:14 “If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.

Replace it back into John chapter 14 and we see that Jesus told us exactly how it works: God His Father worked and spoke through Jesus. The miracles and the message were according to God the Father’s will not Jesus the Son’s.

John 14:10 “Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works.

Jesus then returned to the Father, and we can see Him working through us in the same way that He saw His Father working through Him. It is not that we decide what miracles should then occur, but that we should believe in Him and He would use us in whatever way He chooses. It is His choice, not ours; His power, not ours; His will, not ours; His initiative, His miracle, and to His glory, not ours.

John 14:12 “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father.

We will be able to discern His will because He will send the Holy Spirit to us, Who will teach us His will.

John 14:16 “And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever--

John 14:26 “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.

In fact, the Holy Spirit is absolutely essential for prayer because without Him we don’t know what to pray for.

That’s another good reason why we should hesitate before commanding God. We just don’t know what is best in any situation. We don’t know because we cannot know; only God knows. We may think we know what the problem is, but we have no idea as to the answer. We beg and ask for help, but God alone knows what is best.

Any miracles can only come as Jesus manifests Himself in us. That can only happen when we keep His commandments (verse 21). There is no hint of Jesus keeping our commandments.

John 14:19-23

19 “A little while longer and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me. Because I live, you will live also.

20 “At that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.

21 “He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.”

22 Judas (not Iscariot) said to Him, “Lord, how is it that You will manifest Yourself to us, and not to the world?”

23 Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.

Conclusion

As we yield to Jesus as our Lord and Master, as we listen to His commandments, as we faithfully read the Bible and keep its words, Jesus can then work through us according to His will. Whenever we pray for anything, we should always yield our own will to His, regardless of the particular request.

Matt 6:10 Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Prayer submits us to His will, not Him to our will. God is our sovereign Lord and we have no right to tell Him anything.

Matt 26:39 He went a little farther and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.”

Next, we will look at miracles. How do they come? Can we work miracles if we have enough faith?

Home