An Unknown Christian

The Kneeling Christian

Chapter 4
Asking for Signs

“DOES God indeed answer prayer?” is a question
often on the lips of people, and oftener still in their
inmost hearts. “Is prayer of any real use?”
Somehow or other we cannot help praying; but then even
pagan savages cry out to someone or something to aid them
in times of danger and disaster and distress.

And those of us who really do believe in prayer are soon
faced with another question: “Is it right to put God
to the test?” Moreover, a further thought flashes into
our minds: “Dare we put God to the test?” For
there is little doubt failure in the prayer-life is often
— always? — due to failure in the spiritual life. So many
people harbor much unbelief in the heart regarding the
value and effectiveness of prayer; and without faith,
prayer is vain.

Asking for signs? Putting God to the test? Would to God we
could persuade Christian men and women to do so. Why, what
a test this would be of our own faith in God, and of our
own holiness of life. Prayer is the touchstone of true
godliness. God asks our prayers, values our prayers, needs
our prayers. And if those prayers fail, we have only
ourselves to blame. We do not mean by this that effective
prayer always gets just what it asks for. Now, the Bible
teaches us that we are allowed to put God to the test. The
example of Gideon in Old Testament days is sufficient to
show us that God honors our faith even when that faith is
faltering. He allows us to “prove Him” even after
a definite promise from Himself. This is a very great
comfort to us.

Gideon said unto God, “If Thou wilt save Israel by
mine hand, as Thou hast said, behold, I will put a fleece
of wool on the floor; and if the dew be on the fleece only
. . . then shall I know that Thou wilt save Israel by mine
hand, as Thou has said.” Yet, although there was a
“bowl full of water” in the fleece the next
morning, this did not satisfy Gideon! He dares to put God
to the test the second time, and to ask that the fleece
should be dry instead of wet the following night. “And
God did so that night” (Judges vi. 40).

It is all very wonderful, the Almighty God just doing what
a hesitating man asks Him to do! We catch our breath and
stand amazed, scarcely knowing which startles us the more
— the daring of the man, or the condescension of God! Of
course, there is more in the story than meets the eye. No
doubt Gideon thought that the “fleece”
represented himself, Gideon.

If God would indeed fill him with His Spirit, why,
salvation was assured. But as he wrung the fleece out, he
began to compare himself with the saturated wool. “How
unlike this fleece am I! God promises deliverance, but I do
not feel full of the Spirit of God. No inflow of the mighty
power of God seems to have come into me. Am I indeed fit
for this great feat?” No! But then, it is “Not I,
but God.” “O God, let the fleece be dry — canst
Thou still work? Even if I do not feel any superhuman
power, any fullness of spiritual blessing within me: even
if I feel as dry as this fleece, canst Thou still deliver
Israel by my arm?” (Little wonder that he prefaced his
prayer with the words, “Let not Thine anger be hot
against me”!) “And God did so that night: for it
was dry upon the fleece only, and there was dew on all the
ground” (verse 40).

Yes, there is more in the story than can be seen at a
glance. And is it not so in our own case? The devil so
often assures us that our prayers cannot claim an answer
because of the “dryness” of our souls. Answers to
prayer, however, do not depend upon our feelings, but upon
the trustworthiness of the Promiser.

Now, we are not urging that Gideon’s way of procedure
is for us, or for anyone, the normal course of action. It
seems to reveal much hesitation to believe God’s Word.
In fact, it looks gravely like doubting God. And surely it
grieves God when we show a faith in Him which is but
partial.

The higher and better and safer way is to “ask,
nothing doubting.” But it is very comforting and
assuring to us to know that God allowed Gideon to put Him
to the test. Nor is this the only such case mentioned in
Scripture. The most surprising instance of “proving
God” happened on the Sea of Galilee. St. Peter put our
Lord Himself to the test. “If it be Thou –” yet
our Savior had already said, “It is I.” “If
it be Thou, bid me come unto Thee on the water.” And
our Lord said, “Come,” and Peter “walked on
the water” (Matt. xiv. 28, 29). But this
“testing-faith” of Peter’s soon failed him.
“Little faith” (verse 31) so often and so quickly
becomes “doubt.” Remember that Christ did not
reprove him for coming. Our Lord did not say,
“Wherefore didst thou come?” but “Wherefore
didst thou doubt?”

To put God to the test is, after all, not the best method.
He has given us so many promises contingent on believing
prayer, and has so often proved His power and His
willingness to answer prayer, that we ought, as a rule, to
hesitate very much before we ask Him for signs as well as
for wonders!

But, someone may be thinking, does not the Lord God
Almighty Himself bid us to put Him to the test? Did He not
say, “Bring ye the whole tithe into the storehouse . .
. and prove Me now herewith, saith the Lord of Hosts, if I
will not open unto you the windows of heaven, and pour you
out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to
receive it”? (Mal. iii. 10).

Yes that is true: God does say, “Prove Me: test
Me.” But it is really we ourselves who are thus
tested. If the windows of heaven are not opened when we
pray, and this blessing of fullness-to-overflowing is not
bestowed upon us, it can only be because we are not
whole-tithers. When we are in very deed wholly yielded to
God — when we have brought the whole tithe into the
storehouse for God — we shall find such a blessing that we
shall not need to put God to any test! This is a thing we
shall have to speak about when we come to the question of
unanswered prayer.

Meanwhile we want every Christian to ask, “Have I
ever fairly tested prayer?” How long is it since you
last offered up a definite prayer? People pray for “a
blessing” upon an address, or a meeting, or a mission;
and some blessing is certain to come, for others are also
pleading with God about the matter. You ask for relief from
pain or healing of sickness: but Godless people, for whom
no one appears to be praying, often recover, and sometimes
in a seemingly miraculous way. And we may feel that we
might have got better even if no prayer had been offered on
our behalf. It seems to me that so many people cannot put
their finger upon any really definite and conclusive answer
to prayer in their own experience. Most Christians do not
give God a chance to show His delight in granting His
children’s petitions; for their requests are so vague
and indefinite. If this is so, it is not surprising that
prayer is so often a mere form — an almost mechanical
repetition, day by day, of certain phrases; a few
minutes’ “exercise” morning and evening.

Then there is another point. Have you, when in prayer,
ever had the witness borne in upon you that your request
was granted? Those who know something of the private life
of men of prayer are often amazed at the complete assurance
which comes over them at times that their prayers are
answered, long before the boon they seek is actually in
their possession. One prayer-warrior would say, “A
peace came over my soul. I was confident my request was
granted me.” He then just thanked God for what he was
quite sure God had done for him. And his assurance would
prove to be absolutely well founded.

Our Lord Himself always had this assurance, and we should
ever bear in mind that, although He was God, He lived His
earthly life as a perfect Man, depending upon the Holy
Spirit of God.

When He stood before the opened tomb of Lazarus, before He
had actually called upon the dead to come forth, He said,
“Father, I thank Thee that Thou hast heard Me. And I
know that Thou hearest Me always” (John xi. 41, 42).
Why, then, did He utter His thanks? “Because of the
people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that
Thou hast sent Me.” If Christ is dwelling in our
hearts by faith: if the Holy Spirit is breathing into us
our petitions, and we are “praying in the Holy
Ghost,” ought we not to know that the Father
“hears” us? (Jude 20). And will not those who
stand by begin to recognize that we, too, are God-sent?

Men of prayer and women of prayer will agonize before God
for something which they know is according to His will,
because of some definite promise on the page of Scripture.
They may pray for hours, or even for days, when suddenly
the Holy Spirit reveals to them in no uncertain way that
God has granted their request; and they are confident that
they need no longer send up any more petitions to God about
the matter. It is as if God said in clear tones: “Thy
prayer is heard and I have granted thee the desire of thy
heart.” This is not the experience of only one man,
but most men to whom prayer is the basis of their life will
bear witness to the same fact. Nor is it a solitary
experience in their lives: it occurs again and again.

Then prayer must give place to action. God taught Moses
this: “Wherefore criest thou unto Me? Speak unto the
children of Israel that they go forward” (Exod. xiv.
15).

We are not surprised to find that Dr. Goforth, a much-used
missionary in China, often has this assurance given him
that his petitions are granted. “I knew that God had
answered. I received definite assurance that He would open
the way.” For why should anyone be surprised at this?
The Lord Jesus said, “Ye are My friends, if ye do the
things I command you. No longer do I call you servants; for
the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have
called you friends” (John xv. 14, 15). Do you think it
surprising, then, if the Lord lets us, His
“friends,” know something of His plans and
purposes?

The question at once arises, does God mean this to be the
experience of only a few chosen saints, or does He wish all
believers to exercise a like faith, and to have a like
assurance that their prayers are answered?

We know that God is no respecter of persons, and therefore
we know that any true believer in Him may share His mind
and will. We are His friends if we do the things He
commands us. One of those things is “prayer.” Our
Savior begged His disciples to “have faith in
God” (the literal translation is “Have the faith
of God”). Then, He declares, you can say to a
mountain, “Be thou taken up and cast into the
sea,” and if you believe and doubt not, it shall come
to pass. Then He gives this promise: “All things
whatsoever ye pray and ask for, believe that ye have
received them [that is, in heaven], and ye shall have them
[on earth]” (Mark xi. 24). Now, this is exactly the
experience we have been talking about. This is just what
real men of prayer do. Such things naturally pass the
comprehension of unbelievers. Such things are perplexing to
the half-believers. Our Lord, however, desires that men
should know that we are His disciples, sent as He was sent
(John xvii. 18 and xx. 21). They will know this if we love
one another (John xiii. 35). But another proof is provided,
and it is this: if we know and they see that “God
heareth us always” (John xi. 42).

Some of us at once recall to mind George Muller’s
wonderful prayer-life. On one occasion, when crossing from
Quebec to Liverpool, he had prayed very definitely that a
chair he had written to New York for should arrive in time
to catch the steamer, and he was quite confident that God
had granted his petition. About half an hour before the
tender was timed to take the passengers to the ship, the
agents informed him that no chair had arrived, and that it
could not possibly come in time for the steamer. Now, Mrs.
Muller suffered much from sea-sickness, and it was
absolutely essential that she should have the chair. Yet
nothing would induce Mr. Muller to buy another one from a
shop near by. “We have made special prayer that our
Heavenly Father would be pleased to provide it for us, and
we will trust Him to do so,” was his reply; and he
went on board absolutely sure that his trust was not
misplaced, and would not miscarry. Just before the tender
left, a van drove up, and on the top of the load it carried
was Mr. Muller’s chair. It was hurried on board and
placed into the hands of the very man who had urged George
Muller to buy another one! When he handed it to Mr. Muller,
the latter expressed no surprise, but quietly removed his
hat and thanked his Heavenly Father. To this man of God
such an answer to prayer was not wonderful, but natural.
And do you not think that God allowed the chair to be held
back till the very last minute as a lesson to Mr.
Muller’s friends-and to us? We should never have heard
of that incident but for that delay.

God does all He can to induce us to pray and to trust, and
yet how slow we are to do so! Oh, what we miss through lack
of faith and want of prayer! No one can have very real and
deep communion with God who does not know how to pray so as
to get answers to prayer.

If one has any doubt as to God’s willingness to be put
to the test, let him read a little book called Nor Scrip
(Marshall, Morgan and Scott, Ltd.). Miss Amy Wilson
Carmichael tells us in its pages how again and again she
“proved God.” One gets the impression from the
book that it was no accident that led her to do so. Surely
God’s hand was in it? For instance, in order to rescue
a Hindu child from a life of “religious” shame,
it was necessary to spend a hundred rupees. Was she
justified in doing so? She could help many girls for such a
sum: ought she to spend it on one? Miss Wilson Carmichael
felt led to pray that God would send her the round sum of a
hundred rupees — no more, no less — if it was His will
that the money should be spent in this way. The money came
— the exact amount — and the sender of it explained that
she had sat down to write a check for a broken sum, but had
been impelled to make it just a hundred rupees.

That happened over fifteen years ago, and since that time
this same missionary has put God to the test over and over
again, and He has never failed her. This is what she says:
“Never once in fifteen years has a bill been left
unpaid; never once has a man or woman been told when we
were in need of help; but never once have we lacked any
good thing. Once, as if to show what could be done if it
were required, 25 pounds came by telegram! Sometimes a man
would emerge from the clamoring crowd at a railway station,
and slip some indispensable gift of money into the hand,
and be lost in the crowd again before the giver could be
identified.”

Is it wonderful? Wonderful! Why, what does St. John say,
speaking by the Spirit of God? “And this is the
boldness which we have towards Him, that if we ask
anything, according to His will, He heareth us; and if we
know that He heareth us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we
have the petitions which we have asked of Him” (I John
v.14, 15). Have you and I such “boldness”? If
not, why not?

To call it wonderful is to show our want of faith. It is
natural to God to answer prayer: normal, not extraordinary.

The fact is — let us be quite honest and straightforward
about it — the fact is so many of us do not believe God.
We may just as well be quite candid about it. If we love
God we ought to pray, because He wants us to pray, and
commands us to pray. If we believe God we shall pray
because we cannot help doing so: we cannot get on without
it. Fellow-Christian, you believe in God, and you believe
on Him (John iii. 16), but have you advanced far enough in
the Christian life to believe Him; that is, to believe what
He says and all He says? Does it not sound blasphemous to
ask such a thing of a Christian man? Yet how few believers
really believe God! — God forgive us! Has it ever struck
you that we trust the word of our fellow-man more easily
than we trust God’s word? And yet, when a man does
“believe God,” what miracles of grace God works
in and through him! No man ever lived who has been revered
and respected by so many peoples and tongues as that man of
whom we are told three times over in the New Testament that
“He believed God” (Rom. iv. 3; Gal. iii. 6; James
ii. 23). Yes, “Abraham believed God, and it was
reckoned unto him for righteousness.” And today,
Christian and Jew and Moslem vie with each other in
honoring his name. We implore every believer on Christ
Jesus never to rest till he can say, “I believe God,
and will act on that belief” (Acts xxvii. 25).

But before we leave the question of testing God, we should
like to point out that sometimes God leads us on “to
prove Him.” Sometimes God has put it into the heart of
Miss Wilson Carmichael to ask for things she saw no need
for. Yet she felt impelled by the Holy Spirit to ask. Not
only were they granted her, but they also proved an
inestimable boon. Yes, God knows what things we have need
of, whether we want them or not, before we ask (Matt. vi.
8). Has not God said, “I will in no wise fail
thee”?

Oftentimes the temptation would come to Miss Wilson
Carmichael to let others know of some special need. But
always the inner assurance would come, as in the very voice
of God, “I know, and that is enough.” And, of
course, God was glorified. During the trying days of the
war, even the heathen used to say, “Their God feeds
them.” “Is it not known all the country
round,” said a worldly heathen, “that your God
hears prayer?”

Oh, what glory to God was brought about by their simple
faith! Why do not we believe God? Why do we not take God at
His word? Do believers or unbelievers ever say of us,
“We know your prayers are answered”? Ye
missionaries the wide world over, listen! (Oh, that these
words might reach every ear, and stir every heart!) It is
the yearning desire of God — of our loving Savior Jesus
Christ — that every one of us should have the same strong
faith as that devoted lady missionary we are speaking
about.

Our loving Father does not wish any child of His to have
one moment’s anxiety or one unsatisfied need. No matter
how great our need may be; no matter how numerous our
requirements, if we only “prove Him” in the
manner He bids us, we shall never have room enough to
receive all the blessing He will give (Mal. iii. 10).

Oh, what peace we often forfeit !
Oh, what needless pain we bear!
All because we do not carry
Everything to God in prayer;

or all because, when we do “carry it,” we do not
believe God’s word. Why is it we find it so hard to
trust Him? Has He ever failed us? Has He not said over and
over and over again that He will grant all petitions
offered out of a pure heart, “in His name”?
“Ask of Me”; “Pray ye”; “Prove
Me”; “Try Me.” The Bible is full of answers
to prayer — wonderful answers, miraculous answers; and yet
somehow our faith fails us, and we dishonor God by
distrusting Him!

If our faith were but more simple We should take Him at
His word, And our lives would be all sunshine In the
bounties of our Lord.

But our eye must be “single” if our faith is to
be simple and our “whole body full of light”
(Matt. vi. 22). Christ must be the sole Master. We cannot
expect to be free from anxiety if we are trying to serve
God and Mammon (Matt. vi. 24, 25). Again we are led back to
the Victorious Life! When we indeed present our bodies
“a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God”
(Rom. xii. 1); when we present our members “as
servants to righteousness and sanctification” (Rom.
vi. 19); then He presents Himself to us and fills us with
all the fullness of God (Eph. iii. 19).

Let us ever bear in mind that real faith not only believes
that God can, but that He does answer prayer. We may be
slothful in prayer, but “the Lord is not slack
concerning His promise” (II Peter iii. 9). Is not that
a striking expression?

Perhaps the most extraordinary testing of God which that
Dohnavur missionary tells us of is the following. The
question arose of purchasing a rest-house in the hills near
by. Was it the right thing to do? Only God could decide.
Much prayer was made. Eventually the petition was offered
up that if it was God’s will that the house should be
purchased, the exact sum of 100 pounds should be received.
That amount came at once. Yet they still hesitated. Two
months later they asked God to give them again the same
sign of His approval of the purchase. That same day another
check for 100 pounds came. Even now they scarcely liked to
proceed in the matter. In a few days’ time, how-ever,
another round sum of 100 pounds was received, earmarked for
the purchase of such a house. Does it not flood our hearts
with joy to remember that our gracious Savior is so kind?
It is St. Luke the physician who tells us that God is kind
(Luke vi. 35). Love is always “kind” (I Cor.
xiii. 4); and God is Love. Think over it when you pray. Our
Lord is “kind.” It will help us in our
intercessions. He bears so patiently with us when our faith
would falter. “How precious is Thy lovingkindness, O
God” (Psalm xxxvi.7); “Thy lovingkindness is
better than life” (Psalm lxiii. 3).

The danger is that we read of such simple faith in prayer,
and say, “How wonderful!” and forget that God
desires every one of us to have such faith and such prayer.
God has no favorites! He wants me to pray; He wants you to
pray. He allows such things to happen as we have described
above, and suffers them to come to our knowledge, not to
surprise us, but to stimulate us. One sometimes wishes that
Christian people would forget all the man-made rules with
which we have hedged prayer about! Let us be simple. Let us
be natural. Take God at His word. Let us remember that
“the kindness of God our Savior, and His love toward
man,” has appeared (Titus iii. 4). God sometimes leads
men into the prayer-life. Sometimes, however, God has to
drive us into such a life.

As some of us look back over our comparatively prayerless
life, what a thrill of wonder and of joy comes over us as
we think of the kindness and “patience of Christ”
(II Thess. iii. 5). Where should we have been without that?
We fail Him, but, blessed be His name, He has never failed
us, and He never will do so. We doubt Him, we mistrust His
love and His providence and His guidance; we “faint
because of the way”; we murmur because of the way; yet
all the time He is there blessing us, and waiting to pour
out upon us a blessing so great that there shall not be
room to receive it.

The promise of Christ still holds good: “Whatsoever
ye shall ask in My name, that will I do, that the Father
may be glorified in the Son” (John xiv. 14).

Prayer changes things — and yet how blind

And slow we are to taste and see
The blessedness that comes to those
Who trust in Thee.
But henceforth we will just believe God.