A Call to Prayer: They All Continued with One Accord in Prayer and Supplication (1)
We may all pray continually in faith and with one accord, but without supplication, we will not obtain the result we expect from God.
And when they were come in, they went up into an upper room, where abode both Peter, and James, and John, and Andrew, Philip, and Thomas, Bartholomew, and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon Zelotes, and Judas the brother of James. These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren. (Acts 1:13-14, KJV)
And when the day of Pentecost was come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. (Acts 2:1-4, KJV)
With one accord, all one hundred and twenty thousand of Jesus' disciples in the upper room prayed continually in faith until the Holy Spirit came upon them on Pentecost Day. They did not just pray; they were also engaged in supplication. So, what does supplication mean? What does it mean to supplicate or be suppliant? And what has supplication got to do with a call to prayer? Answering these questions is the focus of this instalment.
What is supplication?
A supplication is a form of praying that involves earnestly pleading to God with entreaty, not with arrogance, nor is it done casually. In Luke 18:9-14, the Pharisee said he prayed always, fasted twice a week, and paid a tithe of all his income. He said he was unlike other men, particularly pointing to the 'sinful' tax collector or Publican who stood nearby. The Pharisee prayed with arrogance, placing so-called spiritual credentials before God, which, unfortunately for him, God regarded as filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6)! 'Filthy rags' as used here, was a euphemism for the used menstrual cloth of women in those days!
When we make supplications to God, it is from the standpoint of an inferior who badly needs something from a superior who can meet the need. Therefore, there can be no room for arrogance in supplication, nor can there be the making of a request on equal footing.
We must go to God with supplication—earnestly pleading, making entreaty—to show our utter helplessness without Him. And the basis for our request is the finished work of Christ on the cross at Calvary. We must understand that we have come to a Sovereign God and not a man. We must also know that a person in need, prays to God, who can meet that need. God meets our needs because of His benevolence and goodness through Jesus' work of salvation at Calvary, not because it is our right!
Supplication is the key to effective praying
If our prayer will be effective, besides being in one accord and praying with faith, we must also pray with supplication. The Lord Jesus taught His disciples (which includes us) to pray as follows:
"Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth." (Luke 11:2, KJV)
In teaching this prayer, the Lord tells us to put God first in everything! We must understand who we have come to, and because of who He is—a Sovereign God—we must make supplication to Him! As we pray, "Lord, let your kingdom come", we earnestly plead with God to cause His kingdom to come on the earth, recognising that if God's kingdom is not on the earth, iniquity and all kinds of pervasive evil will fill it.
We know that if God's kingdom is not established in our hearts and on the earth, Satan's hordes will rampage and ransack everything in sight. Therefore, we plead, not command but implore God that He establishes His kingdom on the earth and in our hearts.
Likewise, we must plead earnestly and implore God for His will to be done on the earth as it is always done in heaven. We beg God to grant us the grace to implement His will upon the earth, knowing that if we do not do His will, we will be courting disaster! These are strong or earnest pleadings in prayer to God. Through the writer of Hebrews, the Holy Spirit, tells us that Jesus, while on the earth,
offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared (Hebrews 5:7, KJV)
Sometimes, supplications involve groaning, crying, etc. Such earnest prayers are very effective in bringing answers from God. Though Elijah had heard from God that He would bring rain, he prayed earnestly, and God heard him and brought rain. We must not take God for granted. The fact that He says He would do something does not mean that we would not pray with supplication—especially when it is taking some time in coming!
Supplication does not mean insisting on your desire being done
Some people earnestly plead with God in prayer, but their plea is for God to do what is against His will and nature. While pastoring in a church many years ago, a group of ladies had packaged a gift for a guest minister, all wrong. When they were told to do it right, one of the ladies said, "The guest minister will have to accept the gift like that. On bended knees, he must accept it." What a strange response to correction! When you are doing something wrong and are told to do the right thing, and you say, "No, I am on bended knees.", what are you saying?
Unfortunately, some Christians act like that lady. They bring that same attitude to God. They say, "O Lord, on bended knees, accept this!" even though God has told them that His will is contrary to what they are asking! They are on bended knees—a posture of kneeling and pleading in prayer—but they insist that God do what is contrary to His will and nature!
Supplication does not impose its desire or ideas on the one to whom supplication is made. It is a plea for help and mercy from God! It is not insisting that God should do a thing but persisting in pleading or begging for His favour. This was Abraham's manner of intercession when pleading with God on behalf of Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 18:22-33). Though God still destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, He remembered Abraham's earnest plea in intercession and rescued Lot and his family (Genesis 19:29)—such is the power of supplication in prayer. We may not get exactly what we ask for, but we still get something beneficial out of it!
Supplication and importunity
While telling the parable of a man who needed bread for his wayfaring guest from his friend, the Lord Jesus used the word 'importunity' and went on to state how we should make requests with importunity (Luke 11:5-13). The term "importunity" used in Jesus' illustration means "shamelessness". The implication is that the man who wanted bread shamelessly knocked on the door of the person who could give him bread at that time of day. It does not portray rudeness, audacity, or insistence as of a right, as it is meant in general Greek usage. The man who needed bread was pleading with his friend, knowing that the friend was his only hope of feeding his guest. His persistence was not one of claiming a right but one of begging. He used his relationship to make his earnest plea, though shameful and belittling for him! He knocked, pleading that his friend saves him from the embarrassment of having nothing to set before his guest.
Jesus remarked that though the friend would not get up to give him what he was requesting based on their friendship, he arose from bed to give him all he wanted because of his earnest and shameless pleading. Thus, the Lord encourages us to ask, seek, and knock in prayer to God with entreaty and shamelessly! One may presume that asking, seeking, and knocking is about insistence or rudely banging on heaven's door, but that is not the meaning. The Lord advocates that, in humility, we persistently plead with God until He answers us!
I am sure you know what it is to see a full-grown man cast aside his pride and ego, and shamelessly and humbly beg for something. Why? You may have even been involved in such an act of begging when desperately needing something! How embarrassing!
When a person responds to a man who unashamedly begs for something, they do it more out of being embarrassed for the person begging than out of pity. In the same manner, the Lord tells us to pray in such a shameless and embarrassing manner that God cannot but answer us.
After Elijah was taken up to heaven by a chariot of fire, Elisha returned in power. But the sons of the prophets who had witnessed the whole episode from the other side of the Jordan asked Elisha if they could go and find where the chariot may have dropped Elijah. At first, Elisha refused, but the Bible documents that
when they urged him till he was ashamed, he said, Send. (2 Kings 2:17, KJV)
In making their request, the sons of the prophets persisted until Elisha was shamed into giving in to their appeal—Elisha had no choice but to give in. Lest it seems like he was trying to usurp Elijah's authority when it was possible that he had not been taken up to heaven. This is the kind of result that supplication through importunity brings.
Jesus said,
"…. every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened." (Luke 11:10, KJV)
And you can take this statement to the bank of heaven any day. Let me emphasise that 'asketh', 'seeketh', and 'knocketh' are present continuous tenses. This means you ask and keep asking, seek and keep seeking, and knock and keep knocking until you receive, find, and the door is opened, respectively.
What next?
Because of the importance of supplication and the unawareness of its significance in prayer to God, we must discuss practical ways of supplication. This will be the subject of the next part of our discussion on supplication.
Shalom.