In that night God appeared to Solomon and said to him, "Ask what I shall give you." And Solomon said to God, "Thou hast dealt with my father David with great loving-kindness, and hast made me king in his place. Now, O Lord God, Thy promise to my father David is fulfilled; for Thou hast made me king over a people as numerous as the dust of the earth. Give me now wisdom and knowledge, that I may go out and come in before this people; for who can rule this great people of Thine?"
And God said to Solomon, "Because you had this in mind, and did not ask for riches, wealth, or honor, or the life of those who hate you, nor have you even asked for long life, but you have asked for yourself wisdom and knowledge, that you may rule My people, over whom I have made you king, wisdom and knowledge have been granted to you. And I will give you riches and wealth and honor, such as none of the kings who were before you has possessed, nor those who will come after you." 2 Chron. 1:7-13 NASB
I want to explain something about the real goal of Christianity, and this passage about the conversation of God with Solomon is good to help show some aspects of the character of God and the operations of spiritual laws. These aspects are often overlooked by Christians who pray, and it is the things that often constitute the burdens of the heart of praying people that motivated me to talk about this subject of the goal of Christianity.
Reading the Bible passage above it is clear that God is not limited to giving us only what we asked for. He often, in direct response to a prayer, gives far beyond that which we asked for, or maybe even ever thought of. The occurrence of this beyond-expectation answer depends on how much He is pleased by the prayer request. God gave Solomon what he asked for and much more than that because He was pleased with his request.
The next point is about this pleasure of God in prayer requests. It is also clear from this discourse with Solomon that it is not everything we may ask for that would please the Lord, and this is apart from considering whether He would answer the prayer or not. Even if He were to grant those requests, He may not be pleased with them. We can easily see that there are more noble prayer points than asking for wealth, riches, honour, long life or the lives of one’s enemies. Even though Solomon could have asked for these things and gotten them, God would not have had any special pleasure in his prayers. It is vital to emphasize that God would have granted the requests. I can imagine that if Solomon had asked for those things he would have gotten the kind of wealth he was able to conceive in his mind and would have defeated only the enemies he could specifically identify. God would not have done anything more than he asked because the requests would not have been pleasing to the Lord. We can easily see therefore that He prefers that a man or woman coming to Him in prayer has the more noble matters in mind. Such persons would get more than they bargained for in goodness. No wonder Jesus told us not to be mindful of those things in prayer (Matt 6:31).
What I see a lot today in Christianity is people focusing on the inferior things in the eyes of God and calling it effective prayer. People are often focused on the exact things that God was pleased that Solomon did not make an issue. Congregations gather in prayer focused on the lives of their enemies; they spend all night prayer sessions praying about wealth and riches, and think they have been effective in prayer. They miss the main aim of Christianity.
I want to explain something about the real goal of Christianity, and this passage about the conversation of God with Solomon is good to help show some aspects of the character of God and the operations of spiritual laws. These aspects are often overlooked by Christians who pray, and it is the things that often constitute the burdens of the heart of praying people that motivated me to talk about this subject of the goal of Christianity.
Reading the Bible passage above it is clear that God is not limited to giving us only what we asked for. He often, in direct response to a prayer, gives far beyond that which we asked for, or maybe even ever thought of. The occurrence of this beyond-expectation answer depends on how much He is pleased by the prayer request. God gave Solomon what he asked for and much more than that because He was pleased with his request.
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| Pastor Bankie |
What I see a lot today in Christianity is people focusing on the inferior things in the eyes of God and calling it effective prayer. People are often focused on the exact things that God was pleased that Solomon did not make an issue. Congregations gather in prayer focused on the lives of their enemies; they spend all night prayer sessions praying about wealth and riches, and think they have been effective in prayer. They miss the main aim of Christianity.
The Main Aim
The aim of Christianity is not the supply of needs. Jesus didn’t have to come and die to persuade God to supply our needs. God was already working miracles of supernatural supply and abundant prosperity long before He came. The dead were raised before Jesus and the sick had been healed again and again. Jesus did not come to introduce those miracles; they could have been done by God sending ordinary prophets in larger numbers with more anointing than the previous ones, without the death of the only begotten of the Father, if that was what He wanted to achieve. But that was not the aim.
One thing that no one could ever do for anybody and which necessitated the coming of God’s Son to die on the cross was to create God’s spirit inside people and make them literal children of God. Only few people, like Enoch, Moses and Samuel, were able to walk with God very closely in all the thousands of years before Christ, and even they had a limit. Moses always had to maintain a respectable distance between him and God, telling us thereby that sonship was not at all attained. Birthing the spirit of God in people was not achieved before Jesus came and died. The purpose of His coming was to make a way so that people could approach the Father having become His literal children.
But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. John 1:12-13 NASB
One thing that no one could ever do for anybody and which necessitated the coming of God’s Son to die on the cross was to create God’s spirit inside people and make them literal children of God. Only few people, like Enoch, Moses and Samuel, were able to walk with God very closely in all the thousands of years before Christ, and even they had a limit. Moses always had to maintain a respectable distance between him and God, telling us thereby that sonship was not at all attained. Birthing the spirit of God in people was not achieved before Jesus came and died. The purpose of His coming was to make a way so that people could approach the Father having become His literal children.
But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. John 1:12-13 NASB
There is a spiritual substance which is poured into the heart of the man or woman who accepts Jesus by believing in Him, and it is called the spirit of Christ. It is the seed of God and it grows like yeast until it has permeated the total being – spirit, soul and body – of the person. To what shall I compare the kingdom of God? "It is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three pecks of meal, until it was all leavened." Luke 13:20-21 NASB.
Culled from 'The Real Goal of Christianity' by Pastor Bankie (...to be continued)
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