Chapter 17
Draw close to God in prayer
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In their book “What does the Bible really teach” the Jehovah Witnesses teach on page 166 that in order to be heard by God in prayer, you must meet certain requirements before your prayer can be met by God. Firstly you must exercise faith towards Him, which shows that you must continue working before God can hear you. The Jehovah Witnesses although they would say that prayer is part of worship, they would not allow a person to pray to the Lord Jesus, and are forbidden to do so by their Organisation.
They teach their followers that they are to pray and worship the Father only, and by praying or worshipping the Lord Jesus would be classed as a form of idol worship, similar idea to a Catholic if they prayed to Mary.
The Jehovah Witnesses will pray to the Father through the name of Jesus, but although they are using Jesus’ name, they have a different Jesus, not the Jesus of the scriptures.
The Bible explains that God cannot hear the prayers of the unrighteous, and as I have explained in this book in chapter 7, I focused on who the righteous and unrighteous were. However let us focus on what the Bible says with regards to how God only answers the prayers of the righteous.
Proverbs 15:29 (KJV)
“TheLordis far from the wicked: but He heareth the prayer of the righteous.”
As mentioned in chapter 7, the Bible does declare that there not one person who is righteous and Paul explains this in the following verse:
Romans 3:10 (KJV)
“As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:”
So in order for God to firstly answer any prayer, you have to become a child of God. The Jehovah Witnesses believe and teach their followers that they become a child of God after they are committed to God through their own works, which I will explain in Chapter 18b; however the Bible says different to their teachings yet again, and explains that you become a child of God the moment you accept Jesus Christ as your Saviour.
Galatians 3:26 (KJV)
“For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.”
The Bible explains in the following verse how a person becomes righteous in the sight of God, and again it is not by any works that we contribute.
Romans 4:5 (KJV)
“But to him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.”
There are no works involved to become righteous, which I will explain in Chapter 18b; if there were works involved then the Bible could not be trusted, because to receive Salvation, which is a free gift, a person believes on Jesus to save him from all their sins. Many people today believe in a person called Jesus, however it’s not just believing he existed, the Jews believe He existed, but a person must realise that they are a sinner, and realise Jesus died in their place on the cross of Calvary, was buried and rose again the third day. Paul explained to the Romans that Salvation was through Jesus Christ by faith only, not through works.
Romans 3:22 (KJV)
“Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference:”
So they only way a person can be made righteous is by accepting Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour, knowing that their eternal life has been paid for, and nothing you can do can contribute towards the gift of eternal life, other than believing on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Paul explains in Titus that a person is not made righteous through their own works, which again I will cover in more detail in the next chapter, however Paul when writing to Titus said the following:
Titus 3:5 (KJV)
“Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;”
Paul explained throughout the New Testament that Salvation came upon believing in Christ through Faith, and not through works, therefore once you come to Christ as you are, and believe on Him, you have been made righteous in His sight. God declares you as righteous once you accept His Son Jesus.
Romans 3:25-26 (KJV)
“Whom God hath set forthto be a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;To declare, I say, at this time His righteousness: that He might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.”
So by doing good works, or entering into a man made organisation, this does not justify a person or make them righteous in His sight, only those who by faith accept Jesus Christ as their saviour.
Once a person has accepted Jesus as their Saviour, God can therefore hear their prayers.
1st Peter 3:12 (KJV)
“For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and His ears are open unto their prayers: but the face of the Lord is againstthem that do evil.”
The Lord’s ears are only open to those who are made righteous by their faith towards His Son Jesus.
As mentioned, the Jehovah Witnesses do not believe that prayer directed towards the Lord Jesus is permitted, and believe that prayer only to Jehovah the Father is acceptable. However when Stephen in Acts was being stoned, he prayed to Jesus calling Him God.
Acts 7:59 (KJV)
“And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”
Stephen prayed to the Lord Jesus at a time when he was dying to receive his spirit, again something that the Jehovah Witnesses to not believe or teach is that a person has a spirit.
However, being made righteous by accepting Jesus Christ as your Saviour and now being a child of God can still offer some difficulties in prayer, and Christians can still have their prayers hindered. One way of prayers being hindered are if Husbands do not love their wives, which the following verse confirms:
1st Peter 3:7 (KJV)
“Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered.”
Should a Believing Husband have any dissensions with his wife, it doe not take away their Salvation which again is a free gift giving to them, however it hinders the prayer life of that Believing Husband, or the Believing couple, because God wants to see love from the individuals and cannot offer His love in return of prayer answered if they do not love one another.
You can draw close to God in prayer by being in fellowship with Him. There are many Christians today who through weakness of flesh, or have a desire to have the world around them satisfy them rather than seeking to be Godly, are out of fellowship with God because they do not seek after Him. Again, and I will cover this in the last chapter, a Christian cannot lose the free gift of salvation, but a Christian can be out of fellowship with God, but their relationship with Him cannot be broken. For example, a son can fall out with their Father through a disagreement, and not speak to each other; however they are still Father and son in relationship, which cannot be broken. In order for their fellowship to be restored, the son would have to come back to the Father and confess his error to him for their fellowship to be restored. John explains this in his first epistle that in order to walk in fellowship with God, one must confess their sins to God in order for the fellowship to be restored back together again.
1st John 1:6-7 (KJV)
“If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.”
Once we are back in fellowship with God, we can be blessed, our prayers won’t be hindered and God will forgives us freely for any wrong we have done toward Him.
We should continually pray and not give up or faint when we do pray. We can read from scripture in the book of Daniel that Satan hindered the prayer of Daniel, and we know today that Satan will try and hinder our prayers in any way we can, therefore we must seek to be in fellowship with God, knowing that we have accepted His Son Jesus as our Saviour, knowing only that it is the blood of Jesus Christ that cleanseth us from all our sins, and not through any works we do, and make sure we faint not when we do pray for things to happen.
Luke 18:1 (KJV)
“And He spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint;”
The last prayer in the Bible is to the Lord Jesus in Revelation.
Revelation 22:20 (KJV)
“He which testifieth these things saith,Surely I come quickly.Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.”
We are told by the Lord Jesus to pray to the Father, and we pray through His name, and it is Him who answers our prayers.
John 14:14 (KJV)
“If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it.”
Jehovah Witnesses today are not having their prayers answered because they have not been made righteous. The Jehovah Witnesses base their faith in an Organisation that was created by man, which God has not ordained nor set up and they ultimately worship a false god. God can only hear the prayers of the righteous, which is when a person is saved through the Lord Jesus Christ, which I will now discuss further in the next chapter.