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Prayer Works
Can prayer really change God's mind? Doesn't God already know what is going to happen? And hasn't he already decided what he intends to do? These are the questions best-selling author Brother Andrew explores in this thought-provoking book on a dramatically different kind of prayer. He shows readers how to differentiate between personal and intercessory prayer, how to listen and talk to God, and how to respond when God says no. Using illustrations from Scripture, as well as deep insight and practical advice, Brother Andrew shows convincingly that God has at times indeed changed his mind, solely because of the prayers of his people. Previously published as And God Changed His Mind Chosen, 0-8007-9272-6
196 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1990
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178 people want to read
About the author
Brother Andrew
85 books284 followersAndrew van der Bijl (born 11 May 1928 in Sint Pancras, Netherlands), known in English-speaking countries as Brother Andrew, is a Christian missionary famous for his exploits smuggling Bibles to communist countries in the height of the Cold War, a feat that has earned him the nickname "God's smuggler". Brother Andrew studied at the WEC Missionary Training College in Glasgow, Scotland. Brother Andrew was born in Sint Pancras, the Netherlands, and was the fourth of seven children to a poor, near deaf blacksmith.
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August 16, 2017
Brother Andrew's book seeks to drive home one point: prayer changes things. I find that is basic thesis of 'changing God's mind' errs a bit in failing to see the dialectical nature of Scripture. That is to say that the Word of God affirms both that what God decrees from all eternity is what comes to pass, while at the same time affirming that his eternal decrees not only do not nullify secondary causes (such as our prayers) but establishes them. Brother Andrews book pushes hard in the direction of the importance of prayer as a secondary cause. He rightly identifies the malaise of a kind of islamic like fatalism that creeps into Christianity and most noticeably in the way Christians pray. His book offers a good corrective.
Quotes...
0) Foreword
-pg. 6: In recent years I have learned that the most challenging aspect of prayer--real intercessory prayer, that is--being able to love with sacrificial compassion those for whom we pray. And where else can we learn that but on our knees?
-pg. 10: God is looking today for another Moses, another Paul, another man or woman willing to love in the same way they loved, laying down our lives for our friends in prayer.
1) Chapter 1: We are not helpless!
-pg. 13: I believe that in our determination to submit to the sovereign will of God, too many of us have lost sight of a powerful truth: God never created us to be puppets. He made us in His own image, endowing us with the ability to make independent choices.
-17: In 1989, after more than thirty years of smuggling Bibles behind the Iron Curtain, I challenged the Russians pointy to allow our organization to distribute a million Russian-language Bibles to Soviet churches. Incredibly, they said yes. And at this moment, still less than seven years after we began praying, we are able to report to our prayer partners the glorious news that no a single Christian leader remains in a prison or concentration camp in the Soviet Union for his faith! That, my friend, is what happens when we pray.
-19: Fatalists can relax because they are no longer responsible for anything. They don't have to obey God or actively resist evil; they can simply 'let it be' (as the Beatles recommend in their hit son of the '60s).
-23: But Christians must oppose evil; we were born for battle! Every Christian is a soldier, a 'member of the resistance' in God's army, taking part in spiritual warfare. The moment we lose sight of this, we become aimless in our actions and fuzzy in our focus. We forget why we were born, forget what we have been trained and equipped to do on the battlefield, and we die without ever knowing why we lived. Most importantly, we never complete the mission we were sent to accomplish.
2) Chapter 2: Who Can Change God's Mind?
-The prayer link between the Body of Christ and the Godhead has grown weaker instead of stronger. Our prayers, too, have often degenerated into tedious recitations of 'wish lists' instead of exciting, tow-way dialogues and strategic planning sessions with the Creator of the universe.
-40: In other words, God's character, nature and purposes are changeless, but his plans are flexible. *I see this as an equivocation. I understand and strongly sympathize with his concern, but I don't find this language considerably comforting. Perhaps God can plan to save me and then plan not to save me.
3) Chapter 3: Asking According to God's Will
-51: Number 1: Realize that God's will is something we get to know progressively, not instantaneously. As our intimacy with him grows, so does our understanding of His will.
-52: The trouble most of us have with this, of course, is that (as I said at the beginning of this chapter) we too often say we need a word from the Lord to tell us His will when He has already revealed it. So we should make sure, before we ask for special guidance, that we don't already have it.
-54: Never pray, 'if it is Your will...' *I sympathize, but I think that the 3rd petition in the Lord's prayer is simply a way of expression humility and reverence for the God who knows best.
-60: This should give us tremendous freedom and confidence in our prayers. You can pray, 'God, I know it's Your will that my children [or parents or friend] be saved, so I'm going to ask You and keep on asking until You do it!' You never have to say, 'God, save my children if it is Your will.'
-64: When I carry Bibles across borders into nations where they are illegal, I pray beforehand that the border guards will not ask me if I have Bibles hidden in my vehicle. If they ask me, I must tell them the truth. I cannot lie to them and then say, 'God, please keep me out of trouble by making them believe my lie!'...And so far, I have never been asked.
4) Ch. 4: Come Boldly Before the Throne
-Back in the early 1950s in my own village of St. Pancras, when our little band of believers went around telling everyone we could find about Jesus, we encountered a lot of people who say to us, 'Well, if God heals that poor sick girl in your group, then we'll believe.' Everyone knew this girl. She was terribly ill with tuberculosis. So we prayed for her and she was instantly, miraculously healed--just like that! A tremendous miracle, like something out of the New Testament. But nobody believed!
-71: Yes, because of Jesus we no longer have to guess what God is like or wonder what He wants from us. We know the Father because we have seen and known His Son. We no longer have to speculate about God's purposes or will, because Jesus has told us what they are.
-74: If we don't understand far more about God's ways that Old Testament believers did, we have missed the boat completely!
-81: We should make every effort to know what we are doing when we pray, naturally, but if I were sick this morning I would much rather have someone pray for me presumptuously than not pray at all! I would always prefer to be found guilty of asking too much from God than to have to admit I asked too little.
-83: When I still had my garden and my children were small, they would sometimes go out and pull weeds for me. I might walk into the garden an hour later and find they had pulled up most of my flowers in their efforts to do a good job! But I never scolded them. They were blameless, you see. They were learning, and as their father I knew part of the learning process was making mistakes. I didn't get angry with them because they did imperfect things out of ignorance or impetuousness. No, I loved them for wanting to please me. God is like that with us when we pray.
5) How, Then, Shall we Pray?
-91: We believed, as I still do, that we should be praying for big things--for the souls of men an the destiny of nations--not for a better frigerator or a nicer car.
-103: Then there was Jacob, who wrestled with God (Genesis 32:24-29). Where are the people who will wrestle with God today, men and women who will say, 'God, I won't let You go until You give me what I ask'?
-106: I take from the Scripture a general principle that goes something like this. 'when you are close to God and everything is going fine, you don't fast--you feast1 But when you are away from God, you fast.'
-107: We don't have to fast, ever, as a way of 'paying the price' for what we want. Jesus has already paid the price in full.
6) Chapter 6: When It's Satan's Will, Not God's
-118: This world is the only kingdom he will ever get the chance to control. Imagine his outrage when he finds that some of us are actually willing to lay down our lives to take this kingdom way from him and make it God's instead! How dare we?
7) How We Can Defeat the Enemy?
8) What Should We Be Asking God to Do Today?
-168: We're all guilty of underestimating God. If we really knew Him as H wants us to, if we understood the potential of our prayers, we would be on our knees a hundred times a day asking Him for things that would turn the world upside down.
-171: A burden is some part of history that God's Spirit invites us to influence through our prayers.
-175: Then we remember that God's will is that we 'go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation' (Mark 16:15). Thus, we can pray for every unreached tribe, every language, every city where people are not being reached with the good news of Christ. Perhaps even the people living next door! *This includes praying for unreached towns in our 'comarca'.
-189: ...You are my friends if you do what I command...Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name... *We live in partnership with the Father through friendship with His Son and our gracious Father gives us what we need.
9) Epilogue:
-196: But the heart of Moses shows us what God favors. Just two things are needed: close intimacy with God and a willingness to give one's life for those whom we pray for.
Quotes...
0) Foreword
-pg. 6: In recent years I have learned that the most challenging aspect of prayer--real intercessory prayer, that is--being able to love with sacrificial compassion those for whom we pray. And where else can we learn that but on our knees?
-pg. 10: God is looking today for another Moses, another Paul, another man or woman willing to love in the same way they loved, laying down our lives for our friends in prayer.
1) Chapter 1: We are not helpless!
-pg. 13: I believe that in our determination to submit to the sovereign will of God, too many of us have lost sight of a powerful truth: God never created us to be puppets. He made us in His own image, endowing us with the ability to make independent choices.
-17: In 1989, after more than thirty years of smuggling Bibles behind the Iron Curtain, I challenged the Russians pointy to allow our organization to distribute a million Russian-language Bibles to Soviet churches. Incredibly, they said yes. And at this moment, still less than seven years after we began praying, we are able to report to our prayer partners the glorious news that no a single Christian leader remains in a prison or concentration camp in the Soviet Union for his faith! That, my friend, is what happens when we pray.
-19: Fatalists can relax because they are no longer responsible for anything. They don't have to obey God or actively resist evil; they can simply 'let it be' (as the Beatles recommend in their hit son of the '60s).
-23: But Christians must oppose evil; we were born for battle! Every Christian is a soldier, a 'member of the resistance' in God's army, taking part in spiritual warfare. The moment we lose sight of this, we become aimless in our actions and fuzzy in our focus. We forget why we were born, forget what we have been trained and equipped to do on the battlefield, and we die without ever knowing why we lived. Most importantly, we never complete the mission we were sent to accomplish.
2) Chapter 2: Who Can Change God's Mind?
-The prayer link between the Body of Christ and the Godhead has grown weaker instead of stronger. Our prayers, too, have often degenerated into tedious recitations of 'wish lists' instead of exciting, tow-way dialogues and strategic planning sessions with the Creator of the universe.
-40: In other words, God's character, nature and purposes are changeless, but his plans are flexible. *I see this as an equivocation. I understand and strongly sympathize with his concern, but I don't find this language considerably comforting. Perhaps God can plan to save me and then plan not to save me.
3) Chapter 3: Asking According to God's Will
-51: Number 1: Realize that God's will is something we get to know progressively, not instantaneously. As our intimacy with him grows, so does our understanding of His will.
-52: The trouble most of us have with this, of course, is that (as I said at the beginning of this chapter) we too often say we need a word from the Lord to tell us His will when He has already revealed it. So we should make sure, before we ask for special guidance, that we don't already have it.
-54: Never pray, 'if it is Your will...' *I sympathize, but I think that the 3rd petition in the Lord's prayer is simply a way of expression humility and reverence for the God who knows best.
-60: This should give us tremendous freedom and confidence in our prayers. You can pray, 'God, I know it's Your will that my children [or parents or friend] be saved, so I'm going to ask You and keep on asking until You do it!' You never have to say, 'God, save my children if it is Your will.'
-64: When I carry Bibles across borders into nations where they are illegal, I pray beforehand that the border guards will not ask me if I have Bibles hidden in my vehicle. If they ask me, I must tell them the truth. I cannot lie to them and then say, 'God, please keep me out of trouble by making them believe my lie!'...And so far, I have never been asked.
4) Ch. 4: Come Boldly Before the Throne
-Back in the early 1950s in my own village of St. Pancras, when our little band of believers went around telling everyone we could find about Jesus, we encountered a lot of people who say to us, 'Well, if God heals that poor sick girl in your group, then we'll believe.' Everyone knew this girl. She was terribly ill with tuberculosis. So we prayed for her and she was instantly, miraculously healed--just like that! A tremendous miracle, like something out of the New Testament. But nobody believed!
-71: Yes, because of Jesus we no longer have to guess what God is like or wonder what He wants from us. We know the Father because we have seen and known His Son. We no longer have to speculate about God's purposes or will, because Jesus has told us what they are.
-74: If we don't understand far more about God's ways that Old Testament believers did, we have missed the boat completely!
-81: We should make every effort to know what we are doing when we pray, naturally, but if I were sick this morning I would much rather have someone pray for me presumptuously than not pray at all! I would always prefer to be found guilty of asking too much from God than to have to admit I asked too little.
-83: When I still had my garden and my children were small, they would sometimes go out and pull weeds for me. I might walk into the garden an hour later and find they had pulled up most of my flowers in their efforts to do a good job! But I never scolded them. They were blameless, you see. They were learning, and as their father I knew part of the learning process was making mistakes. I didn't get angry with them because they did imperfect things out of ignorance or impetuousness. No, I loved them for wanting to please me. God is like that with us when we pray.
5) How, Then, Shall we Pray?
-91: We believed, as I still do, that we should be praying for big things--for the souls of men an the destiny of nations--not for a better frigerator or a nicer car.
-103: Then there was Jacob, who wrestled with God (Genesis 32:24-29). Where are the people who will wrestle with God today, men and women who will say, 'God, I won't let You go until You give me what I ask'?
-106: I take from the Scripture a general principle that goes something like this. 'when you are close to God and everything is going fine, you don't fast--you feast1 But when you are away from God, you fast.'
-107: We don't have to fast, ever, as a way of 'paying the price' for what we want. Jesus has already paid the price in full.
6) Chapter 6: When It's Satan's Will, Not God's
-118: This world is the only kingdom he will ever get the chance to control. Imagine his outrage when he finds that some of us are actually willing to lay down our lives to take this kingdom way from him and make it God's instead! How dare we?
7) How We Can Defeat the Enemy?
8) What Should We Be Asking God to Do Today?
-168: We're all guilty of underestimating God. If we really knew Him as H wants us to, if we understood the potential of our prayers, we would be on our knees a hundred times a day asking Him for things that would turn the world upside down.
-171: A burden is some part of history that God's Spirit invites us to influence through our prayers.
-175: Then we remember that God's will is that we 'go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation' (Mark 16:15). Thus, we can pray for every unreached tribe, every language, every city where people are not being reached with the good news of Christ. Perhaps even the people living next door! *This includes praying for unreached towns in our 'comarca'.
-189: ...You are my friends if you do what I command...Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name... *We live in partnership with the Father through friendship with His Son and our gracious Father gives us what we need.
9) Epilogue:
-196: But the heart of Moses shows us what God favors. Just two things are needed: close intimacy with God and a willingness to give one's life for those whom we pray for.
January 8, 2024
So encouraging from a hero of the faith who recently passed away.
May 13, 2013
Lately, I've been wondering about prayer - what should I pray for? how long should I pray for something? - and I wanted advice from someone with plenty of first-hand experience.
So I looked to see if Brother Andrew wrote a book about prayer because, if anyone, he's had lots of first-hand success with it.
In general, the book reads like a manifesto. Brother Andrew doesn't waste time. He tells us that we, western Christians, need to forsake our fatalistic attitude - our belief that whatever happens is God's will - and, instead, need to actively pray for changes in the world.
Some ask why God allows all the suffering in the world. After reading Prayer Works, the question seems to be, why do Christians allow all the suffering in the world when we can effectively pray against Satanic forces and for the growth of God's kingdom. Like Moses, we can pray to change God's mind. Like Elijah, we can pray against idolatry and for the downfall of ungodly systems (Brother Andrew uses the downfall of the USSR as one example) as well as for the strengthening of persecuted Christians.
At all times, we've got to keep on praying. And if God doesn't seem to respond, we've got to ask him why.
In a time when prayer is increasingly seen as a form of meditation and method for personal/spiritual growth, Brother Andrew emphasizes that prayer involves talking to the living God and changing the world. It is not a 'last resort' but a weapon and balm.
So I looked to see if Brother Andrew wrote a book about prayer because, if anyone, he's had lots of first-hand success with it.
In general, the book reads like a manifesto. Brother Andrew doesn't waste time. He tells us that we, western Christians, need to forsake our fatalistic attitude - our belief that whatever happens is God's will - and, instead, need to actively pray for changes in the world.
Some ask why God allows all the suffering in the world. After reading Prayer Works, the question seems to be, why do Christians allow all the suffering in the world when we can effectively pray against Satanic forces and for the growth of God's kingdom. Like Moses, we can pray to change God's mind. Like Elijah, we can pray against idolatry and for the downfall of ungodly systems (Brother Andrew uses the downfall of the USSR as one example) as well as for the strengthening of persecuted Christians.
At all times, we've got to keep on praying. And if God doesn't seem to respond, we've got to ask him why.
In a time when prayer is increasingly seen as a form of meditation and method for personal/spiritual growth, Brother Andrew emphasizes that prayer involves talking to the living God and changing the world. It is not a 'last resort' but a weapon and balm.
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