With Christ in the School of Prayer (23) ... Obedience the Path to Power in Prayer

by Dale Shumaker
Spirit Savvy Network
www.spiritsavvy.net

Finding your mission, Empowering your life through prayer,
Becoming a Missionary in the Marketplace
Leading others to be Missionaries in the Marketplace

An all-time Christian Classic on prayer which is a foundational study on prayer that anyone interested in Prayer should read. So, I decided to summarize it chapter by chapter. With Christ in the School of Prayer is a classroom on the Power of Prayer in your Life.

With Christ in the School of Prayer by Andrew Murray,
Chapter 23, Obedience the Path to Power in Prayer:

Entire dedication to the fulfillment of our calling is the condition of effectual prayer, is the key to the unlimited blessings of Christ’s wonderful prayer-promises.

Surrender to His perfect and blessed will, a life of service and obedience, is the beauty and the charm of heaven.  Service and obedience, these were the thoughts that were uppermost in the mind of the Son, when He dwelt upon earth.  Service and obedience, these must become with us the chief objects of desire and aim, more so than rest or light, or joy or strength:  in them we shall find the path to all the higher blessedness that awaits us.

Could words put it more clearly that obedience is the way to the indwelling of the Spirit, to His revealing the Son within us, and to His again preparing us to be the abode, the home of the Father?  The indwelling of the Three-One God is the heritage of them that obey.  Obedience and faith are but two aspects of one act,—surrender to God and His will.  As faith strengthens for obedience, it is in turn strengthened by it:  faith is made perfect by works.

O how often we have sought to be able to pray the effectual prayer for much grace to bear fruit, and have wondered that the answer did not come.  It was because we were reversing the Master’s order.  We wanted to have the comfort and the joy and the strength first, that we might do the work easily and without any feeling of difficulty or self-sacrifice.  And He wanted us in faith, whether the work was hard or easy, in the obedience of faith. Obedience is the only path that leads to the glory of God.  

Not obedience instead of faith, nor obedience to supply the shortcomings of faith; no, but faith’s obedience gives access to all the blessings our God has for us. 
The baptism of the Spirit (John xiv. 16),
the manifestation of the Son (xiv. 21),
the indwelling of the Father (xiv. 23),
the abiding in Christ’s love (xv. 10),
the privilege of His holy friendship (xv. 14),
and the power of all-prevailing prayer (xv. 16),
—all wait for the obedient.

It is the man who, in obedience to the Christ of God, is proving that he is doing what his Lord wills, for whom the Father will do whatsoever he will:  ‘Whatsoever we ask we receive, because we keep His commandments, and do the things that are pleasing in His sight.’

And His commandments are to do what He asks us to do. … obedience.

Obedience to God is our highest privilege, because it gives access to oneness with Himself in that which is His highest glory—His all perfect will

More on the Obedience the Path to Power in Prayer:
http://www.ccel.org/ccel/murray/prayer.XXIII.html
The Christian Classics Ethereal Library has many classic works on prayer and living a Spirit-filled life.