The Equation of Answered Prayer

The Equation of Answered Prayer

by Roland Brown

Transcribed from the original recording; may contain errors.

And so continue to empty us of self and fill us with Thee. Amen. My, you’re wonderful. You know you’re more wonderful tonight than you were last night. It may be that there’ll be no living with you by the time we get to go.

What is that little ditty that was written in creative writing one time? I wish that my room had a floor. I don’t mind it’s not having a door. But this floating around without touching the ground is getting to be quite a bore.

That came out of creative writing many, many years ago. Yeah. Yeah. Don’t let all of your creative writing be too serious. There was an old farmer and his wife Matilda who lived on a farm way out in the sticks. He’d never been in a big city. He took no newspapers or magazines. He had no radio or TV. Knew nothing about what was going on in the world. And all of a sudden, he was planted right down in the middle of a great big city. He walked up and down the streets, amazed at what he saw. Stood at the foot of a tall building and wondered why they made the windows up on the 21st floor so much smaller than those on the first floor.

He walked into a department store. My, his feet never sunk in carpeting like that. Why, he never walked on carpeting before. And the showcases around, filled with such things that he’d never dreamed of. Didn’t know what they were. The beautiful chandeliers hanging from the ceiling. And then he noticed a woman come over and touch a little black spot on the wall. And he wondered what under the sun she did that for. And the whole wall rolled right back. And there was a great big box all lighted up on the inside. And that old lady walked right into that box. And the wall rolled right back in front of her. And she was left alone in that box. Hmm. What’d she do that for?

And he stood there puzzled. And in a few moments the wall rolled back again. And out stepped a tall lady beautifully gowned. And walked in a stately way down through the aisles. My! He never dreamed of anything like that could happen. He’d heard of magic but he’d never seen any. And he just stood there like a petrified person. And you know, another old lady came along. This one was hunchbacked and stooping over. And carried two canes in her hands. And she went over to that little black spot and touched it. And the wall rolled back again. And there was that big lighted up box. And that old hag hobbled into that box. Well, I’ll tell you, he couldn’t take his eyes off from that wall. Because the wall came back and hid her. What is she in that box for? Hmm. Well, he watched and waited. And in a few minutes the wall rolled back. And out stepped a 22-year-old blonde. Dressed fit to kill. And swiggled away down through the aisles.

My! He couldn’t believe his eyes. Right at this point, the manager of the store stepped up. And said, “Is there something I can do for you?” And he said, “I should say there is. I want you to help me get my Matilda here. I want her to get into that box.”

Yeah. We’ve all stepped into a great big box. And we’ve been rising floor by floor ever since. And we’re going to continue rising until Sunday morning. And maybe we’ll go on rising. Who knows? What’s it going to be like by the time we leave this place? You’re wonderful. All of you are.

Now I’m going to talk about laws. Not legalism. But principles. Principles that are as perfect as the chords and everything on that piano back there. They can be played so beautifully by the pianist. There are laws pertaining to prayer. Vital laws.

And if you get the laws all messed up, you won’t have beautiful music. And you’ll be disappointed in lots of things in life. But if you pay attention to the laws, follow through with Jesus’ teachings, you’ll discover miracles happening.

There isn’t anything that Jesus emphasized more, probably, than answered prayer. Answered prayer. And never once do you find Jesus saying, but remember this, that sometimes God says no. That’s man. That’s man-made. Oh, I know. Everybody says it. Nearly everybody. But you won’t find it in the Bible. Jesus never makes any excuses for unanswered prayer. In His teaching, there are no unanswered prayers in the teachings of Jesus.

Now, if you want, you can take that into your room and begin to meditate upon it and search the Gospels and see if you can find anything that Jesus said concerning that. Yes. A while ago, we were all amazed as we saw that great capsule leave the earth and arrive on the moon with split-second timing and accuracy. Hmm. And we all marveled.

And then it returned to earth with split-second timing and place of arrival. Yeah. Amazing. And people gasped in amazement. My, what man has done! Yes. They put their emphasis upon what man has done. It’s what God did. I don’t know how many connections there were in that capsule. Electrical connections. Gadgets. And instruments. But I can tell you this. That the men that put those things together and installed them did everything based upon what God did.

So the amazing thing is not what man did but what God did. We are living in a perfect world governed by a perfect God. And everything that is wrong that we run into is man-made not God-made. Everything that is wrong is the result of man not of God. God wants everything perfect. Everything.

And when you pray for a situation and plead with God to make that thing right do it for God’s sake rather than for what it will mean to you and to the others that are involved. Oh yes, you’ll have compassion. And that’s right. Compassion is love in action. Be filled with compassion. Be filled with love. Let the love flow.

But when I pray for a situation I do it for God’s sake. Yet there is great compassion in my heart for the people that are involved. Oh I want for their sake for this need to be met but ten thousand times more for God’s sake. For God wants everything perfect. And if you see any imperfection anywhere of any nature remember that God doesn’t want it like that.

And He’s called you to be His helper so it may be rectified change. So fit into every situation you can that you’re guided to to help God do what God wants done. Yes, there are all these laws that God has made. Physical laws. Laws that get men to the moon and return them. Now can you imagine God who has created a physical universe with such perfect law and order is going to create a spiritual realm which is just a hodgepodge.

Why that’s unthinkable. God who has created a physical realm of such perfect law and order surely is going to create a spiritual realm if anything more perfect than the physical. And that is consistent with the way in which I have discovered things.

I prayed for 10 years to know how to pray. I searched for someone or some group of people for 10 years prayerfully searching, who were as interested in prayer as I was. And I couldn’t find them. I went to the superintendents of different denominations there in Chicago to ask them if they knew some person or some group that were actively interested in prayer and doing something about it as a group or as individuals. And you know what I found? Nothing.

Not one superintendent and many people that I talked with knew of no one who knew anything about exploring in this area of prayer. But I kept on praying. And at the end of 10 years I found Glenn Clark. For 10 years Glenn Clark had been praying just the same as I had been praying. He had been praying that he might find some people that were interested in prayer as he was who would come together and begin to explore the mysteries of prayer.

And one day I opened that little booklet which was called The Lord’s Prayer by Glenn Clark. Some of you know what it is. I don’t know if you have any on the table here or not. It used to be sold for 10 cents. We used to buy them by the dozen and give to our friends. And somebody gave us one of those books as a Christmas gift instead of sending us a Christmas card. And as I read it I discovered on the last page a little two inch paragraph stating that every August the first two weeks of August a group of people got together at Lake Koronis to explore the mysteries of prayer. It said more than that. But I couldn’t have formulated an ad more perfectly to meet my needs. That was what I’d been after for 10 years. And here it was perfectly stated. And so Marcia and I went. That was in 1935. It wasn’t the beginning of the camps. The camps began in 1929, 1930. But that was our first camp. 1935. And there we became acquainted with Glenn Clark. And for years and years, we became prayer partners and traveled extensively together throughout the United States. And on one occasion, the three of us went around the world together. That was our first journey around the world.

People contacting spiritual leaders and those folks that were interested in prayer. Establishing what Glenn Clark liked to call a belt of prayer around the world. And that’s what Marcia and I have been doing, as you know, ever since. Adding to that belt of prayer. Not just CFOs. No, we welcomed prayer groups, prayer activities in all the churches everywhere, but putting the emphasis upon prayer as the only hope for mankind.

And today, there are thousands and tens of thousands of people that are grounding their faith in the power of prayer. That wouldn’t have been if it hadn’t been for that first trip around the world in 1953, 54. Yes, I started in 53.

I left five months, I guess, before Marcia did and Glenn. I went to Scandinavia in Europe and England and was over there for five months before they arrived. So, my first trip around the world began in 1953. And Marcia and I have continued those trips every other year until just a few years ago, about three years ago, I think it was. But we didn’t get the green light three years ago. And we don’t know what is going to be in the future. But we have thousands and thousands of friends, intimate friends, people whom we love just as much as we love you folks here. And they love us too. And we hear from hundreds of them.

And right now, I don’t know how many invitations from other countries that people have written us, “Won’t you come back, can’t you come back, when are you coming back,” and so on. Yes. Well, that’s it. So for at least 50 years, we’ve been exploring in this field of prayer. And what we’re sharing with you in these meetings is not what the books say about prayer.

When I was in the seminary, one of the professors asked me if I would give him a bibliography of books on prayer. He knew that I was interested in this field. Do you know how long a list that was?

I was able to write the names of all the books that I knew amounted to very much. That is, that had interested me on one sheet of paper, on one side. Think of it. And think of how that whole area has expanded in these last few decades.

But the things that we are sharing with you is not what the books have to say about it, though I used to be familiar with almost all of the books. I can’t be now. There are too many of them. I don’t tell you what the books say, but what I have experienced.

I am trying to share with out of my experience, not that my experience is any greater than anybody else’s who’s done it. And I haven’t found very many back in those days. To me, the coming of Jesus is something like this. That He came in order to pull back the draperies and reveal the principles of the kingdom of God. The kingdom of heaven here on earth. So that we could see what the principles of the kingdom are like. And He talked about His kingdom. Always talking about His kingdom.

And He, the king of the kingdom. And maybe if there’s time, I’ll share with you a little later on how easy it is to live in the kingdom. His kingdom here on earth. The kingdom that you try to manufacture may be difficult to live in. But His kingdom is very simple. It’s the easiest thing in the world to live the Christian life.

Maybe you never heard anybody say that before. But that’s my experience. It doesn’t mean perfection. But it means living in the kingdom. You get out of the kingdom a great deal. I don’t mean theologically, but experientially. We step out. Whenever there is anger coming into our heart, or resentment, or pride, or lust, or hurt feelings, we’re out of the kingdom. That is, we’re out of fellowship with Jesus. We have slipped out from under that whole area where the laws, the principles of the kingdom apply.

And the principles of the kingdom don’t work outside the kingdom. You’ve got to be in the kingdom if you’re to experience the marvelous things that result. Yes, for years and years I talked about different laws of the kingdom, the laws of prayer, and I would sometimes use a blackboard and I would write down a list of laws on the blackboard. And then begin, because I’ve been holding schools of prayer all over the country and around the world. And these schools of prayer would last a week, sometimes two or three times a day. Not in recent years. I can’t give more than two or three days to any one church, any one place. And nowadays, but in those earlier days, I would spend the whole time talking about these laws of prayer. I would put 21 of them on the blackboard and begin with the first one, go right straight down the line, spending as much time on it as I wanted to, and then pick up the next law, and the next law, and the next law. I have 21 of them on a little slip of paper here. The law of love, the law of secrecy, the law of agreement, the law of forgiveness, the law of abiding, guidance, obedience, belief, giving, gratitude, confession, faith, joy, humility, asking, seeking, surrender, contrition, righteousness, teachableness, relinquishment.

There are a lot of them. And if you disregard these principles, you can’t expect your prayers to be very effective. Now it is, folks, it is as simple as that. If people want to fly to the moon, they can get the capsule, but if they ignore the principles of science, the laws that underlie these matters, they’ll never get to the moon.

And we ourselves will not be satisfied as long as we ignore the teachings of Jesus or of the Bible. Most of these are teachings of Jesus, though some are not. And I’d suggest that I can give you a copy of this, if you want it, with the scripture reference. But it’s only, it’s not a scholarly thing. It’s just something that I’ve been using, because it works.

And, but rather than take that and use it, I’d suggest that you take it and begin to meditate upon it in your room with the door shut. And ask the Lord about each law. And I wouldn’t be a bit surprised but what He would reveal to you many more laws. And when you’re reading the Bible, check verses as you come along that are definite principles for effective prayer. Some of them are promises. We used to have a deacon in our church in Chicago, where I served for 16 years, who used to get up every Wednesday night in prayer meeting. And either in his prayer, that he might have prayed, or in a testimony that he might have made, he would bring in the phrase “standing on the promises.”

“Lord, we’re standing on the promises.” It’s good. But I want you to know that there is something more important than standing on the promises. And that is living according to the conditions that underlie those promises. He never referred to that.

Not once. But in 16 years, almost 50 times a year, he’d use that phrase. “Lord, we’re standing on the promises.” It’s good. I’m not belittling him for it. It kept it fresh in the minds of all of us. And I didn’t know in those days what I know now.

And I didn’t know anything better than what he said then. But I know that there is something more important now than to just know the promises of Jesus and of God. It’s good to know that we need to obey those conditions. Every promise of God pertaining to prayer is based upon conditions. And it’s the conditions that are… that’s the important thing. And if we don’t know the conditions, Lord, help us. And to this day, today, right now, back in your hometown, there are hundreds of people that wonder why prayer is ineffective. Why their prayers are not answered. I’m telling you right now why some of your prayers are not answered. Because you’ve ignored or don’t know the conditions upon what? Upon which that promise is based.

I’m going to take one of those promises right now. Here it is in John 15. The seventh verse. John 15, 7. Here Jesus says, “If you abide in Me and My words abide in you, ask whatever you will and it shall be done for you.”

Now there’s a promise and most people will think about the promise rather than the conditions. But I’m selecting this one because it is so simple. Here is what you might call, and Marcia is a scientist, you may not have known it, but she is a scientist. She knows something about scientific principles. And one time I heard her say that this is just like a mathematical equation. Wasn’t that the way you worded it? Huh? Close enough. A mathematical equation. A plus B equals C.

If abide in Me, A, and My words abide in C. You may ask for anything that you wish and it will be granted. Now that’s simple, isn’t it? All right, follow through with a lot of other things, but not just to know them up here in our noodle, but in our life, living them out and see how marvelously they come to pass. Well, we’re going to talk about it for a few moments. “If you abide in Me and My words abide in you, ask whatever you will and it shall be done for you.” Very simple. You’ve known that text all your life probably. You’ve used it probably to tell others and you also have said, now, that’s what Jesus said and I prayed and it doesn’t work. Well, because you’ve ignored the first part of it, the equation part. Yeah, that’s it. If you know the equation and the following through, you can expect all other things being equal because there are a lot of other things that may be involved.

Well, what’s the first one here? If you abide in Me. Now, when I was a child, like all other kids, I enjoyed fairy tales. And I used to dream of the time that maybe a fairy would appear before me and wave her little wand. Wouldn’t that be a terrific thing? For a fairy to come into my home and wave a little wand and say, “Ask whatever you wish and I’ll give it to you.” Three wishes! “I’ll give you three wishes.” Always three. I don’t know why it was three. And I used to wonder what three things I’d wish for if a fairy did come. Oh, of course, I wasn’t expecting any but it was fun fantasizing about it. But Jesus doesn’t say anything here about giving us three wishes or three hundred wishes or three thousand wishes. There’s no limit.

Ask for, ask anything that you wish and it shall be done. Well, what’s the first proposition? If you abide in Me. Now, what does that mean? Now, be practical. Be sensible. Do you think that means just a theological idea? That we’ve accepted Christ as our Savior? Period. And therefore we’re abiding in Him? Do you think that’s what it means? Oh.

But it probably is the mistake that a lot of people think. Because they’ve become a Christian, they’ve joined the church, and they go to church, and they read their Bible. They probably have an idea that that is what it means. But I don’t think it is what it means.

And the reason for it is because of what Jesus has just said. What did He say at the beginning of that chapter? “I am the true vine and My Father is the vinedresser.” And He goes on and talks about the vine and the fruit of the vine. And then He says, unless you abide in Me, in the same way that the branch abides in the vine, there will be no fruit. Is there fruit in your life? Oh, yes. As much as you want? Could it be increased? Are there things that you could do to increase the amount of fruit? And here is something we ought to never forget. That in our Christian pilgrimage, the fruit of the Holy Spirit should be experienced by every follower of Christ. And every one of those nine fruit that Paul mentions, every one ought to be our experience. Because that’s the result of the Holy Spirit living within. If He’s not there, you can’t expect the fruit.

And if you have only a little of the fruit, a few factors, but you haven’t patience, maybe you lack right there. And you need to do something about that. But you can, and you’ll have your patience too. Because patience is a fruit of the Holy Spirit.

And it’s the fruit that proves to the people that are looking at us and fellowshipping with us, the fruit is what proves whether or not we belong to Him, at least to a large extent. But if we’re just like everybody else, and if we blow our top just like other people do, and lose our temper, and have a lot of impatience, and other things that don’t belong, why should they become a Christian?

And so they turn Jesus down because they don’t see that it works with us. And therefore they don’t want to be a Christian if it means being like us. That’s a fact. We’ve bumped into it. If you abide in Me, what do you think Jesus meant by abiding in Him? Occasionally, a branch abiding in the vine, or a branch of the tree abiding in the tree, occasionally, but we’ll go off and out into the orchard and cut off the branch and then stick it back on when we feel like it? Do you think that would work? No. The branch has got to abide. And as a result, the life of the tree flows out into the branch and there come the leaves, the blossoms, the fruit. But apart from Me, Jesus said, you can do nothing.

One time, I was in the Netherlands in Amsterdam and we drove by a park. It was a very small park in the center of the city, not more than a block in size. There were a lot of trees in this park and the trees were covered with oranges.

Artificial oranges. Yes. I said, what under the sun have those trees been decorated like that? Oh, this is Queen Juliana’s birthday and she belongs to the House of Orange and so on her birthday they decorate the city with orange. And as you drive along the streets you find some of the houses decorated with orange streamers just to celebrate the Queen’s birthday. And they continued doing it for Queen Wilhelmina too.

Queen, huh? Juliana. And they continued doing it until Wilhelmina died. Wasn’t that right? Sure. Well, if you abide in Me… So, just ask yourself the question, how much do you abide in Him? In reality? Not theologically. Sure, you’re a child of God and always will be. And nothing can separate you from Him. I don’t mean from that standpoint, but from this standpoint of living in Jesus so that you have the qualities of Christ in you. How much of the time are you abiding in Jesus? 50% of the time? 25%? 10%? 5%? Well, before you throw this equation out the window and say it doesn’t work, treat it realistically. I think that’s what Jesus is doing. If you abide in Me and My words abide in you, what would that involve? Doesn’t it involve knowing what He said? If they’re abiding in us, why, we know them. We remember them. They’re living within us.

And how many, if you were given an examination next Sunday morning by your pastor, if everybody in your church was given an examination and papers were passed out and you had to write down on paper all the sayings of Jesus that you could remember, how much of a grade would you get?

I don’t mean to be letter-perfect even, but the principles that Jesus talked about, are those principles abiding? Are they a part of your life? Are you living that life? That’s the thing that’s involved. And, well, do you know how many verses there are in the scriptures containing the words of Jesus? You ought to know.

How many verses in the New Testament that contain the words of Jesus? Nobody knows? I haven’t counted them, but I found out. Somebody did count them. 1599. Now, the kids can remember that because it means one less than 1600, but you older people wouldn’t remember that.

1599 verses in the New Testament that contain the sayings of Jesus. How many of them do you know? Well, before you throw this equation out the window and say, it doesn’t work, pay attention to it. And I wouldn’t mean to be able to quote them verbatim. It isn’t necessary.

With all of the different translations now, what translation are you going to use? That’s one of the unfortunate things. There are many blessed things as a result of these many translations, but one of the things that we’re missing is that it’s difficult to quote so that everybody’s quoting the same thing in the same way. You can’t have responsive reading and so on unless everybody’s using the same text.

And My words abide in you. Fifteen hundred and ninety nine verses. How long would it take you to read them? If you read them all right straight through. You know, I made the statement, I just guessed at it, up in Penang, up in the northern part of Malaysia, in a Methodist church, years ago, on a Sunday morning, I made the statement that if a person had a red letter testament, he could read the words of Jesus in one afternoon. Everything that Jesus is recorded as having said here in the New Testament. I was just guessing at it, but it was a good guess, because that evening, a young man came and he came up to me, he said, “Roland Brown, what you said this morning, about reading the Bible, the words of Jesus in one afternoon, got under my skin. I went out and I bought a red letter testament, and I sat down this afternoon and began to read right straight through everything in red ink.” I says, “Listen, tell me, how long did it take you?”

And what do you suppose he said? “Two and a half hours.” How many minutes? There’s a mathematician over here. Huh? 150? My, you’re a good mathematician. That’s the way I… Oh, Marcia makes it. 150 minutes. Think of it.

And that’s the second part of the equation. If you abide in Me and My words abide in you, then you can ask for anything that you wish, and it will be granted. So, before throwing this equation out the window, do something about it. But if the words are going to abide in you, there are four things involved. First, you must know them, right? If they’re abiding in you, just having read them isn’t enough. But if they’re abiding, so they’re a part of you, you must know them. Second, you must believe them.

And third, you must love them. And fourth, you must want and try to obey them. That’s simple, isn’t it? Now, if you meet those conditions, Jesus says, your prayers will be answered. Try it. I remember the time, at the time of my conversion, and not long after that, in high school, I had to write a theme on any subject that I might desire. The teacher gave us the freedom, I wasn’t she good. Tell us to write on anything that you want to. So many pages, bring it back tomorrow morning, and, well, that’s easy. Oh, that would be so simple on any subject that I wanted. And so, I didn’t hurry to write the paper. I waited until about nine o’clock.

And then I took my pen, sat down, got the paper in front of me, and started to write the paper. Well, what will I write about? You know, I couldn’t think of a blooming thing to write about. Not one thing came into my mind. And I thought, and I thought, and I thought, but not a thing came through. And I did glance at the clock every now and then. That hand, you never saw a hand go around so fast. And I had to get that paper in in the morning. And the time was getting late. And what was I going to do? I remembered. I had become a Christian. Jesus was a reality to me. Why not pray about it? I put the pencil down and I got quiet and I asked the Lord to help me with this situation. Suppose He did it? He sure did.

I picked up the pencil and put it down on the first line and, you know, believe it or not, the topic sentence flowed right out of the end of that pen. And then the next sentence and the next sentence and I continued writing and in a few moments that pen was flying over that paper so fast that I could hardly keep up with it. And when the paper was finished it would have been my custom, it was my custom, to have gone over the paper and corrected mistakes, you know, carefully, and then rewrite the paper. But it was very late and so I didn’t do it. I just folded the paper, put my John Henry on the outside of it, and the next morning handed it in. And what do you suppose, the third day later at the expected time she brought the papers and tossed them out onto our desks, and mine had a great big A on it. And right after this, a plus sign. And boy, I had never gotten a plus sign before on anything.

And was I amazed. And I knew I hadn’t written it. I knew the Lord wrote it through me. And then I heard her calling my name. And she said, “Now Roland has the best paper. And I’m going to ask him to stand up and read his paper to the class.” And I’ll tell you, I had misgivings. I didn’t know what to do. Should I get up and say, “Well, really, I didn’t write this paper. Jesus wrote it through me.”

But I knew what the kids would do if I said anything like that. So I didn’t. I just obeyed the teacher. I have that paper to this day. It’s among my mementos. Say it’s time to quit. Lord, You’re so wonderful. You’ve made everything so simple. And so easy. We can all understand what You mean. And we pray that we may obey You. Help us to know.

And to follow through in everything that You want us to do. So that for us to live is Christ. And we thank You. Thank You, Lord. Amen.