The Grands Letter

Dear Grands,

Jeremiah 33:3, “’Call to Me, and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and mighty things, which you do not know.’”

Several years ago, on one of our mission trips to Mexico, I was informed upon arrival that I was to speak to a plenary session of the Annual Missionary Conference that was in session. For some time, the LORD had been infusing some thoughts into my mind –thoughts that I came to understand He had been preparing in me for my address to these missionaries.

That day, while the missionaries were at lunch, I wandered through the conference room, with the specific purpose of learning what they were currently reading. To my amazement, the books were clearly in line with what the LORD had been preparing me to say.

Years have passed, and thus I have forgotten many of the specifics of that meeting. What I do recall, however, is the basic thesis of my address. It was: “We’ve got to be something before we can do something,” and “We’ve got to become nothing before we can become something.”

What was said that day resonated well with my hearers. It now occurs to me that the same message is applicable to those who would wish to have power with God. Far too often we’ve attempted to do something for the LORD without belonging to Him as we had ought. When failure occurrs, we adjust our thinking to the belief that what we had attempted was not His will — not His will for us, or simply not His will for that time. While these are feasible conclusions, it is also more than possible that we were attempting to do a good thing in our own strength instead of in His.

During our time in Australia, the Australian Baptist carried a story of Southern Baptist missionaries working in Southeast Asia. You could almost “feel” the vibration of the missionary’s excitement as he wrote, “We have tried for so long to accomplish this; we finally just gave it over to the LORD. What we were unable to realize in 20 years, the LORD did inside of two weeks!”

The missionaries had simply come to the end of themselves; they were “shut up to faith.” Having thought they were out there to accomplish something for God, He demonstrated that they were out there to learn of Him.

This is a practical principle of basic Christian theology. What is more, it translates well into the arena of prayer. When we become what He saved us to become –spiritual children, who are totally dependent upon their Heavenly Father– He demonstrates to us and through us who He really is and what He can do. Prayer is therefore dependent upon our yieldedness to Him. The more like Christ we become, the more anxious the Father is to respond to our prayers. The more like Christ we become, the greater His responses to our prayers. For it is then that the indwelling Holy Spirit is doing the asking. And the Father has pledged to answer all of His requests.

Yes, there is reality and power in prayer. We simply must not forget the righteousness that is to characterize our lives; for that righteousness –the LORD’s righteousness– enables our prayer. It also enables the LORD’s willingness to respond.

Want answers to your prayers? Yield yourself to Him! He loves to answer you!

Heartily in Christ Jesus,

(Dado III)

Gene L. Jeffries, Th.D.

Springdale, Arkansas 72764

United States of America

“We never know that God is all we need

until He becomes all that we have.”