Prayer and Faith (Part 3): Praying According to Covenant

“This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.”

In The Better Covenant, Watchman Nee expresses the idea of praying “according to his will” within the context of our covenant relationship with God. Rather than a God who is reluctant to answer our prayers, Nee sees God as taking delight in our “requesting Him to perform according to all His promises in the covenant.” Using a similar blank check analogy as the previous authors I quoted, he says:

May we all remember that we have the right to pray according to covenant. We may ask God to act according to His covenant. But if there is no faith, our prayer will be of no avail. God has reserved everything in the New Covenant in just the way a person deposits his money in a bank. If the person believes, he can draw it out continually.

It’s no coincidence that all three of  these authors liken prayer as a type of financial transaction, for God himself expresses the spiritual transaction between himself and Man in similar terms:

What does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”

Now when a man works, his wages are not credited to him as a gift, but as an obligation. However, to the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness. (Rom 4:3-5)

He goes on to say (v. 23-24) that God will also credit righteousness (i.e., equity) for us as well. (See my earlier blog post, The Economics of Self Worth.)

Hebrews 11 is a commentary on the function of faith in relation to the covenant of God:

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen... (Heb 11:1 ESV)

The word “assurance” in this verse is the Greek word hypostasis. It commonly appears in ancient papyrus business documents, conveying the idea that a covenant is an exchange of assurances which guarantees the future transfer of possessions described in the contract. Moulton and Milligan suggest rendering this verse as: “Faith is the title deed of things hoped for.” (Vocabulary of the Greek Testament, 1963, p. 660).

Nee puts it like this: “…all who know what a covenant is know how to pray – they may ask God with boldness.” (pp 33)

So God responding to our prayers becomes a matter of his covenant, not his sovereignty. It’s not even based on grace.