I for one believe that what we experience in real life is important. The 5 senses are to be trusted and if something looks like a duck, quacks like a duck and walks like a duck it must be a duck. Here are some of my experiences with prayer.
I was 21 when my father died of colon cancer. He was 71 and in charge of finding land and building a Christian camp grounds in Nagano prefecture. He had to leave that work unfinished. When they discovered the cancer and operated it had progressed to level 4 and had gone to his liver and other parts of his body. He couldn't continue chemotherapy as it was wiping out his white blood cells. The elders came twice, anointed him with oil and prayed for him to be healed. I prayed every day for him as did thousands of other people and he still died.
My wife is Japanese and she is the only Christian in her family. When I was 29 her uncle who was 55 had a heart attack in the hospital during a routine check up. My wife's mother came and asked me to pray to my God for him. If he lived it would have been a strong witness to the power of God and I prayed for hours, but he didn't survive. My wife's mother never believed in Christ, nor has any of her family.
10 years ago a fellow missionary who had been away from the field came back to Japan. He was looking for a place to serve. One of our churches in Hiroshima who was in need of a minister had him come and invited him to minister to them. He accepted, and it looked like a perfect match, but only a couple of months later he was diagnosed with cancer and was sent back to the United States. Everyone prayed for him including many Christians in America and Japan. He died two months later of melanoma. He was 50 years old. I asked another missionary friend of mine, "What the hell is God doing?" And he replied "I haven't the slightest idea."
About 5 years ago, another Japanese minister/teacher friend and coworker of mine was also diagnosed with cancer. All the Christians within our churches prayed for him and he also died. He was 55 years old. He is greatly missed.
An acquaintance of mine in America had a son with leukemia that went into remission. He claimed God had healed his son. I asked how could he be sure? Was he not under the care of doctors? Perhaps it wasn't God at all. Talk about reaping the whirlwind. He chewed me out something fierce about my lack of faith and the clear fact that God had healed his son. Some years later I was back in America at the same church and asked about him and was told that he had left the church. I asked about his son and they said his leukemia had returned. I don't know if he survived or not, but one thing was true, God hadn't healed him.
I've run into many people in my ministry who prayed genuine prayers for a great many things, including escape from physical and mental abuse in their homes when they were children, and God never rescued them. They are so resentful to ever believe he exists.
A few years ago another missionary related a story about a children's meeting he had and that they had prayed it wouldn't rain on that day. It didn't rain and they had a good meeting so he declared God had done a miracle for them. I challenged him, that it was mere coincidence. Several other missionaries took his side and they all started shouting at me to "Give God the credit! Give God the credit." They never talked to me again after that.
Another missionary related a story about needing $200.00 in school expenses and went to his grandmother's house to ask her for help. Before he was able to ask her she offered to give him $200.00, the exact amount he was going to ask her for. He claims it was God's miracle. I can't help thinking that if it was a genuine miracle then God certainly wasted one because the missionary was going to ask for the money and would have gotten it anyway.
Now I ask, why would God control the weather and cause this man's grandmother to give $200.00, which there was no need for, and not answer the prayers for the lives of his workers who were greatly needed on the mission field?
The classic answers are, "You didn't have enough faith." (But it only takes the faith of a mustard seed to move mountains right?) "You weren't sincere enough." "God has a better thing planned for you." "We can't know God's bigger plan." "When God closes a door, he opens a window." "God moves in mysterious ways." "God will answer in his own time." "God wants you to learn patience."
Oh come on now! If it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck and walks like a duck, it's a duck. We need to stop making excuses and admit that God hasn't answered prayer, period.
Well, that leaves me with a dilemma. Did God lie? Does he answer prayer arbitrarily? If so, does he answer our prayers for forgiveness arbitrarily too? What exactly did he promise to answer? What promises were made to the apostles? Were those promises for them only? What promises were made for every Christian? Do we have prayer all wrong? Perhaps these things we are praying for aren't promised, that's why they aren't answered!
This is the way I have resolved the issue. I believe, New Covenant promises are strictly spiritual. No physical promises are promised. The Old Covenant promises were physical, but the New Covenant ones are spiritual only. God answers prayer for spiritual things. He will not answer prayers for physical things, he is not obligated to do so. (Thus there should be no surprise that they aren't answered in real life, which is my experience. Prayer that people claim is answered is of a kind that is easily explained as coincidental.)
I thing God is saying, "I'll take care of the spiritual things, and I'll let nature take care of the physical things. If I interfere with nature it will be for special cases only. Cases that involve fulfillment of a promise I have made or the establishment of the New Covenant."
I'm a cessationist when it comes to the gifts of the Spirit. I believe they were meant for the "times of the end" of the Old Covenant till A.D. 70. But I would extend that cessationism to include prayer for physical things as well.
Answered prayer for spiritual things I have experienced often. Prayer for the power to forgive others, even deep resentment has been answered. Prayer for courage, for patience, for peace of mind, to stop worrying, for faith, for acceptance, for forgiveness (promised to be given if we believe it's already happened). These things God has answered EVERY TIME I pray them. I have real life confirmation and experiential evidence for answered prayer for spiritual things, but for physical things real life confirmation and experiential evidence point the other way. They are rarely if ever answered.
Many people believe that in my reaction I have swung the pendulum too far but I have never claimed God doesn't answer prayer, just prayer for things not promised within the New Covenant. He answers prayer everyday for many people but only for the "good" things, the things within his will, the things that really matter.
I stopped praying for physical things about 15 years ago and I have not noticed any change in my physical well being one way or the other. When I was praying for physical things and I lost income I had a lot of anxiety until the situation was resolved, but after I stopped praying for physical things, even when I lost income, I had total peace of mind and things resolved themselves anyway. It allowed me to focus my attention on "the kingdom of God and it's righteousness" rather than on "God, heal this person and heal that person, bless this person and bless that person. Give me this and give me that." Does that make any sense to you? Not a single prayer for physical things in 15 years and my faith is stronger because of it. The spiritual blessings have been abundant. What need do I have of physical things? They are the things pagans seek.
When I preach here in Japan I often have them notice what can be found in their own temples and shrines. They all sell talismans. One for safety on the highway. One for good health. One for success in school. One for success in business. One for success in marriage. They are all for physical things; health, wealth and happiness from physical things. None of the temples sell talismans for loving one's enemy, for a pure heart, for righteousness, for patience or any spiritual thing. I ask the Japanese, "What do you truly desire? If it's physical things you desire then you don't need Christ, just go to their shrines and buy up all the talismans. But if you want something that can change the heart and can really make a difference in their lifestyle then come follow Christ. He can give you what really counts."
Christ did signs and wonders but never prayed for physical things for himself. He resisted temptation for physical things when tested in the desert. He didn't pray for his own safety in Gethsemane. In all those cases he prayed not for his own will but God's will and God's will is for us is to develop good spiritual lives. Why would Christ ever answer prayers for health, wealth and physical happiness when he himself never pursued them?
Jesus said, "the truth will set you free". When I stopped praying for physical things, they ceased to matter and I WAS SET FREE from them. Truth is, I haven't gotten many people to agree with me. Physical things are just so important to them. Maybe you people are different.
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