Key 11 - Supplication
The prince’s inherited power gives him no authority to command. He must go to his father and get his father to intervene.
As the prince gets older, more and more is expected of him.
More and more authority is to be granted to the prince as he comes of age; as he PROVES himself responsible.
Inherited AND earned power trumps all.
His earned power has more weight because of his inherited power. It’s as if his inherited power exponentially increases his earned power. Again, the king favors the prince, so the prince doesn’t have to work as hard to earn greater authority. It’s as if the prince has a talent for power, but the servant has to build up a skill for power. The prince just naturally has power, but the servant has to work hard for it.
Therefore, what I’m saying is, if you can’t command and things happen, you have inherited power. Exercise it and watch as you start to gain earned AND inherited power; the Ultimate Power.
And how do you exercise your inherited power? You have to bring your requests to God. But this is more than just praying. This is Supplication.
To be clear, the difference between prayer and supplication is that prayer is casual talking to God. Supplication is effective, fervent requests from Child to King - from Heir to King. Prayer is sharing your day with your Father and telling Him all the things that are bothering you, what you love and don’t like, etc. Supplication is more like a focused and dedicated war room, specifically telling the King your problems and asking Him for help.
Let’s think about how a child gets something from their parents.
Demanding: A child may try to get what they want by commanding their parents to do it. This doesn’t usually work too well. A parent will most likely punish a child for daring to disrespect them like this. If we as parents don’t want our kids disrespecting us, do you think God would? Therefore, my advice is that you shouldn’t go around demanding that God give you something and then getting mad and throwing a fit if He doesn’t. It’s just not the right way to influence God, and it may even bring a punishment.
Whining or Begging: A child often tries the begging approach because sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. Notice how when a child does this to a parent oftentimes the parent will give in because they just don’t want to hear the whining anymore. However, if you are a parent you’ll know what I mean when I say almost every time a parent gives in to a whining child the parent never feels good about it. They always kind of wish they didn’t give the child what they wanted. Sometimes whining will lead to punishment too. We see examples of God doing this all throughout the books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. Whenever Israel complained and whined in the desert God sometimes gave them what they wanted and sometimes punished them. Suffice to say, this is not the best way to influence God to get what you want, so if you are always whining at Him to do something in your life, maybe you need to change your approach. Let me give you some better options.
Negotiating: This is when the child strikes a deal with the parent to get what they want. Basically, I’ll do something for you later, Dad, if you give me what I want now.
Warning: If God answers the Negotiating prayer, He expects you to keep your end of the bargain. If you don’t, there will likely be consequences. If you make a deal with God and you keep your end of the bargain, there is actually nothing wrong with this. God has no problem with someone who will keep their word. In fact, if you do this, He will honor you for keeping your word. After all, He has trusted you and you did not disappoint. Therefore, He knows that He can trust you with making such deals in the future with Him - especially if that deal was hard for you to keep. There is only a problem with the Negotiating method of Supplication if you don’t keep your end of the deal. This is definitely NOT GOOD. This is, in fact, dangerous for many reasons, but one of the biggest is that now God knows He can’t trust your word. You’ve just shot yourself in the foot by making a deal and backing out after you got what you wanted.
So what is the best type of Supplication?
Serving especially in secret BEFORE you make your request.
This approach is the one God wants all of his children to use more than anything. This is the approach every human parent also wants their children to use when trying to influence them. It is THE most effective way to influence a parent to get what you want.
Why? It’s very much like the negotiating approach except the child does whatever the parent wants - and then some - without asking and before they even acquire the thing they are going to ask for. This is the situation where the parent comes home from work, finds housework and homework done, dinner is made, dishes are done, etc. Now what do you think most parents will say if their child has done this? Either “What did you do?” or “What do you want?”
Think about it! How awesome would it be if instead of you having to seek God for help in your life, to have God seeking YOU out?
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