Being the Answer to Our Own Prayers

Now I really want you to look… that’s like surface level. Now let’s really look at it and think about it. Verse 35, it says, Jesus… not everybody, Jesus was going around and teaching and preaching and healing and doing all the work. And then he says here, he looks at everyone just weak and scattered and he’s like, man, that’s a lot of people.

Then he looks at the disciples and says, hey, Why don’t you ask the Lord that he sends more labors? Now, pause right there. Who is Jesus? He is the Lord, amen?

Like, he’s the 1 that he sees, he’s literally saying, just ask me to send more people. That’s what he’s saying in essence in the text. He’s saying, ask me to send someone else. Now could you imagine, and again, this is a little bit of sanctified imagination here, but I could imagine if I was standing with Jesus and He said, hey Baca, and I said, yes Jesus, He said, we need to pray for this.

What do you think I’m doing in that moment? I’m probably going to pray right then, right?

If Jesus looked me in the eye and said, hey, we need to pray for labors. Jesus, let’s do it right now. Like, we’re gonna pray for labors, because that’s what Jesus just said. Pray for labors.

Pray for labors. Chapter 10, verse 1, remember, in the original Bible, there’s no division, there’s no verses, it’s just the story is supposed to continue. After he told them to pray, it then says, he called the 12 disciples to him, gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, to heal all kinds of sickness, all kinds of diseases.

And what does he do? He sent them out. In other words, Jesus told them, pray that the Lord will send out laborers. And the very next verse, what did he do to them?

He sent them out. Now remember, who was supposed to pray to go to send laborers? The disciples were supposed to pray that the Lord would send laborers, but who got sent out?

The disciples! It was like, wait, wait, wait, Jesus, why didn’t you just—I always thought that was interesting as a question I have to ask because it doesn’t say in the text. Like, why didn’t you just say, go? But he first looks at them and says, why don’t you ask the Lord to send somebody?

That’s a great idea. Let us pray. Lord, send somebody. Amen.

You open your eyes and Jesus is like, I grant you power to go forth. Go and serve and minister. Are you tracking with me? It’s such a cool story.

I think he did it for a reason. I believe he was literally illustrating to disciples that often we are to be the answer to our own prayers. That we are often the answer to your own prayers. You can pray for God to send forth labors, and I believe He can bring forth other labors, but why not you?

In fact, I was so curious about this, I decided to actually, for those who read the Spirit of Prophecy, look it up in the Spirit of Prophecy to see if there was any thoughts on this, and I found a couple of quotes I want to share with you. It says, if we would have, this is from a book called Gospel Workers, we can speak to him of our real wants and of our earnest petitions. We’ll show that we realize our needs, And we will do what we can to answer our own prayers.

The upward look Says it this way, as you work to answer your own prayers, You will find that God will reveal himself unto you. God calls us to be the answer to our prayers.