You've Got to Know the Territory Before You Pray

In 1887, J. P. Johnston, in his autobiography Twenty Years of Hus’ling, wrote about his life as a salesman. To be a success at selling, Johnston taught, you’ve got to know the territory. You’ve got to know some things. You must know yourself, your customers, and your products. The customer wants to know if you are honest and dependable. Do you value him as a person, or are you using him to get what you want? Will you make good on anything that’s not right? Are you selling quality products at a bargain price? Will what he buys from you benefit him? In other words, you had to know the territory.

Prayer, likewise, has territory that must be known. Prayer isn’t selling or trying to persuade God to do what you want. But like selling, you’ve got to know some things. You’ve got to know yourself; not the self you were before Jesus, but the new self you became in Christ, the you of infinite worth as seen through God’s eyes. Next, you have to know, personally know, each member of your new family. Know your laughing, loving Father. Know your brother Jesus, the joy giver. Know the Holy Spirit, the one living in you as teacher and guide. Finally, know your Father’s promises. Only then can you know true prayer, because prayer is family talk.

If prayer is family talk, that means that once I know myself I must concentrate on knowing my new family. If I don’t get to know them prayer will be nothing more than a polite hello. How do I do it? How do I get to know intimately each member of my new family? We begin by learning the details of our shared history. We look at the love that binds us together. We look at each member of our new family. Then we boldly take our places in the family circle, bound together by love to brother Jesus, the Father, and the Holy Spirit in a beloved family.

… Getting to know the territory means getting to know our shared history. That history began over six thousand years ago. It is a dark history. But momentous events happened about two thousand years ago that turned our shared history from darkness into light. Those events happened during one week that changed history forever. What that week meant for us, what our Brother did for us, and the gifts our adoptive Father gave us, are things we will never tire of recounting, rejoicing over, giving thanks for, and will never ever forget. …

Like me you were probably born a Gentile. The Old Testament calls everyone a Gentile who wasn’t born a Hebrew (Jew). The Old Testament is the history of the Hebrew people. While little is said about the Gentiles, something happened about 1885 BC that changed both of our histories. That event was the day God spoke to Abraham and Abraham believed him. God promised Abraham that he would be the father of many nations and that all the nations of the Earth, Jew and Gentile alike, would be blessed because of him.

This ancient promise, written indelibly on their hearts, kept the Hebrew people bound together as a nation even when scattered around the world. The promise spoke of one who was to come, a Deliverer who would set things right. What would the Deliverer be like? What would he do? Ideas differed. False Deliverers had arisen only to cause trouble. To the Gentiles, the Jewish nation was so obstinate they seemed to be nothing more than a thorn in the side. Little did anyone suspect that in one week on a Jewish holiday, about 30 AD, something would happen that would blend Jewish history with our Gentile history, and change time forever.

We have four recorded authentic eyewitness accounts describing the events of that week. Other references, such as those written by Titus Flavius Josephus, also describe the events. That week divided history into before (BC) and after (AD). You’ve heard the story many times, but have you really heard it? Let’s listen to it again by telling it in a different way. This time think of it as reading your own family history. It is a history you’ve just discovered. You’ve been going through things in an old home that has belonged to your family for generations. Looking in the attic one day you find an old trunk that has been shoved back into a dark corner and forgotten. Inside the trunk, wrapped in old linen cloths, you find an old diary.

It is written in ancient Greek. You understand a little Greek but not enough to translate it. A professor at your local college is an expert in ancient Greek. You take the book to him and ask him to translate it for you. A few days later he calls. His voice is excited. Can you come right now? He sits you down and then says the last thing you could have imagined: “This diary was written by a Roman officer-turned-businessman. It includes an eyewitness account of the events in Jerusalem from Palm Sunday through Pentecost.”