Do the Prayers of Christians Change the Will of God?

I have heard many times those that advocate the doctrine of Free Will note that God changes according to the will of men and specifically through the prayers of men. By this claim they both affirm their belief in man’s free will, the sovereignty of God being subservient to that will, and specifically through this they deny His immutability. So the question to answer is what does the bible say about this?
First, one of the passages they use first and foremost to make their claim is from Jon. 3:10. Through outward appearance, without any study or contemplation on the rest of God’s word, the claim seems to be a viable one. God saw what they did and He “relented from the disaster that He had said He would bring upon them, and He did not do it.”

But is this verse able to stand alone and isolated from the rest of Scripture? Can it be considered apart from the rest of the book it is in as well as the rest of the bible? It seems to me that the easy answer is no. Either it is in agreement with the rest of God’s word or it is not. But if we are to consider its meaning then the rest of the Bible must also be considered to make sure our conclusion is accurate. We as Reformed Christians believe in the Five Solas, one of which is Sola Scriptura. What that means is that everything we believe is viewed in the light of what the Bible says. No doctrine we espouse can stand against the word of God. Scripture interprets Scripture, and when we find in the Bible what seems to be contradictory to our conclusion then we can rest assured knowing that we have missed something in our Bibles. As the Westminster Confession of Faith says, “[the Bible is our] rule for faith and life.”

So, what does the rest of the Bible say concerning prayer and how it affects God? Let us start with Jas. 4:2, 3. Here we are given a basic principle of why our requests in prayers are not granted. First we lust, murder, covet, fight and war for the things we want. Notice that all the things listed here are negative to the proper living of a Christian man or woman. We lust, which means we are seeking things improperly and from a false motive, we are behaving like the heathen and seeking the gratification of the flesh in whatever it may be with little or no concern for God and His will in our lives. Then after we have embraced such sinful desires we take the next step and we use whatever means we can find to obtain those things which we have desired. Once again, we behave like the heathen and console ourselves with the idea that the end will justify the means. After all, one of the most prominent movements in America today is the Prosperity movement where people are being taught that God wants them to be materially blessed and that their selfish desires, and the fulfillment of those desires, are their highest goals and achieving them means you are in God’s good grace while not achieving them means you have more to achieve before God will bless you with your desires. It is a materialistic heresy that has caused the ruin of many a man and will continue to do so as long as it is allowed to exist. But, like the sure reality experienced by adherents of the Prosperity movement James tells as we get not “because [we] ask not.” See, the thing we try first is to gain our desires through our own efforts. The only time God becomes a consideration is when those efforts fail and we feel the need to whip out our spiritual debit card and hit God up for our portion of blessing. But, even then, we fail and we do not see our desires fulfilled. Why? Well, we have lusted after carnal things, we have used worldly means to gain those things, and then when we finally turn to the Lord we “ask amiss, that [we] may spend it on our pleasures.” The entire motive is skewed and worldly. From start to finish we have not been in accordance with the will of God either in our desires or in how we have attempted to fulfill those desires. Thus, pitted against the will of God we only get a negative reply to our prayers. The fact is that God always answers the prayers of His children. For those that are not numbered with the elect, like it or not, He does not even hear their prayers, they are covered with sin and not allowed to reach the holy throne of God. But for the elect, with prayers sanctified by the Spirit and pleaded for by the Son, we always get a response. We seem to have fooled ourselves into believing that the only time God answers our prayers is when we get what we prayed for. But stop for a moment and consider that when you do not have the positive answer to your prayers God has undeniably told you “No!” So, if what we are told the conclusion of Jon. 3:10 should be, we now have a logical problem, for here we are told that God will not grant our requests in spite of our prayers if they are prayed for from a false motive and to achieve a false end.

Next, let us look to 1 Jn. 5:14, 15. Here the Apostle John takes it a step further by telling us plainly, “that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.” Wait a second! Whose will is under consideration here? Is it the will of man in prayer that changes the heart of God or is it the will of God that reigns supreme in all things? We see in Jonah where the actions and pleas of men apparently changed the mind of God and caused Him to relent from His pronouncement of punishment. But here we are plainly told that the only thing that will bring a positive answer to prayer is that what we are praying for is specifically in accordance with the will of God. Nothing else will gain that answer we so desperately strive for then to be living in, desiring, and seeking the will of God in all things. When we pray in such a manner then our prayers are answered, not because they are the desires of our heart necessarily; but, because the desires of our heart match the desires of God’s heart. It is God’s will that matters, it is the glory of God that matters, and the only way that is achieved is by the will of God being accomplished. Otherwise, and this is the only logical conclusion a reasonable man can come to, God ceases to be God because He is now subservient to those He has created. If He were to grant the desires of our heart when they stand in direct opposition to His own will, He would be rendered impotent by the requests of mankind. Calvin says,

“By this expression he meant by the way to remind us what is the right way or rule of praying, even when men subject their own wishes to God. For though God has promised to do whatsoever His people may ask, yet He does not allow them unbridled liberty to ask whatever may come to their minds; but He has at the same time prescribed to them a law according to which they are to pray.”

Simon Kistemaker adds,

“In the presence of God, we have the freedom to ask for anything because we know that God hears us. Indeed, God grants us the freedom to ask whatever we wish, but He adds one condition: ‘if we ask… according to His will.’ This is the biblical teaching on prayer.”

Next, let us look at Christ. What could be clearer than what Christ Himself modeled for us through His own prayer and the prayer He left for us specifically as a model with which to pray? Let us go first to Luke 22:41, 42. Here we see Christ, the Son of God, our great Prophet, Priest and King praying to God for what was tormenting His soul. He was so tormented that a couple of verses later He is sweating so profusely that His sweat looked like drops of blood. Christ was tormented because His time had come; He was getting ready to undergo great agony. Yes, the physical pain must have weighed on His humanity and been a part of the consideration, but more than that was that He was about to face the wrath of the Father, He was about to be separated from the Father for the one and only time in eternity. That point of separation is the only cry we hear from Christ throughout the entire time He was being crucified. In the single most poignant moment in history He cried out with unquenchable pain, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” Oh! The agony that Christ knew He was about to face! And Christ had the power to stop it. For He Himself said in Jn. 10:17, 18, “I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.” Yet He did none of that. He didn’t stop it. He didn’t complain about it, not even under the moments of extremely painful torture. The overwhelming reason can be found in the words we see here in Luke. He says, “Father, if it is your will, take this cup away from me; nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.” Three times Christ subjects His will to the will of the Father in this one little verse. And Christ is dealing with a matter of grave consequence. What He is doing holds so much more importance and promises a torment beyond anything we have ever had to face. Nothing could be worse for the Christ than to be separated for even a moment from the Father whom He has loved so much and been one with for eternity. Yet He was willing to subject His will to the will of the Father knowing the great price He would have to pay as a result. For Christ, fulfilling the will of God the Father was His will and in that “He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.” (Php. 2:8) Even for Christ, the Father’s will outweighs all other considerations.

Second, let us look at Matt. 6:9, 10. Here, in giving us the Lord’s Prayer as a model for us that will stand throughout the rest of time, Christ opens the prayer with giving us the proper focus of our hearts as we enter into prayer with God. First, all that we do is for the glory of God and it is the driving motivation and the overwhelming desire of our heart; “hallowed be your name.” Second, the will of God and the advancement of His purpose on this earth is our aim; “Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Our will, our desires, our efforts mean nothing if the primary focus and driving factor in us is not the glory of God and the fulfillment of His will. Anything we ask of Him must be subservient to that end. God will not bless the desires of a heart that stands opposed to Him; regardless of what outward display men may have of righteousness. Martin Luther prayed in accordance with this third petition of the Lord’s Prayer,

“O dear Lord, God and Father, You know that the world, if it cannot destroy your name or root out Your kingdom, is busy day and night with wicked tricks and schemes, strange conspiracies and intrigue, huddling together in secret counsel, giving mutual encouragement and support, raging and threatening and going about with every evil intention to destroy Your name, word, kingdom, and children. Therefore, dear Lord, God and Father, convert them and defend us. Convert those who have yet to acknowledge Your good will that they with us and we with them may obey Your will and for Your sake gladly, patiently, and joyously bear every evil, cross, and adversity, and thereby acknowledge, test, and experience Your benign, gracious and perfect will.” (Martin Luther, “A Simple Way to Pray”, pg. 31)

For Luther, the drive of prayer and of mankind was that the will of God be fulfilled; that was the end in and of itself. For Luther, even praying that men would be saved was asked so that they would acknowledge and be obedient to the will of God in their lives.

Next, if we are to consider the will of God versus the will of man, especially with the doctrine of immutability being connected by those of the Arminian camp then we must also consider Mal. 3:6. Oh! How I have seen how they try to dance around this verse! I had someone send me an excerpt from an Arminian pastor that said that this means nothing more than that God would keep a promise He had made to David. But that doesn’t really seem to be at all what it says here; it doesn’t even seem to be in accordance with the context of this chapter, yet alone the rest of the book. What it says is that, “I am the Lord, I do not change.” Cut and dry, clear, a very dogmatic statement. In fact, if no other verse in the entire Bible were to lead us to believe entirely in the attribute of immutability being a reality, we would still have no alternative but to believe it to be true since this is given directly from the mouth of God. He has spent the book of Malachi chastising the people for acting in ways that are contrary to the will and commandments of God, He is chastising them for having moved away from where they began. Here He makes it abundantly clear that it is not God that has changed, nor will it ever be, it is mankind that has changed and He will hold them liable for their transgressions. In the very next verse God says as an indictment of the people, “from the days of your fathers you have gone away from my ordinances and have not kept them.” He is not addressing promises made to the house of Jacob; He is addressing the lack of faithfulness in the people of Israel and holding Himself up as the holy contrast to their wickedness. C. F. Keil says this in his commentary on the book of Malachi,

“God comes as a practical witness against the wicked, convicting them of their guilt by punishing them. This threat of judgment is explained in vs. 6 in the double clause: that Jehovah does not change, and the sons of Israel do not perish. Because Jehovah is unchangeable in His purposes, and Israel as the people of God is not to perish, therefore will God exterminate the wicked out of Israel by means of judgment, in order to refine it and shape it according to its true calling. The perfects are used to describe biblical truths. The unchangeableness of God is implied in the name Jehovah, “who is that He is,” the absolutely independent and absolutely existing One (see Gen. 2:4).”

God will never change; it is a great truth and a great comfort for the fallen creatures that serve Him. In spite of our wicked ways we can rest sure on the promises of God because our God is the same yesterday, and today, and for ever (Heb. 13:8).

So, this all brings us back to the book of Jonah. Did the actions and petitions of the people of Nineveh change the heart of God? No. It is obvious even when considering only this small book of the bible that God went to great lengths to spare the people and deliver them from their sin. The entire story is a type and shadow of what He would do for us in Christ. It was not the actions of the people that delivered the people. God sent Jonah, punished him greatly for disobeying God’s command to go and lead the people to repentance, and when Jonah finally arrived He used him to lead the people to change. What happened was not a result of the actions or the petitions of the people, it was the direct result of God ensuring that His will would be accomplished no matter the efforts required to achieve that. Rather than standing as an example against the immutability of God or standing as an example of the will of God changing according the whims of man, it shows that no matter how wicked or obstinate we may be, that God’s will is a sure reality and only when we are in accordance with that will can we see His blessings and positive affirmation in response to our prayers. The entire word of God is harmonized in this, the entire word of God says this in unambiguous terms, and it is sure that if it is the desire of our hearts to serve the Lord as He has prescribed that the focus of our prayer must be for His glory and that He will reveal His will to us and enable our hearts to be obedient to what He reveals. Then, and only then, will we see our prayers answered in a way we have never experienced before. Laus Deo!

With all of that said, let our focus be true and right. Let us pray with vigor and have faith that the Lord will mold our wills to His own and answer our prayers for His glory and our good. Never let this biblical truth dissuade you from prayer; rather, let us always pray without ceasing (1 Thess. 5:17) for this is good and it is the will of God as He has revealed it to us in His word.