The Prerequisite of a Productive Prayer Life (Doctrinal Bible Church in Huntsville, Alabama)

Doctrinal Bible Church

Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom

Wednesday May 7, 2025

Prayer Series: The Prerequisite of a Productive Prayer Life

Lesson # 2

The Bible teaches that only God’s children can experience a productive prayer life and thus the only prerequisite for a productive prayer life is that of being a child of God.

The sinner becomes a child of God the moment they are declared justified by the Father through faith in His one and only Son Jesus Christ.

Therefore, only those sinners who have been declared justified by the Father through faith in His one and only Son have the privilege of being called children of God.

Though there is one instance in the Bible in which God hears and answers the prayer of a non-believer, namely Cornelius in Acts 10 (who became a believer), God only hears and answers the prayer requests of His children.

God is the Father of all believers who are sons of God through regeneration (Jn. 1:12-13; Rm. 8:15; Gal. 3:26-28; 4:6; Eph. 2:18).

Regeneration takes place at the moment of justification when a person expresses faith alone in Christ alone (Jn. 3:16-17, 36; Acts 16:31; Gal. 3:26-28).

Those who are sons of God through regeneration are considered by God to be His children as a result of honoring His Son by accepting the Son as Savior.

The Father deals with believers as a father in the natural realm would deal with his children (1 Th. 2:11; Heb. 12:4-13).

Unlike the Greek philosophers of the ancient world and of modern 21st century society, the New Testament considers only those who have accepted Christ as Savior as children of God.

Unbelievers are considered children of the devil and are designated “sons of disobedience” (Eph. 2:2; 5:6; Col. 3:6; cf. Jn. 8:44).

It is true that as Creator, God is Father of all but in terms of relationship and fellowship, He is the Father of only believers who have been born into the royal family of God through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ (Heb. 12:7, 9).

One cannot claim to have or know experientially the Father without the Son (1 Jn. 2:22-23; 2 Jn. 9; cf. Jn. 8).

Therefore, a sinner becomes a child of God as a result of being declared justified through faith in His one and only Son, Jesus Christ.

One of the foundational doctrines of the Christian faith is that of the doctrine of justification.

By way of definition, justification is a judicial act of God whereby He declares a person to be righteous as a result of crediting or imputing to that person His righteousness the moment they exercised faith in His Son Jesus Christ.

Consequently, God accepts that person and enters that person into a relationship with Himself since they now possess His righteousness.

The mechanics of justification are as follows: (1) God condemns the sinner, which qualifies them to receive His grace. (2) The sinner believes in Jesus Christ as His Savior. (3) God imputes or credits Christ’s righteousness to the believer. (4) God declares that person as righteous as a result of acknowledging His Son’s righteousness in that person.

The Scriptures teach that the only way that a member of the human race can ever be declared righteous by God is through receiving the gift of divine righteousness by grace through faith alone in Christ alone (cf. Rom. 3:28; 5:1-2).

1 John 3:1 How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. (NIV84)

The apostle John solemnly issues the recipients of First John a command which required that each one carefully consider what kind of love the Father has exercised towards himself and the recipients of this epistle.

He then identifies for them what they should carefully consider, namely they should carefully consider that each of them have been effectually called to be God’s children.

John then emphatically affirms this to be the case.

He is in other words, reassuring the recipients of this epistle in emphatic terms that they are in fact children of God.

In 1 John 3:1, the apostle John teaches that God’s love was the reason why He effectually called them to be His children.

This love is an attribute of each member of the Trinity and was exercised by the Trinity towards John and the recipients of this epistle as well as all believers throughout the church age.

Thus, the believer in Jesus Christ is the beneficiary of this love.

“Regeneration” refers to the spiritual birth of the sinner who is declared justified by the Father through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone.

Regeneration takes place at the moment of conversion when the omnipotence of God the Holy Spirit appropriates for the sinner justified by faith in Jesus Christ, the benefits of Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection (cf. Titus 3:4-5).

John 1:12 Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God. (NIV84)

1 Peter 1:3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. (NIV84)

1 Peter 1:23 For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. (NIV84)

The sinner who has been declared justified by the Father through faith in His one and only Son, Jesus Christ manifests the fact that they have been elected from eternity past by the Father.

Ephesians 1:3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. 4 For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5 he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— NIV84)

When Paul says God the Father chose the church age believer, he is referring to God the Father in eternity past electing those members of the human race who would be declared justified by the Father through faith in His Son Jesus Christ.

He elected them in the sense that He, in His foreknowledge, which is based upon His omniscience, knew before anything was ever created, that they would believe in His Son in time.

In other words, God elected them before the foundation of the world since He knew beforehand that they would accept His Son Jesus Christ as Savior in time.

He elected them to the privilege of possessing an eternal relationship and fellowship with Himself and the other two members of the Trinity.

The doctrine of election is never used in Scripture in relation to the unbeliever since 1 Timothy 2:4 and 2 Peter 3:9 teach that God desires all people to be saved.

There are three elections to privilege in history: (1) Israel (Deut. 7:6-7; 10:15; 14:2; Isa. 14:1; 44:1; 45:4; 48:12; Isa. 65:9; Ezek. 20:5; Psa. 135:4; Acts 13:17; 15:7; Rom. 11:5, 7, 28). (2) Christ (Isa. 42:1; Matt. 12:18; Luke 9:35; 23:35; 1 Pet. 2:4-6). (3) Church (Rom. 8:30, 33; 9:24-26; 1 Cor. 1:27; Eph. 1:4, 18; 4:1, 4; Phil. 3:14; Col. 3:12, 15; 1 Thess. 1:4; 2 Thess. 2:13; 2 Tim. 1:9; 2:10; Tit. 1:1; Heb. 3:1; James 2:5; 1 Pet. 1:1, 15; 2:4, 9, 21; 3:9; 5:10, 13; 2 Pet. 1:3, 10; Rev. 17:14).

Ephesians 1:5 is a participial clause, which asserts that the Father predestinated each and every church age believer for the purpose of adoption as sons because of His love for them through Jesus Christ for Himself according to the pleasure of His will.

It identifies the means by which the Father elected for His own purpose each and every church age believer because of His Son before creation in order that each of them would be holy and uncensurable in His judgment.

Therefore, this indicates that the Father elected the church age believer by predestinating them for the purpose of adoption as His sons because of His love for them through Jesus Christ for Himself according to the pleasure of His will.

Romans 8:15 teaches that the church age believer has been adopted “Romans style” into the royal family of God.

Every church age believer was adopted by God the Father at the moment of their justification or in other words, the moment the church age believer was declared justified by the Father through faith in His one and only Son, Jesus Christ, they were adopted Roman style into the royal family of God through the baptism of the Spirit thus making them an heir of God and spiritual aristocracy.

Roman adoption was the process by which a person was transferred from his natural father’s power into that of his adoptive father.

Roman style adoption was the custom of selectivity, selecting some to fulfill or take over the family estates and guarantee that the next generation will be as efficient as the last generation in Roman life.

Under Roman law the adopted son had the same status and privileges as the real son and the real Son is our Lord Jesus Christ.

Roman style adoption served a useful purpose both socially and politically.

The New Testament Scriptures teach that the church has been adopted into the royal family of God as adult sons thus conferring upon them all the privileges and responsibilities that go along with this new relationship with God.

The apostle Paul used the Roman style adoption analogy in his epistles to communicate to members of the churches throughout the Roman Empire their new relationship with God the Father that was acquired at the moment of faith in Christ.

Paul utilized the Roman style adoption illustration to teach church age believers that God the Father’s grace policy places them into the relation of sons to Himself.