Fillup on "Name It and Claim It"

Phillip Bethancourt, over at Fillup.org, lays out a well-grounded reflection on the common Christian act of "Name It and Claim It". The post helped settle a few questions in my heart, so if you have the time, I think it'll be well worth your attention...

Bro. Hank ><>

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By Phillip Bethancourt (HT:Fillup.org):

"In one of my seminary classes, we recently discussed the question, 'why should God answer our prayers?' Here are some reflections on the topic:


When we pray, we should give God (whether implicitly or explicitly) a biblical reason why He should answer that prayer. This is not an effort at divine arm-twisting, but a means of appealing to God on the basis of His revealed Word for specific answer to prayer. One type of biblical reason for God to answer our prayers is the promises of God contained in scripture.


The Bible is full of promises. If we are going to claim the promises of God as grounds for Him to answer our prayer, then that opens us up to the potential of abusing the system and claiming them incorrectly. There is a right and wrong way to claim the promises of the Bible.


Many people want to just name and claim biblical promises to further their agenda. However, we must come to a realization that not all promises in scripture relate to us the same. We cannot claim every promise in the Bible for ourselves as is. Why? Because not every promise in the Bible was addressed to us as is. So, for instance, a male cannot name and claim for himself the promise of a Virgin Birth given in Isaiah (Isaiah 7:14) in order to substantiate the belief that he will somehow be with child.


The promises of the Bible do not all apply to the same audience. Who the promise was intended for originally impacts how we can interact with that promise before God in prayer:


Some promises in the Bible are for all people in general (Romans 10:13-Whoever calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved)
Some promises in the Bible are for all believers in general (Hebrews 13:5-I will never leave you nor forsake you)
Some promises in the Bible are for specific believers (Matthew 1:23-Promise to Mary that she will bear a son whom she is to call Immanuel)

While the first two categories apply directly to those of us who are in Christ, the third category creates a difficult scenario. Why? We can't claim promises that weren't given to us as is. So, what do we do with promises given to other people? Can they serve as grounds for why God should answer our prayers?..." (finish reading the article here)