For Crying Out Loud: A Book Review

(Originally printed in the Summer 2003 Issue of the MCOI Journal beginning on page 8)

Looking at Bill Gothard’s Book

The Power of Crying Out: When Prayer Becomes Mighty

We¹ remember sitting in our little church singing the old hymn Power in the Blood. Our pastor led the congregation with great vigor. “There is power, power, wonder-working power in the blood of the lamb.” This old hymn recites the truth that all power ultimately is found in the very character of God. When Pilate threatened Him with crucifixion Jesus responded, “You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above” (John 19:11).

Enemies of Christ seek power in this world. Friends of Christ seek the power that comes from the heavenly city above. Jesus taught His disciples to pray, “Our Father in Heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matt. 6:9-10). While the will to change lies in the individual, the will we seek is from the heavenly Father. Jesus instructed His disciples that the “… Father knows what you need before you ask him”(Matt. 6:8).

In his short book The Power of Crying Out: When Prayer Becomes Mighty,²) Bill Gothard attempts to show prayers expressed by crying out loud are the most effective. Gothard writes,

“For most of my life, I assumed that crying out was simply synonymous with prayer. I’ve come to be amazed, however, to see the specific purposes and potential for crying out — and how this is emphasized time and again in Scripture. God hears our prayers, and the Bible’s testimony reveals that, in a special way, He particularly hears us when our requests are voiced aloud.”³)

Jesus condemned those who make a public spectacle of their prayers and those who speak many words in hope they will be heard (Matt. 6:5-7). The power of prayer is determined by the intent of the person not the method of expression. Jesus calls us to examine our prayer before it is spoken. In contrast, Gothard tells us to cry out and then examine our prayers.

“As we call aloud our prayers, we can more easily recognize our heart’s condition before God. Hearing our own spoken words, we quickly detect any lack of fervency or humility or reverence. Listening to ourselves, we’re forced to examine our hearts.”⁴

Does God really respond more favorably when our prayers are voiced aloud with great fervency? The answer is unequivocally, “No.” Curiously, Gothard points this out by examining Hannah’s prayer for a child from 1 Samuel.

“Obviously, God isn’t hard-of-hearing. He can hear the faintest silent cry of the heart. Even if it’s only a passing thought. Even if it’s only a groan without words … Sometimes a person prays with his tears, even when words are missing … Though Hannah’s physical voice was silent, God heard her fervent, poured-out prayer in that place and granted her a son.”⁵

What Exactly Is the Point Of This Book?

Gothard makes a great point and then ignores his own wisdom. Can God hear the silent cry of the heart or not? Either He can or He cannot, but it is not both.

God answers prayers that are in accordance with His will. Move your mind to the Garden of Gethsemane (Luke 22:39-46). The cry of our Savior could not have been more fervent. Jesus literally was sweating blood. He was about to face the excruciating pain delivered by the cross. His human nature desired to be delivered from the pain He was about to face. Nevertheless, His human will yielded to that of the Father.

Christ’s prayer in Gethsemane is a model for the believer. Ultimately, prayer is not a tool to change our circumstances or the mind of God. Effective prayer is aligning our will with the will of God.

The Power of Crying Out paints quite a different picture of the purpose and mechanics of prayer. Gothard clearly makes a distinction between normal prayer and crying out to God in a loud voice. The distinction Gothard makes is that there are some situations that favorable answers to prayer come only after the prayer is voiced aloud. As he says it, “I saw that the Bible makes a distinction between ‘prayer’ and ‘crying out to God’.”⁶

Does It Work?

Throughout the book, there are anecdotal stories supporting Gothard’s belief there is special power in crying aloud in prayer. Stories of cancer being cured,⁷ criminals lowering their gun,⁸ engines stalling,⁹ financial success,¹⁰ freedom from lust,¹¹ and more permeate the book. As he concludes the story of Anna, who was cured of cancer, Gothard summarizes,

“What had we done? We had cried out to God. We lifted our voices together, seeking His mercy, His power, and His healing. Moreover, He heard and answered with a true medical miracle. (Just ask her doctor.) Did it matter that we cried out to God, calling on Him with loud voices? That is what this little book is all about.”¹² [emphasis in original]

Sonja¹³ was in her twenties, a mother of two young boys, and the wife of a pilot. An evening in September 1988 changed her life forever. Her husband and youngest son were killed in an airplane accident. Numerous times, she cried out to God and asked Him to bring them back. However, no amount of fervent prayer would bring them back to life. God could have done so — He has the power to do so — but He did not. It is in these difficult circumstances that our trust and faith must be put into the good character of God and not in a prayer formula.

God is not sitting in Heaven waiting to see what and how people will pray. He already knows our prayers — they are a part of His eternal knowledge and sovereign plan for this world. We are called to bring to our Father requests and petitions (Phil. 4:6). However, to think if one cries aloud God will answer the prayer favorably for them is unbiblical. God certainly answers all our prayers. The answer, however, is often not what we desire.

Success stories long have been effective marketing tools. Companies that sell cosmetics, dieting methods, and exercise equipment parade the beautiful, slim and fit to promote their product. The wise consumer understands, as the fine print usually states, results may vary. Gothard also asserted his own ‘fine print.’ In the “Points to Ponder” section he writes,

“Have you ever cried out to God in a crisis, but nothing happened? Did your cry reflect total humility? Did you acknowledge your complete weakness? Was there unconditional surrender to God’s will on every matter? Are there still areas in your life where you have not fully surrendered to Him?”¹⁴

If this is the criteria for answered prayer, then God will never answer the prayer of a Christian. What Christian can honestly say they are completely humble, completely acknowledge their weaknesses, and have unconditional surrender in every part of their life? The Apostle John tells us, “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us” (1 Jn. 1:8). It is for this reason we lean on the wisdom of God and not our own understanding.

In an attempt to give an answer to the one whose cry is not acted upon by God, Gothard writes Chapter 11 — “When God Delays His Answer.” The title says it all. Implied in the title and explicit in the chapter is the idea that if God has not answered your cry — just wait, He will. “I’ve been amazed at how just one cry will bring immediate results. But, we should not always expect this to be the case. Sometimes we need to keep crying night and day.”¹⁵ [emphasis in original]

Gothard continues in this chapter with a story of how God provided real estate to his ministry ALERT.¹⁶ The wife of the founder of ALERT “began to cry out to the Lord with the prayer of Jabez,¹⁷ asking for expanded facilities.”¹⁸ Gothard relates that they cried out several times after it looked like they would not get the land. Finally, they received the land.

Gothard concludes,

“God’s Word tells us of ‘His own elect who cry out day and night to Him,’ and how God will respond to them ‘speedily’ as He patiently hears them. His timely response will always come according to what He wisely determines is the best schedule, in reward to our faith.”¹⁹ [emphasis in original]

The Scripture Gothard is referring to is Luke 18:7-8. In context, Jesus is talking to His disciples about the coming of the Kingdom of God. In Luke 18:1, Jesus begins a parable of a godless judge. A widow who wanted justice against her adversary constantly petitioned the judge. The judge gave her justice so she would not badger him any longer. Jesus responds, “And the Lord said, ‘Hear what the unrighteous judge said; now, will not God bring about justice for His elect who cry to Him day and night, and will He delay long over them? I tell you that He will bring about justice for them quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?’ (Luke 18:7-8).”

This passage does not teach that we are to cry out for things in this world until we get them. Jesus is explaining the cry of the believer for justice will be answered. The Kingdom of God will come, and His judgment will be speedy. Gothard’s application of this passage to the provision of expanded facilities is completely without warrant and a classic example of pretexting.²⁰

God, Do You Hear Me?

It should be noted that we are not against the idea of crying aloud to God. In some cases, it is a natural outflow of the heart. Our criticism concerns Gothard’s claim there is a qualitative difference between silent prayer and prayer spoken aloud.²¹

In the words of Gothard,

“God hears our prayers, and the Bible’s testimony reveals that, in a special way, He particularly hears us when our requests are voiced aloud.”²² [emphasis in original]

It is the heart of the prayer God hears. Words? whether spoken silently or aloud-are an outpouring of the heart. Words spoken aloud do not guarantee a pure and humble heart. The heart full of envy, pride, and jealousy can also speak aloud. Gothard gives many examples where the Bible records crying aloud to God. The mistake he makes is taking what is descriptive in Scripture and making it prescriptive for everyday life. God is looking for a heart that cries out, not a voice that cries out.

There is nothing we can do to grab God’s ear for a special hearing. Job attempted to get such a hearing with God. He lamented chapter after chapter in hope God might hear his case. Job pleaded that God might explain his suffering. The Lord responded out of the storm, “Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me” (Job 38:3).

Just as Job could not move God to a response, neither can we. God hears the cry of the heart, but He is not moved by our passion. Our prayers do not have power within themselves. They cannot change the mind of God nor deliver an answer of our choosing. The power of prayer is found in the One to whom we pray to not in the prayer itself.

Gothard is correct to stress the notion of fervency in prayer. God certainly hears the sincere prayer. Gothard makes two incorrect deductions, however. First, Gothard equates crying aloud with fervency. Second, he believes the fervent prayer is always answered in the affirmative. Gothard makes these two deductions when he writes,

“Much of our prayer lacks the kind of fervency God requires for effective results. But when a person sincerely cries out to God as his only hope for deliverance, provision, or protection, we can be quite certain the cry will be fervent.”²³

If Gothard were to use the phrase “cries out” to mean a cry of the heart and not necessarily a cry of the voice, his above quote would be accurate. However, in the context of the book, it is clear Gothard is referring to the cry of the voice — a cry spoken out loud.

God longs to hear our heart cry to Him. That said; the cry for good health, abundant wealth, or a carefree life should not be the central focus of prayer. Let us not forget Jesus was hated (Jn. 15:24), spat on (Matt. 26:67), and without a place to call home (Lk. 9:57). Every day we should expect trouble in this world (Matt. 6:34). Our prayer should be that we might be delivered through the trouble of this world. The cry of the heart should be centered on the very person and nature of God. It is to that end we now turn.

The God of Prayer

To whom we pray has a direct effect on how we pray. God has many attributes and, for the sake of brevity, we will examine a few of God’s qualities that will direct or, if wrongly understood, misdirect our prayer. God is omniscient, omnipotent, immutable, and impassible. An improper view of God will change not only your prayers but also your Christian walk. AW Tozer explains:

“A right conception of God is basic not only to systematic theology but to practical Christian living as well. It is to worship what the foundation is to the temple; where it is inadequate or out of plumb, the whole structure must eventually collapse. I believe there is scarcely an error in doctrine or a failure in applying Christian ethics that cannot be traced finally to imperfect and ignoble thoughts about God.²⁴

Simply put, if we want to pray with the will of God, then we need to know to whom we are praying.

God is all-knowing, or we might say, He is omniscient. How God knows what He knows is one of the most misunderstood qualities of His nature. Any time God is understood from a finite, human position, a heretical understanding of God will follow. To think God thinks as we think is bad thinking. Humans are temporal in nature, and God is eternal. Humans “feel” the passing of time as the seconds tick off the clock or the months are changed on a calendar. Temporal beings (us) understand the past, present, and future. God is in the eternal now. Eternity is not a long, long, long, time. Eternity is infinite existence. What does infinite mean? Infinity plus one or infinity minus one are meaningless statements. God is not really old. He is eternal. What is infinite cannot be added to or taken away from. A really old god could be added to or subtracted from. Time cannot be removed from or added to the existence of God.

The quality of omniscience means that God does not learn anything. This does not mean He is the ultimate dunce. Everything God knows, which is everything that can be known, He has always known. Our prayers do not surprise Him. Many Christians are praying about how to upgrade their car while members of His Church are martyred. We often pray for steak and wine while many people would be thankful for water and rice. Good and bad, God knows our prayer before we lift it up to Him. This is the nakedness we have before an all-knowing and all-holy God (Gen. 3:10).

God has no limit to His power. He is omnipotent. This means God can do anything that is possible to do. This does not mean God can do what is impossible to do. God cannot lie, and God cannot make a circle that is square. God has the power to save all people, and Christ did die for this purpose. However, God cannot save all free people because, if they are truly free, some will and do reject the grace of God. Adam, who lived in a perfect creation and in God’s grace, still made the choice to be his own god and did what was right in his own eyes. To choose to love is the act of a free soul, and we are made in the image of God.

The unlimited power of God is not a temporal insurance policy to make sure Christians do not suffer temporal sickness and pain. His power guarantees His word is true, and His will shall be done. A Christian who would want God to use His power in a way contrary to His will is either not a Christian or is greatly confused. This is the antithesis of Christ message (Rom 8:13). This is 180 degrees from what a Christian should desire. The Christian has died to one’s own will and desires the will of God. Lift up your prayers and God will hear them. We are the children of God. Jesus our God and Savior explains, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from Me. Yet not as I will, but as You will” (Matt. 26:29). Pray as your heart is led, but remember the Christian ultimately desires the will of God and not our will to be done. This is the Christian life. This is the sanctification of the children of God.

God does not change. He is immutable. This is the great assurance of the Christian faith. The Word of God will not change. Truth is true because God is the immutable foundation of truth. The Word of God is not right because God said it. Rather, God has spoken His Word because it is right. God cannot make hate a good thing and love a bad thing. The Word of God and all His qualities flow from His very essence.

Do we pray to God in order to change His mind? No! Our prayers are not to move Him but to move us. All our prayers are not going to be within God’s will. Seek His will and desire your heart to be in union with His will. “Delight yourself in the LORD and He will give you the desires of your heart” (Psalms 37:4). This does not mean we get what we want. We pray so we will desire what God desires. If this is the case, then we will get the desires of our heart, because they are the desires of the heart of God.

Creatures do not move the passions of the Creator. He is impassible. “Can a man be of benefit to God? Can even a wise man benefit Him? What pleasure would it give the Almighty if you were righteous? What would He gain if your ways were blameless” (Job 22:2-3)? What would imperfect people have that God would need? There is nothing we can do to move God. What is the point of prayer if God cannot be moved? God moves, but He is not moved by us. Are our prayers effective? The answer is, “Yes.” How can God be impassible, and our prayer be used by God? The answer is found in His omniscient nature.

We experience life in a sequence, Monday, Tuesday, etc. God does not know as we know. God knows what He knows eternally. He knows our prayer in His eternal present. God knew our prayers before we were created. God honors the prayer we lift up to Him.

For example, an adult child unexpectedly dies and the mother does not know if that child was saved. A mother’s prayer will be heard and used by God. The prayer will not change the eternal destination after the child has passed. However, God can use our future prayers in the present. Before the child died, God was using the mother’s prayers she would later lift up. Does this mean that all children who have a mother praying for their salvation will be saved? The answer is, “No.” But, God will use those prayers to minister to the child. “Great is the LORD and most worthy of praise; his greatness no one can fathom” (Psalm 145:3).

We are always to pray Thy will be done. Do we really want the imperfect to move the perfect One? God’s impassive nature insures His perfection and the greatest good. God hears all our prayers, and prayers that are outside His will are answered, as they should be, with a “NO.”

God’s People in Prayer

Prayer is our fellowship with the Bridegroom. The Church is the bride of Christ. What is a marriage without communication? We pray to God, and He speaks to us through His Word. The heart of a Christian should desire the will of her Groom. Pray to Him and also listen to Him. God will not answer a prayer in a way that is contrary to His Word. You can bank on it.

“God told me it was okay to have this affair and I am going to get a divorce!” Be wary of the “God-told-me” Christian. God does not answer prayer that is in conflict with His Word. Be careful to whom you listen. Prayer is not an opportunity to inform God of His will. The unknowing do not explain to God “how it is.” The unknowing seek the omniscient One to ask “how should it be?”

It is curious how there are a few Christians who allegedly have the direct line to God concerning the lives of all other Christians. For some curious reason, God fails to tell everyone else but them. What exactly is the difference between a false prophet and the Christian who says, “God told me?” None. If a person wants to have the right to use the phrase “God told me,” then we should expect to see a miracle or two to prove their validity as a prophet of God.

Prayer is not some mystic thing, where we try to find the right combination of word and phrase that will make God snap to attention and expand our ministry or whatever else. People in the occult²⁵ use prayer, word phrases, and mysticism to gain power for them. This is not the way of the Christian. Stop looking for some way to control God through prayer. Are we to pray to God to gain power for ourselves? No, and a thousand times no, we don’t want the power of prayer to be with people who still struggle with the flesh. The power of prayer lies in the omnipotent One-exactly where it should be.

Christians often cannot agree on the color of the carpet for the church and whether Christ died for all people or only for the elect. We are limited in wisdom and, frankly, do not know what is best for us. How many of us, as teenagers, thought we had found the perfect spouse? How many of us are married to that person? How many Christians are not even married to their first spouse? We change our minds all the time. Do we really want to trust our limited and changing wisdom over the wisdom of the immutable God? No. Trust God. He knows what is best for us.

Our passions are moved by everything around us. The culture in which we live affects our thoughts to a degree at which most would be surprised. It is perplexing to think people around the world would defend the power and government of a man such as Saddam Hussein. We would like to think it is Christian values that guide our disdain for Hussein and other men like him. We hope our passion for his removal from power is pure. We hope our reasons as a nation are pure. However, we can be sure there are some people who hate Arabs and are moved to war for the wrong reasons. The Arab world is moved by a hatred for Israel, and this is the reason for their support for Hussein. Hussein knew very well that the hatred for Israel was the one possibility to unite the Arab world. Our passions are a dangerous thing when they are not guided by Truth. Christians who understand the infinite difference between the impassable God and their passing fancy do not want the power of prayer to be in passable hands. Trust your prayer to the God whom you can be sure is moved only by His passion for the Truth, and trust not in your own understanding (Prov. 3:5). “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will” (Rom. 8:26-27).

Final Thoughts

Stop looking for a mechanistic method for prayer. This is a view of prayer similar to what we find in an occultic system of reality: a + b = c, The Prayer of Jabez + our praying it = expanded ministry, b + d = q, need in our life + crying aloud = positive answer. It is the idea that if I know the right ingredients to prayer, then I can insure the answer to prayer. The Christian idea of prayer is one of relationshipwith God. Prayer is seeking to commune and communicate with our heavenly Father with whom we have a relationship. God hears our prayers whether audible or inaudible.

Where are the easy answers? Is there an easy answer to pain and suffering? Clearly human free will is one reason for some pain and suffering, but the reason “I” have cancer rather than to be cancer free is not so easily explained. One thing is clear. Our suffering is our greatest opportunity to preach the Gospel. To praise God in the midst of trial is where the rubber of salvation hits the road of our life. To use an old phase, it separates the men from the boys or the women from the girls. How hard is it to praise God when our stocks are up and our body is strong? This was Satan’s cry to God against Job. Satan thought Job would curse God if his wealth was removed and his life threatened. Job is a shining example of faith through suffering.

There is no silver bullet prayer or 1, 2, 3 steps to the perfect prayer life to guarantee our prayers will be answered as we wish. Stop for a moment and ask yourself why Jesus never explained this secret of prayer when He specifically addressed the nature of prayer to the disciples (Matt. 6). Ask yourself why Peter, Paul, James, John, nor any of the church fathers such as Aquinas, Augustine, or Wesley ever taught this secret to prayer. What is true is that all our prayers are heard and are answered- “Yes,” “No,” or even “Wait.”

We may or may not be Garth Brooks fans, but we can agree with his improperly titled song, Unanswered Prayer. I (Randal Ming) must admit that had many of my teenage prayers been answered “Yes” (concerning dating, for instance), I would not be married to my wife Amy. I thought I knew who the right person was and, thankfully, God knew better. Yes, God heard my prayers and, yes, they were answered. God often answers, “No.”

For anyone to assume, in arrogance or ignorance, to have the wisdom and omniscience of God in their prayers is to underestimate the wisdom and knowledge of God. Don’t be confused, many earnest prayers are not answered positively. The denial of God to answer “Yes” to a prayer does not mean that prayer was not raised in earnest. As Christians we love the will of God more than our own will (Matt. 16: 24-25).

Oh that prayer was as simple as baking a cake! Prayer develops in the life of a believer just as any other gift from God develops, through growth. James explains the true nature of growth, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything” (James 1:2-4). Has anyone prayed that God might increase the trials of life? The thought of praying for affliction so that growth might occur is a frightening prospect, indeed. God might honor that prayer positively.

Books such as The Power of Crying Out plague the American church. This mode of thinking has infected the Christian life and church. Self-help is the antithesis of the Gospel. Paul continually reminds the Roman church that they were saved by faith. Faith is a noun and not a verb. Our faith is in what God has already done- His Cross, and the promise of what He is still going to do-separate the good from the evil. Self-help is falling back into a different gospel. Self-help is a desire for knowledge to control life. If faith is a verb, an action, then it is not faith at all. Christian faith is a noun; faith is no better than the God our faith is in, what He has done, what He does, and what He will do. We pray in faith. Amen.

Randal Ming and Randall Birtell are the Scranton, KS Branch Directors of MCOI. They also are completing their Master’s Degree in Apologetics at Southern Evangelical Seminary in Charlotte, NC.

For Crying Out Loud: A Book Review

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