God is “mighty to do much more abundantly than we ask or think” (Ephesians 3:20). Do you pray as if this were true? No, God is not always going to answer us in the way we want or at the time we want. But when we pray in faith, everything is possible, not because we are so wise or powerful, but because our sovereign God is.

When believers misunderstand the relationship between God’s sovereignty and human responsibility, it can hinder our prayers. The reasoning behind this misconception goes like this:
God sovereignly rules over all things and has His plans and purposes in mind for the universe. Why would our prayers do anything to change His plans and purposes?
Yes, God’s sovereignty and human responsibility is a big topic. But I’m convinced this is an easy obstacle to overcome as it relates to prayer. Let’s look at three propositions that can help us.
Proposition #1: God sovereignly governs the world.
Ephesians 1:11 says, “God works all things according to the counsel of his will.” He is sovereign over every molecule and every event of the universe. Nothing happens without His notice, and all that happens only happens because God allows it.
Proposition #2: God calls us to pray.
It would be strange indeed if God commanded us to pray if prayers didn’t accomplish anything. Doesn’t the Bible say that “the prayer of the righteous person has great power as it is working?“
For God to command prayer if it were worthless and powerless would seem an awful lot like Lucy from the Peanuts cartoons pulling back the football right when Charlie Brown goes to kick it. Praise God that He isn’t like that.
This last proposition is how we reconcile these first two truths:
Proposition #3: God has determined to sovereignly use our prayers for His purposes.
To think that God’s sovereignty makes prayer unnecessary or unfruitful fails to acknowledge God is sovereign even over our prayers, and that God has decided in all His great wisdom to use the prayers of imperfect people as a means to carry out His purposes in the world.
On this topic of God’s sovereignty and prayer we can often overanalyze the inner workings of prayer and God’s response.
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If we front and centre anything other than Jesus and the Word of God, we will be winning them to something much less, something deficient. What we communicate about Jesus and his Word matters because, if we front and centre anything else or try to win people by other means, that is what we have to keep them with. Not only that, but that is what they are really coming for. 

The old, oft trotted adage is certainly true: what you win them with you win them to. We have to be clear what we are winning people with because that is ultimately what we have to keep them with. That is to say, we have to be clear what we actually want to win people to and then make sure that is what we front and centre.
In the church, the ever-present temptation is to win people with whatever will win them. It is to take something of a pragmatic approach to church growth. If people are more likely to come in because we do something or other, then let’s do that something or other in order to win them. Aside from being a principle that literally opens the door to any nonsense and ungodly activity so long as it brings them in, it actually doesn’t even work. It may get people in the door, but if they’re only coming for the thing, they ain’t coming because of Jesus.
I am reminded of some of the issues that cropped up in the earlier years of my ministry. The frequent refrain was that we effectively needed less Bible, less of the Word, and more of a bunch of other things that are more likely to bring people in and keep them. Perhaps, I was once told, if the Spirit so moved us we should ditch the sermon altogether and just spend the entire service singing. Maybe, I was told another time, we could limit the sermon to a 5-minute sermonette because 40 minutes of preaching probably isn’t that appealing. You probably should, someone once insisted, stop preaching about sin, Hell and judgement and all that because people don’t like that sort of thing and they may not want to come back.
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Paul’s apostleship was a matter of some debate because he did not meet all of the requirements for apostleship set forth in Acts. The criteria for apostleship included being: (1) a disciple of Jesus during His earthly ministry, (2) an eyewitness of the Resurrection, and (3) called and commissioned directly by Christ. Paul was not a former disciple, and his vision of the resurrected Christ occurred after Jesus’ ascension. Paul was not an eyewitness of the Resurrection in the same way the other Apostles were. Nevertheless, Paul was directly called to the office by Christ. 

Since twelve of those who were disciples of Christ later became His Apostles, the two terms disciple and apostle are often confused. Although the terms are used interchangeably, they are not exact synonyms. A disciple is defined in the Bible as a “learner,” one who entered into the fellowship of Jesus’ rabbinic instruction. Though the Apostles were disciples, not all disciples became apostles.
An Apostle enjoyed a special office in the New Testament church. The term apostle means “one who is sent.” Technically, however, an apostle was more than a messenger. He was commissioned with the authority to speak for and represent the One who sent him. The chief apostle in the New Testament is Jesus Himself. He was sent by the Father and spoke with the authority invested in Him by the Father. To reject Jesus was to reject the Father, who sent Him.
Likewise, the Apostles were called and commissioned directly by Christ and spoke with His authority.
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