[Jabez] I close my eyes, I point I read ... Intent on revelation To find the words to suite my needs ... In selfish application Surrounding truths now have faded ... Paled by ones that pass the test The word of God has now been graded ... Hold to some ... discard the rest I chant - I cite - in verbatim ... For power lies within the words To bend the will of God to mine ... Now health and wealth success assured I search the scriptures, gleaning words ... To feed my own carnality Building up my kingdom now ... Ignoring this reality Our lives are based on faith in Christ ... As servants without profit And magic words and formulas ... Will never be part of it! -the Harpazo Network ........................................................................................................................................................ "There are, no doubt, passages in the New Testament which may seem at first sight to promise an invariable granting of our prayers. But that cannot be what they really mean. For in the very heart of the story we meet a glaring instance to the contrary. In Gethsemane the holiest of all petitioners prayed three times that a certain cup might pass from Him. It did not. After that the idea that prayer is recommended to us as a sort of infallible gimmick may be dismissed." - C.S. Lewis ........................................................................................................................................................ Well It All Started ... about 6 months or so ago ... a friend told me about this "great" new book. It was called "The Prayer of Jabez" by; Bruce Wilkinson. As she was describing it's content. I had those old familiar red flags hitting me hard in the face. As I filed that in my mind under "things to look into" ... I stumbled into the local Christian bookstore one day ... only to see this Jabez book was EVERYWHERE! We knew that it was high time we see what the latest Christian Craze was all about ... We borrowed the book - and even hoped to find our suspicions were unfounded. Unfortunately they were instead confirmed. Oddly we thought the concerns we have would be voiced by many ... instead we have found our opinion may be a very unpopular one about this best seller! One of the argument's we hear being raised in its favor is that 'the Author has a good reputation and has written many books.' We are not disputing that. But does this mean CASE CLOSED? Is an Author's good reputation or longevity in ministry a divine stamp of approval that should no longer be weighed against Scripture? This should never be our rule of thumb. We need to all be like the Bereans in Acts 17:11 who 'searched the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so!' We need to go to the book that we should instead be using and pushing - the Bible. Surely it has some council concerning HOW WE SHOULD AND SHOULD NOT PRAY! Before we get started, we would like to say concerning Bruce Wilkinson, that it is not our desire to attack him personally here. However, his book and what it has started has given rise to some serious concerns ... especially now as it has sold over 4.1 million copies! (as of this writing) Good or Bad the public is soaking it up! ------------------------------------------------------------------------ :: There is Power, Power, Wonder Working Power in the Words Of His Prayer ... There is Power, Power, Wonder Working Power in the Precious Words of Jabez? For those of you who have not yet been enlightened by this new way to pray ... It is from a genealogy in 1 Chronicles. The secret of this 'no fail formula' is in the words themselves. (salvation, motives, obedience need not apply!) To summarize as best we can what this is all about; Bruce Wilkinson has written a book claiming that he found a little known prayer tucked away in the Bible that holds the secret to the blessed life if prayed verbatim everyday. He has been praying it for 30 years and attributes his own success to this daily ritual. Here is the only mention of Jabez in the Bible. The words in bold print are the exact words Wilkinson says we should all pray each day. "And Jabez was more honorable than his brethren: and his mother called his name Jabez, saying, Because I bare him with sorrow. And Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, Oh that thou wouldest bless me indeed, and enlarge my coast, and that thine hand might be with me, and that thou wouldest keep me from evil, that it may not grieve me! And God granted him that which he requested. (1 Chronicles 4:9-10 KJV) Acouple quick observations right off the bat here: * Do you suppose this is the most "spiritual prayer" in God's Word? HARDLY! * Do you suppose it tickled God's ears so much, that He decided whomever would repeat it verbatim for all time - would get whatever they so desire? HARDLY! * Is this the only prayer in Scripture God answered? HARDLY! * Do you suppose Jabez himself repeated it verbatim each day for the rest of his life? DOUBTFUL! * Does Jesus mention it? NO! * Does Paul, Peter, ANYONE? NO! Has the obvious been so overlooked here? Could it be that God by His Sovereign choice answered this prayer for the simple reason stated in verse 9: "And Jabez was more honorable than his brethren...???" (The Bible is silent on HOW Jabez was more honorable than his brethren - we just know that he was.) This book seems to have it backwards ... implying that Jabez stumbled onto a strategic way to pray and was honorable for finding it. "Just under the surface of each request lies a giant paradigm breaker" (p.15) "I want to show you just how dramatically each of Jabez's requests can release something miraculous in your life."(p.15) "Jabez's last request is a brilliant but little-understood strategy for sustaining a blessed life" (p. 63) ...Rather than 'Jabez was an honorable man who cried out to the One True God of Israel and was answered ... indeed! THE BIBLE SAYS: "The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much." James 5:16 Jabez's prayer was one of a righteous man, as were many other wonderful prayers in God's Word! God answered it because it was in His will to do so. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ :: Incantation ... Hocus Pocus ... Recite .. Repeat ... Verbatim ... Hypnosis ... As we already stated, Wilkinson says in his book that he has said this prayer - WORD FOR WORD - for the past 30 years. "The next morning, I prayed Jabez's prayer word for word. And the next. And the next. Thirty years later, I haven't stopped. If you were to ask me what sentence - other than my prayer for salvation - has revolutionized my life and ministry the most, I would tell you it was the cry of a gimper named Jabez...." (p. 11) "Friends, I have been praying Jabez for more then half my life!" (pg 16) "...now heading home, I was physically and spiritually spent. Staring blankly out at the traffic, I reached for the Jabez prayer." (pg 65) BUT THE BIBLE SAYS: "And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. But when ye pray, USE NOT VAIN REPETITIONS, as the heathen do: FOR THEY THINK THEY SHALL BE HEARD FOR THEIR MUCH SPEAKING. Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him. Matthew 6:5-8 (KJV) "After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as [it is] in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen." Matthew 6:9-13 (KJV) In Matthew 6, Jesus was giving us a GUIDE OR A MODEL of the manner in which we are to pray. Praying the "Lord's Prayer" is not meant to be repeated word for word either. He was obviously giving us an example of HOW we are to pray. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ :: Bless Me - Bless Me! Many people we have discussed this book with have said; 'that we must have misunderstood the author's intent ... that he is not trying to make this prayer a formula for blessing ... he doesn't really attribute his blessings to these specific words etc.' Well if that is the case - and we sincerely wish it were - explain the following statements: (From the back cover:) "Do you want to be extravagantly blessed by God?" Are you ready to reach for the extraordinary? To ask God for the abundant blessings He longs to give you? Join Bruce Wilkinson to discover how the remarkable prayer of a little-known Bible hero can release God's favor, power, and protection. You'll see how one daily prayer can help you leave the past behind and break through to the life you were meant to live." (From the Preface) "I want to teach you how to pray a daring prayer that God always answers. It is brief - only one sentence with four parts - and tucked away in the Bible, but I believe it contains the key to a life of extraordinary favor with God." "Is it possible that God wants you to be "selfish" with your prayers? To ask for more -and more again-from your Lord?" (pg 19) "If Jabez had worked on Wall Street, he might have prayed "Lord, increase the value of my investment portfolios" (pg 31) "You can hang the Jabez prayer on the wall of every room in your house and nothing will happen. It's only what you believe will happen and therefore do next that will release God’s power for you and bring about a life change." (p.87) This sounds like the good Ol' Power of Positive Thinking! A scenario is given on pages 25-27 entitled "Mr. Jones Goes To Heaven" which tells a tale about someone who goes to a warehouse in Heaven. There, Mr. Jones finds a box containing the blessings that God wanted to give him on the earth but poor Mr. Jones never asked for them. "God really does have unclaimed blessings waiting for you my friend." (pg 17) "That's the catch - if you don't ask for a blessing, you forfeit those that come to you only when you ask." (pg 27) Isn’t KNOWING GOD the biggest Blessing of all? If God never chose to bless us again as long as we live, we would already owe him more then we could ever repay! "Bless me Lord, Bless me Lord, you know that's all I ever hear. No one aches no one hurts, no one even sheds one tear, but he cries he weeps he bleeds and he cares for your needs and you just lay back and keep soaking it in. But can't you see it's such sin...." (Keith Green, Asleep in the Light) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ :: 30 Days to a Miracle or My Money Back? Luckily, we are not left to wonder how long we have to recite this prayer before "it takes". The answer is in the book. "I challenge you to make the Jabez prayer for blessing part of the daily fabric of your life. to do that, I encourage you to follow unwaveringly the plan outlined here for the next thirty days. By the end of that time, you'll notice significant changes in your life, and the prayer will be on its way to becoming a treasured lifelong habit." (pg 86) When he was on James Dobson's radio program; Focus On The Family in March, Wilkinson claimed that two weeks of praying the prayer of Jabez would change your life! So let's recap: We already have heard that it is a prayer "God always answers" (preface) and He must do it within 30 days or less! WE DO NOT - NOR SHOULD WE WANT TO - CONTROL, MANIPULATE OR TRAP GOD! WE DO NOT UNLOCK HIS POWER - HE DOES - IF AND WHEN HE SO CHOOSES! The Bible has many examples of when God did NOT answer prayer for HIS REASONS. He may also answer our prayers much differently then we are expecting at times. I would venture to say it is within His Rights AS GOD ALMIGHTY to choose what to do in each and every circumstance. THERE ARE NO WORDS THAT WE SAY THAT FORCE HIS HAND ... WHO ARE WE TO CLAIM SUCH THINGS? READ: Job Chapter's 38 ... 39 ... 40 ... 41 and find out who HE IS Listen to how God takes 4 chapters to DESCRIBE HIMSELF! ------------------------------------------------------------------------ :: Expand My Borders - What Borders? Many will immediately state that this book is not promoting the Word/Faith Prosperity Gospel (AKA: "Name it & Claim it" ... "Blab it & Grab it") as some are comparing it to ... But rather seeking just to "EXPAND OUR BORDERS." QUESTION: WHAT BORDERS? When did we get borders? How come we never noticed we had BORDERS around us stifling us before? The "ENLARGE MY BORDERS" catch phrase is from the Jabez passage itself in 1 Chronicles. The word "borders" or "territory" is used in the new translations. In the King James the word "coast" is used. In the KJV the word borders occurs 43 times ... the word coast occurs 62 times. In every instance it is always referring to physical property borders. Interestingly, when Jabez prayed his prayer he was not talking about "Expanding His Ministry" (as many are saying he actually means) ... but LITERAL, PHYSICAL BORDERS in the Land. So how it came to be assumed "Enlarge My Borders" = "Enlarge My Ministry" is a puzzle? But an even bigger puzzle is that we already HAVE OPPORTUNITIES before us everyday and do nothing about them! Do you have unsaved Neighbors? Family? Friends? Co-Workers? Or for that matter any living and breathing people who happen by you in the course of a day? If you do ... AND I BELIEVE WE ALL DO.... you should have already been seeking opportunities to share the gospel with them. And if these supposed BORDERS are so all encompassing that we need to ask for them to be EXPANDED everyday ... Can we also fall back on them as an EXCUSE when we are not doing what we are suppose to? ("My Borders were keeping me back?") Jesus told us to "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature" Mark 16:15 (KJV) He didn't place any "Borders" on that. What's all this talk about BORDERS? ------------------------------------------------------------------------ :: Jabez Appointments? Wilkinson calls the opportunities he gets to share the gospel "JABEZ APPOINTMENTS" (pg 37) I am at a loss here. Would these encounters not occur without this daily word for word prayer routine? We would like to challenge people to NOT PRAY THE PRAYER of JABEZ and just be obedient to the Lord and grow in His Word and you will see this and more! If you claim to be a Christian and you have not already been busy about Our Fathers business ... You need to seriously examine WHY NOT? To NOT share the gospel is pure selfishness. Do we fear "What will they think of me?" ... "They will think I am a Jesus Freak" ... "They will talk about me behind my back" ... SO WHAT! Silence is Selfish. If we could truly comprehend the fact that if Jesus Christ comes today that your unsaved friend, family member or whomever it may be ... will be left behind ... or that if they die without believing the TRUTH they will spend an eternity in torment ... If we could get our eyes off ourselves for a moment and onto this reality we would live our lives alot different. Consider the cries of the rich man in Luke 16:19-31 who would have longed to not only have one more chance for himself, but wanted so much to warn his five brothers. He didn't get that chance. We have it. And we most certainly do not need to recite some mystical prayer formula each day to have it. Opportunity is already given to us, maybe we just never looked for it before. These are not Jabez Appointments. Jabez has nothing to do with them. It is rather fulfilling the Great Commission that JESUS NOT JABEZ gave us to do. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ :: Try This Same Formula On Your Spouse! I had to laugh, picturing this scenario: Say one day you wake up, and have a perfect day, you get along great with your husband or wife, and everything seems glorious, it goes your way, the kids are behaving, the dinner is special, the whole nine yards... You wake up the next morning and say to yourself "everything went so perfect yesterday (i.e. it worked!) so I will from now on, say the exact same words, do the exact same things and not stray one bit from this routine, because it worked!" I would bet that by about day 2 (if you get that far) your spouse would slap you across the face and tell you to snap out of it when they see you are no longer having a normal conversation or relationship with them but are instead acting like a mindless drone repeating words that you think 'held the key' to your success the day prior! This is not RELATIONSHIP, this is ROUTINE or RITUAL and that is not what your spouse wants from you ... and neither is it what our Lord wants from us! Picture our Heavenly Father as you beckon him each morning, He smiles and listens to what His child has to say and you just start reciting words that you think will appease him and earn blessings, favor and "unlock his power!" ------------------------------------------------------------------------ :: Salvation Optional This book also does not add any disclaimer that it "only works for Christians" so it can be assumed that an unsaved person might achieve success as well. We have even heard some Christians get excited about how people who are not even Christians are interested in this book and follow its methods! BUT THE BIBLE SAYS: "If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me" Psalm 66:18 (KJV) "The LORD is far from the wicked: but he heareth the prayer of the righteous." Proverbs 15:29 (KJV) "He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be abomination." Proverbs 28:9 (KJV) Not only is Salvation necessary to even be having any kind of relationship with God... But also for God to hear and answer your prayers. "And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him." 1 John 3:24 (KJV) On pg. 27 Wilkinson cites "You do not have because you do not ask" taken IN PART from James 4:2. But let's look at that verse in it's context: "Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not. Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts. " James 4:2-3 (KJV) (a·miss : In an improper, defective, unfortunate, or mistaken way ... A synonym for 'amiss' is wrong) Salvation ... Heart Attitude ... Motives ... Obedience ... THEY ALL MATTER! It is not just about "the right words!" ------------------------------------------------------------------------ :: Only in America! I am not sure if this Book has caught on in other countries or not as of yet. But it certainly smacks of the "American Christianity." Which is all about entertainment and blessings. If this prayer holds the KEY to life of extraordinary favor with God (preface) as Wilkinson claims ... and that it is indeed a prayer God ALWAYS answers (huge unbiblical assumption) Then Hey! instead of us trying to send food or missionaries or support to those in third world countries let us just assume they have not tapped into this secret and drop them off a case of these "Prayer of Jabez" books. Maybe they have just not "claimed their blessings yet!" We would need the books themselves mind you, as this book says (pg 86) as Tip #3 to "Making Jabez Mine" that you need to re-read this book once a week for a month and ask God to show you important insights you may have missed. There are many in other countries who we would not view as "Extravagantly Blessed of God" by the world's standards, yet they may feel blessed in ways that really count. And most of them we could not hold a candle to as they really know about faith and love and trusting in God! ------------------------------------------------------------------------ :: Go Into All The World And Preach Jabez? What kind of message are we sending the world with this? >The Times - UK - May 10, 2001 "The Prayer of Jabez, a book based on a passage in the Old Testament, has sold four million copies in America with the message that greed is Godly. It is a message that has struck a welcome chord with both well-to-do and cash-strapped Americans: greediness is next to Godliness." ...from the same News article: "The Jabez prayer will spread through America for as long as people can still hope. In this country it is not even offered for sale on the ''Walk Thru the Bible'' website. Perhaps that is because we are not as gullible or as desperate as the Americans. Then again, whatever the chances of the Jabez prayer working, they must be higher than your chance of winning the National Lottery. And millions of people bet on that each week." Read More >New York Times, May 8, 2001 Now, thanks to a small book - and spinoff coffee mugs, bookmarks and plaques - Jabez's prayer is being murmured in many parts of America: businesspeople say it has increased their profits; single women say it has found them boyfriends; and pastors say it has enlarged their congregations. "The Prayer of Jabez: Breaking Through to the Blessed Life," by an Atlanta evangelist, Bruce H. Wilkinson, has sold 4.1 million copies, most in the last three months. It is No. 1 on USA Today's best-seller list, No. 1 on The New York Times's list of advice, how-to and miscellaneous best sellers and No. 1 on Publishers Weekly's list of hardcover nonfiction best sellers. Read More ... This News item is also Here at the Apologetics Index. the world laughs on ... ------------------------------------------------------------------------ :: And Our Final Answer Is... We are afraid that after carefully & prayerfully watching this stir that has developed. Our conclusion is that: Jabez - by no fault of his own - has indeed brought pain & sorrow after all. PRAYER is about RELATIONSHIP! This is what God desires from us - NOT RITUAL! If you have already been "Jabezing" maybe your motives have been pure and sincere ... BUT you can put aside this daily ritual and still 'seize opportunities' to witness for the Lord - and despite ourselves - God takes care of His own. We would like to urge you to instead appreciate Jabez for what he was: an honorable man in the line of Judah. But there is another one who came out of this same genealogy who needs to be our ONLY focus and that is JESUS and He wants you to Pray from your heart - Not someone else’s! ------------------------------------------------------------------------ :: Yeah! We're Not Alone When we began piecing together this article several months ago, we thought maybe we were the only ones who felt this way, we searched the internet only to find everyone singing Jabez's Praises. But recently as we are finally completing this article, we did another search and were thankful to see that many well respected Apologetics/Discernment Ministries are also addressing this now as well. Last week we also received the current newsletter from the Berean Call and saw Dave Hunt has now addressed this also. Below is an excerpt from that ... (from: THE BEREAN CALL - July 2001 Newsletter - Q & A section) ... "This is a good prayer which God answered for Jabez because it was in His will to do so, not because there is something special about the prayer itself as Wilkinson would have us believe. Nor is there anything in the passage to indicate that these words should be prayed by anyone else - much less for everyone as the author insists. Yet Wilkinson has daily been repeating this "word for word" for more then 30 years and claims that as a direct result his life has been filled with blessing. On James Dobson's radio program he declared that anyone who prayed Jabez's prayer for two weeks would see his life transformed. The back cover of the book promises, "...discover how the remarkable prayer of a little-known Bible hero can release God's favor, power and protection. You'll see how one daily prayer can help you...break through to the life you were meant to live." There is no biblical basis for such extravagant claims which undoubtedly have enticed many readers. Actually, there is considerable good in the book. The author has much to say about being submissive to God's will and leaving it to the Lord what blessings He will provide. Yet the book also contradicts that idea and could easily lead readers to believe that Jabez's prayer is a way of getting what they want from God. Consider the following: "Why not look at the globe and pick an island...then take over the island for God... ask God for Trinidad...and a DC10" (pg 33). Such demands supposedly will be answered if only you daily repeat the Jabez prayer. Wilkinson points to his own success and declares, "I'm living proof" that the Jabez prayer has extraordinary power (pg 87). The success stories of others are also used as "proof." But cults and other religions have success stories too! While Wilkinson gives emphasis to spiritual blessings, nothing of that nature can be derived from the prayer of Jabez. In fact, Jabez asked for purely physical blessings of two kinds: the enlarging of the territory he would possess in the Promised Land; and to be kept from harm. There are many more spiritual prayers in the Bible! Even without turning to the Hebrew, the meaning of the word "evil" from which Jabez asks to be kept is clear because he adds, "that it may not grieve me!" Evil in the sense of moral wickedness can do nothing but grieve the people of God. The evil Jabez refers to is 'ra' in Hebrew, which means affliction, adversity, calamity, personal disaster. Contrast this with the "deliver us from evil [Greek, poneros]" in the pattern of prayer our Lord gave us. There, instead of physical harm or loss, poneros has the meaning of moral wickedness. But Jabez's prayer has no concern for that. It is obvious which is the more spiritual prayer! There are scores of at least equally good prayers recorded in the Bible and expressed by many others whom God also blessed. Why single out Jabez's prayer as better or more likely to be answered by God than prayers by David or Paul, or even Christ? The author offers the appealing suggestion that this prayer allows one one to be a bit "selfish" and to ask God for personal blessing and abundance: "I want to show you that such a prayer is not the self-centered act it might appear, but a supremely spiritual one and exactly the kind of request our Father longs to hear" (pg 19). On the contrary, "Supremely spiritual" hardly fits. Even more enticing is the author's claim that that this is "a daring prayer that God always answers...it contains the key to a life of extraordinary favor with God" (preface). This, too is misleading and unbiblical. There is no biblical basis for the claim that a prayer in and of itself without a life of obedience always brings God's "extraordinary favor." Consider in contrast what John says; "And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him because we keep his commandments and do those things that are pleasing in his sight." (1 John 3:23). Or consider James: "The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much" (James 5:16). Yet no such conditions apparently are required for this incredibly effective Jabez prayer! It is extremely captivating to be handed a prayer that God always answers with great blessing. Everyone would want such a prayer, especially since it guarantees personal blessing that Wilkinson says can legitimately be rather selfish. The author offers the readers a mantra to be repeated, verbatim, and endlessly. Not God, but the prayer of Jabez automatically brings blessing! Faith is turned from God to a formula. This prayer is guaranteed to work because it is "a brilliant but little-understood strategy for... a blessed life" (pg 63)! Strategy? In spite of patches of good spiritual counsel in the book, we fear that it promotes false ideas about prayer. Warning against "vain repetitions," Jesus gave us a pattern for prayer: "after this manner therefore pray ye" (Matthew 6:7-15) and included an admonition about a heart attitude that would prevent any prayer from being answered. Wilkinson offers a set prayer to be repeated verbatim so often that, though not so intended, it could become meaningless rote." - DAVE HUNT, The Berean Call ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Here are some of the other Articles we have found: > Praying Like Jabez (Let Us Reason Ministries) > The Prayer of Jabez (CROSS+WORD) > The Prayer Of Jabez & The Prayer Of James (Deceptioninthechurch.com) > More Magical "Jabez" Type Prayers A Prayer For Every Occasion And For Everything You Want (Deceptioninthechurch.com) > The Prayer of Jabez - What could possibly be wrong with prayer? (Age to Age) > The Prayer of Jabez: The New Christian Mantra (Koenig's International News) > Please Lord, make me rich(Apologetics Index) > A Book Spreads the Word: Prayer for Prosperity Works (Apologetics Index) > Say a Little Prayer for Me "The Prayer of Jabez" New age self-help with Christian trappings (Opinion Journal) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ (See Also: "Last Days Revival or the Great Apostasy" and "Faith CompleX") ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Harpazo Network]