Praying is a Delaying Tactic

In his book Radical Together David Platt writes on page 97, "I challenge every member of the church (myself included) to ask God if he desires for us to go and then to wait for an answer. God can be trusted with these kinds of prayers from his people, and he will be faithful to provide those he leads with everything they need to accomplish the task he puts before them" 

Such prayers are nothing more than a delaying tactic. Can you think of any reason why God would tell you not to go and make disciples? We already know God wants us to go. We do not want to go. Platt provides an excuse. If we do not see how to go we just say God did not provide the means so he does not want me to go. 

We all do the same thing. Our congregation recently revisited the subject of elders. The last time we underwent a series on the subject of qualifications. We then found we did not have anyone interested in or who believed themselves qualified to be an elder. This time we decided to spend 2 months praying for guidance. We were to pray individually because publicly nothing has been said about the subject since then. Prayer is a delaying tactic. We do not want elders but we do not want to be seen as not wanting elders. 

Have you noticed how preachers with jobs at a local congregation seldom if ever understand God to want them to leave that job and go make disciples? Such preachers are seldom if ever "gospel preachers" they are more "keynote speakers" for the assembly. Most of those who call themselves preachers are public speakers. You can "preach" the gospel but you cannot preach people to obey all that Jesus commands. That must be taught. Public speakers fill the time allocated for a speech with little if any dedicated to teaching. Teaching requires teacher-student relationship not a speaker-audience relationship.