Student Study Guide
Chapter 4
The Pattern and the Condition
Section 1 — The 2:30 A.M. Word
Section One
It was 2:30 in the morning in December 2006. Steve was in his home office, finishing the final technical tweaks on the Zadok Discipleship Course video series — forty-eight sessions, filmed, edited, and produced by him alone, under a heavy grace he could feel was not fully coming from him. The last file was done. The project was complete. That is when he heard the voice of the Lord: "Son, I need you to do something for me." He knew immediately what was coming, because he had been around Christian television enough to want nothing to do with it. Then the Father said it plainly: "I want you to go on TV."
Steve said yes — but with a condition attached. "I will do this," he told the Lord, "but I am not going to spend a lot of time trying to raise money to pay for the airtime." The next morning he called the first network on his list. The man on the phone watched a few minutes of sample footage and, instead of the standard thirty-to-sixty day review process, approved the program on the spot — seventy percent off the normal rate, a prime time slot, two free repeat showings a week. Before Steve had even stood up from the desk, his phone rang again: a businessman from California who "felt led to call." When Steve explained what had just happened, the man said, "I guess that is why God had me call you. I will pay for the first entire year."
Think It Through
Steve specifically told God he was not going to fundraise for this — and God provided a signed contract and a full year of funding in less than eighteen hours anyway. What does the timing and the way this came together suggest about who was actually doing the work?
Your Thoughts
Recall Check
Fill in these details from the story above, from memory.
The Father said to Steve, "I want you to go on ."
Steve said yes, but added a condition: "I am not going to spend a lot of time trying to raise ."
The network approved the program on the spot and gave a percent discount off the normal rate.
Section 2 — "It Is Not Good Enough Just to Obey"
Section Two
Remember From Section 1
In less than eighteen hours, Steve had a signed contract and full funding for an entire .
For the next six months Steve told that story everywhere he went, and every time he told it, he said the same line: "I didn't want to do it, but God asked so I said yes." People were inspired. It was true. But something about the way he kept telling it was bothering him, even before he could name what it was.
Then one morning, standing at the back window of his home, God spoke again — not with the tenderness of a Father making a request, but with the clarity of a Father calling a son into something deeper.
"Son, it is not good enough just to obey Me. You must choose to want what I want."
He had obeyed God's will while still holding his own preference alongside it. He had surrendered his behavior without surrendering his desire. Six months of "I didn't want to do it but God asked" was the sound of a man still measuring the gap between what God wanted and what he wanted — and reporting the gap as a virtue. The Father was inviting him beyond compliance into union.
Both the 2:30 a.m. word and the window encounter came to Steve the same way: not through a program, a conference, or a fundraising strategy, but in stillness. Later in this book you will learn practical ways to develop an ear that recognizes God's voice when it comes. For now, just notice how quietly both of these moments arrived.
Recall Check
Fill in these from what you just read above, using your own memory.
God said, "It is not good enough just to obey Me. You must choose to what I want."
Obedience is the beginning. is the destination.
Reflection
Think of a time you obeyed God while privately keeping track of what it cost you or how much you didn't want to do it. How is that different from genuinely wanting what He wants?
Your Thoughts
Section 3 — The Pattern Jesus Lived By
Section Three
Remember From Section 2
Agape love is a choice of the will to act in the best interest of another, regardless of the to yourself.
Jesus repeatedly declared, in one form or another, that He did not come to do His own will. He was not making a theological point for the record — He was describing the actual, lived condition of His soul. "I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me" (John 6:38). "My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work" (John 4:34). "I do nothing of Myself; but as My Father taught Me, I speak these things... I always do those things that please Him" (John 8:28–29). Total submission. Not selective submission — not yielding in the big dramatic moments while maintaining His own preferences in the ordinary ones.
Recall Check
Fill in these from what you just read above, using your own memory.
"My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to His work." (John 4:34)
"I do nothing of ; but as My Father taught Me, I speak these things." (John 8:28)
Jesus' submission was not selective. It was .
Compliance or Union?
Using what you have read so far, describe the difference in your own words.
| Mere Compliance | Genuine Union / Alignment |
|---|---|
Reflection
Jesus' submission to the Father was total, not selective. Where in your own life is your submission to God still selective rather than total?
Your Thoughts
Section 4 — The Eternal Pattern
Section Four
Remember From Section 3
"I do nothing of Myself... I always do those things that Him." (John 8:29)
This same pattern applied directly to Jesus' prayers. He did not pray from His own independent desires and then ask the Father to bless them. The Father would reveal His will — and then Jesus would ask according to that revealed will. Psalm 2 shows this pattern in its eternal form: the Father first establishes the relationship, "You are My Son," and only then invites the asking — "Ask of Me, and I will give You the nations for Your inheritance." The inheritance was already decided. The Father wanted the asking to flow out of intimacy, not entitlement.
This is why Jesus could pray with such absolute confidence. At Lazarus's tomb, before He called a dead man back to life, He prayed, "Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. And I know that You always hear Me" (John 11:41–42). He was not projecting hope outward. He was praying back what the Father had already revealed. James 5:17 shows Elijah operating in the very same pattern: he saturated himself in the covenant warnings of Deuteronomy, discerned that Israel had crossed the line God had already drawn, aligned his heart with what the Father had already purposed — and then prayed until heaven answered.
"The first thing you notice is the entire dependence... Then you are struck by the implicit obedience... You then notice the loving intimacy to which the father admits him, keeping back none of his secrets."
— Andrew Murray, Like Christ, Chapter 15
Recall Check
Fill in these from what you just read above, using your own memory.
The Father said to the Son, " of Me, and I will give You the nations for Your inheritance." (Psalm 2:8)
At Lazarus's tomb Jesus prayed, "I know that You always Me." (John 11:41–42)
Andrew Murray described entire dependence, implicit obedience, and loving in which the Father hides nothing from the Son.
Applying the Pattern
| What It Looked Like | What Was Actually True |
|---|---|
| Steve simply had a "lucky break" with a network and a generous donor | The Father had already been moving on both sides of the conversation, waiting for the Son to ask |
| Where in your life might God already have something purposed and waiting — and simply be waiting for you to ask, aligned with what He has shown you? |
Reflection
"The prayer was not the mechanism by which the Son talked the Father into something. The prayer was the expression of perfect union between two hearts that already wanted the same thing." How does this change the way you think about persistence in prayer?
My Thoughts
Section 5 — The Condition That Opens the Pattern
Section Five
Remember From Section 4
Elijah aligned his heart with what the Father had already revealed and prayed with divinely energized until heaven answered.
Jesus places a condition on receiving the Holy Spirit in the context of this D.E.E.P. prayer anointing: love expressed as obedience. Not one selected command we feel comfortable with, but His commandments as a body of revealed will we have submitted ourselves to entirely. The word He uses for love is agape — a love that is a long way from sentiment. Agape is a willing forfeiture of rights on another's behalf: to act in the best interest of another, regardless of the consequences to oneself.
Jesus promises something remarkable to the one who meets this condition: "He who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him" (John 14:21). "Manifest" means to make fully visible — a real, clear, personal revealing of Christ Himself, not merely information about Him. This is what the chapter calls the Love Exchange: "The Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself does" (John 5:20), and Jesus said of Himself, "Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life... This command I have received from My Father" (John 10:17–18). Love produces obedience. Obedience produces intimacy. Intimacy produces revelation. Revelation makes the prayer possible.
Recall Check
Fill in these from what you just read above, using your own memory.
"If you love Me, keep My ." (John 14:15)
Agape means to act in the best interest of another, regardless of the to oneself.
"Manifest" means to make fully .
Reflection
Love produces obedience, obedience produces intimacy, intimacy produces revelation, and revelation makes prayer possible. Which link in that chain feels weakest in your own walk with God right now?
Your Thoughts
Section 6 — Beyond Compliance
Section Six
Remember From Section 5
The living Christ becomes real, near, and unmistakable to the heart that has proven its love through .
Here is the honest confession behind this chapter: for six months Steve measured the distance between what God wanted and what he wanted, and reported the gap as a virtue. "I didn't want to do it but God asked so I said yes" keeps the record of the cost. That is compliance. That is a starting point. That is not the Love Exchange. The Father's word at the window called him into something deeper — the same posture Jesus described in John 5:30: "I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me." Not I reluctantly set it aside. It has ceased to be where I am looking.
"The greatest enemy of this condition is the hyper-grace message that has declared any requirement to obey God's commands is legalism. Grace did not remove the requirement to obey. It supplied the power to obey from a place of love rather than fear."
You have now met two conditions for the D.E.E.P. anointing: pisteuo (Chapter 3) and agape love expressed as obedience (this chapter). Later chapters will show you what it looks like to abide — to stay continually connected to Jesus the way a branch stays connected to a vine — so this alignment becomes a way of life, not a single decision made at a window.
Recall Check
Fill in these from what you just read above, using your own memory.
"I do not seek My own will but the will of the who sent Me." (John 5:30)
"Are you ready to pray the way Jesus prayed?" Write a short, honest response to that question as it applies to your life right now.
My Response
Personal Prayer Journal
Write a prayer asking God to show you one place where you have obeyed while still holding your own preference alongside His will — and ask Him to help you move from compliance into genuine union.
Chapter 4 — Practice Test
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Part A: Multiple Choice (5 questions · 2 pts each)
1. According to this chapter, what is the difference between mere obedience and the alignment God is calling us to?
2. In Psalm 2, what does the Father do before inviting the Son to "ask of Me"?
3. According to the chapter, what was the hidden gap in Steve's obedience during the six months after his TV ministry began?
4. What does the Greek word translated "manifest" mean in John 14:21?
5. What does the chapter identify as "the greatest enemy" of the condition Jesus describes in John 14?
Part B: True or False (6 statements · 1 pt each)
1. Jesus prayed from His own independent desires and then asked the Father to bless them.
2. In Psalm 2, the Father wanted the Son's asking to flow out of relationship and intimacy, not entitlement.
3. Steve raised the funding for his television program through several months of fundraising campaigns.
4. According to this chapter, obedience and alignment mean exactly the same thing with no meaningful difference.
5. Elijah aligned his heart with what God had already revealed in Deuteronomy before he prayed for the drought to begin.
6. According to this chapter, grace removed the requirement to obey God's commands.
Part C: Fill in the Blank (5 items · 1 pt each)
1. "Son, it is not good enough just to obey Me. You must choose to what I want."
2. "Ask of Me, and I will give You the for Your inheritance." (Psalm 2:8)
3. Agape is a choice of the will to act in the best interest of another, regardless of the to oneself.
4. "He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who Me." (John 14:21)
5. "I do not seek My own will but the will of the who sent Me." (John 5:30)
Part D: Short Answer (completion credit)
1. In your own words, explain the difference between how Steve told the TV ministry story for six months and what God revealed to him at the window.
2. Describe the pattern of Psalm 2:7–8 (the Father reveals, the Son asks, the Father answers) and explain how it applies to your own prayer life.
3. Define agape love as this chapter describes it, and explain why it is presented as a condition for the D.E.E.P. prayer anointing rather than simply good advice.
Part E — Before You Leave
One area where I have obeyed God while still privately holding onto my own preference:
A situation where I have been measuring "the cost" of my obedience rather than genuinely wanting what God wants:
My commitment this week: