What a statement, and how baffling such a request that the God of heaven has need of us to ask him to send forth laborers into "his" own harvest!  Why is that?  Why did Jesus teach us, concerning the subject of prayer, to pray,"Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come; thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven..." (Matt. 6:9-10). Why should it be the burden of men to pray for God's will to be done on earth? 

God, who created the heavens and the earth and formed man from the dust of the ground, who measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, has determined to place limits, even upon himself, that he will do nothing without the assistance of man.           

            Why is that? For us to answer such a bewildering thought, we have to go back and understand what God's original intention was for man, and why man's part is so necessary in the scheme of things.According to Psalm One Hundred and Fifteen, David, speaking under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit wrote:"The heaven, even the heavens, are the Lord's: but the earth hath he given to the children of men" (Psa. 115:16).  We know from Psalm eight, that God made him to have dominion over the works of his hands, and that he put all things under his feet (Psa. 8:6).  In other words, God arranged for man to have authority and dominion over the earth.  But something happened that disrupted the transference of that power and stewardship.  We know it was sin. Sin broke the divine arrangement, and the cosmos of man was thrusts into disorder and disarray.  Man was no longer fit to be earth's administrator.  He was incapable of conducting the affairs of heaven on earth. So God set in motion a plan to redeem mankind by sending his only begotten Son.  Jesus came to not only redeem us from our sin, but to restore the order of authority and dominion back to us, and thereby enabling us to regain our right to steward the mysteries of God.

             There has never been any suggestion made in scripture that God ever re-tracked his plan for man.

  When Jesus arose victoriously, he told his disciples,

"All power (authority) has been given to me both in heaven and in earth" (Matt. 28:18).  When Paul wrote the book of Hebrews, he quotes the Psalmist concerning the authority God gave to man.  It reads: "...For in that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him. But now we see not yet all things put under him. But we see Jesus..." (Heb. 2:8-9).  It was Jesus himself who got back what we lost.  So why do we see not all things put back under man's feet?  Here is where we discover the mystery of Christ.  We know that Jesus became a man and died in our place.  He let befall him what befell us. And in so doing, God was able to take his sacrifice and pay man's debt in full.  When he arose again, he gained back everything man lost. But instead of man having everything back like it was, he must now find this restored dominion in his union with Christ.  See, mankind, as a whole, was never given sole possession of this restored dominion.  God gave it to the risen Christ, and in giving it to him, he now affords us the right to operate in it by surrendering to his Lordship!

              When Jesus arose from the dead he ascended up on high and sat down at the right hand of the Father.

  Ephesians chapter two tells us,"And we were raised up together and made to sit together in heavenly place in Christ Jesus" (Eph. 2:-5-6).   We are here, but we are also there! And our ability to operate here below comes through our occupancy there in above.  And we are encouraged to seek those things which are above, where Christ sits at the right hand of God (Col. 3:1). 

The governorship that has been placed upon our shoulder, which enables us to enforce and to administer the will of God on earth, can only be achieved through our position in Him.To a large degree, the ineffectiveness within the church is a result of our failure to understand this truth.

              So much of what we see that needs changing is only going to change in answer to prayer.   But it is not just praying alone that will make the change.  It comes through our understanding how to rule from heaven on earth by way of a living, vital partnership with Jesus Christ.

 E.M. Bounds once said, "It is the prayers of the saints that become the capital stock of heaven by which God works his will in the earth."   Our position in Christ is the seat of our authority.  This is how we are to conduct our stewardship here on earth.  Until we discover how the transference of power works through our union with Christ, we will continue to see many more prayer go unanswered.  And this is the travesty of a church who holds the balance of power.