Answers To Prayer

I John 5:13 states, “These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.”  John wrote down the evidence so that we can be sure of our salvation. And commit ourselves fully to God in faith.  It would be foolish to blindly accept the promise without any evidence, but with evidence of God’s fulfillment of his promises in the past, we can have faith he will do so again, even though we do not see them fulfilled immediately. 

Because we know he has answered prayers for his people in the past, we can pray confidently today, as I John 5:14-15 tells us.  “And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.”   Please not that the verse says if ask anything according to his will he hears us.   The implication is that if the prayer is not in alignment with his will it simply gets ignored. 

Romans 8:26 tells us, “Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.”  There are two very important points about this verse.  First, we don’t have to worry about wording our prayers just right, because the Holy Spirit will correct our mistakes so that God will hear the message properly and understand what we are asking, even when we don’t know how to express it.  At the same time, the Holy Spirit filters out improper prayers so that God never hears them. 

This is a very important point because many have taken the English translation of John 14:13-14 to mean that if you simply use the words ‘in Jesus name’ in your prayer, Jesus will have to give you whatever you ask.   When their prayers are not answered they feel like God has broken his promise.   Let’s look at the verses  more closely.  “And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.  If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it.”  At various times I have worked for different companies where I was authorized to purchase things in the company’s name.  While I had the authority to buy what the company needed to do the job, I was not authorized to buy whatever I might want.  Each purchase had to be submitted to the purchasing department for approval.    The Holy Spirit acts kind of like God’s purchasing department in our prayers, forwarding valid requests and rejecting those that are not in accord with God’s purposes. 

When people get angry because they do not immediately see and answer to their prayers.  There is always a reason why they are not answered quickly.  Sometimes, the Holy Spirit rejects our requests because they are for selfish purposes, as James 4:3 tells us.  “Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.”  When our prayers are not answered immediately, we need to think about why we were praying.  Many times we ask for even good things for the wrong reasons.  For example we can ask for the church to grow or for someone to get saved just for the sense of pride or pleasure we get, or for the way other people view us, rather than from concern for the people involved, and the Holy Spirit knows the real reason. 

When I would order materials for a job, sometimes were delayed because of road construction or the need to make other stops as well.   Sometimes God’s answers are delayed because of satanic interference, such as Daniel describes in Daniel 10:12-13.   Then said he unto me, Fear not, Daniel: for from the first day that thou didst set thine heart to understand, and to chasten thyself before thy God, thy words were heard, and I am come for thy words.  But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days: but, lo, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me; and I remained there with the kings of Persia.” 

Sometimes, I got different materials than I had ordered because what I had ordered was no longer available, or because a new item would do a better job.  Other times we didn’t receive things when we asked because we were not ready for them.  A cast iron bathtub can really get in the way when you aren’t ready to install it and there was danger of damaging it.   God didn’t allow David to build the temple because he needed to first get the conflicts with their neighbors settled. 

I just had to learn to reorganize my work to fit the delivery schedule, rather than getting upset because everything did not fit my plan, and sometimes God wants us to reorganize our work instead of getting upset that he didn’t do things exactly as we wanted them.   The changes seldom made much difference in what the job took.  God knows far more about what is needed than my suppliers did, and can be trusted to get what is needed on time.  Learn to use what he has given you and trust him to supply the other things you may need.   If a prayer isn’t answered right away there is always a reason.