TELL GOD IN PRAYER

Raphael Oye Taiwo

          Every year hundreds of letters addressed to God are delivered by the Israeli  Postal Authority.

The Economist says, “Letters come from every corner of the world, at all times of the year, but God’s penpals are most zealous before religious holidays such as Christmas or Yomkippur.”

          What do the letters contain? Praise, complaints, or requests – often for forgiveness or help.

          What happens to the letters? Letters with a sender’s address are returned to the senders. The rest are delivered to the “Wailing Wall” in Jerusalem, care of the Chief Rabbi, to be inserted into the holy wall’s cracks. If a writer is suspected not to be a Jew the letter will be forwarded to the ministry of religious affairs. ‘Mail to God’, however, are delivered once or twice a year.

What disappointment it is to the writers to have their prayer-letters delayed for half a year or even a year, and when delivered, to be handed to the wrong persons!

          But thank God, God’s people don’t have to suffer such disappointment. We can talk to God anytime and anywhere we like. Even the internet or fax cannot deliver our message as fast as prayer and faith can.

THE LORD ANSWERS PRAYER

When Jerry Rawling’s Armed Forces Revolutionary Council took over the administration of Ghana in a successful military putsh, General Samuel Banfo was arrested  with other senior military officers.

The verdict of the Revolutionary Council was death by firing squad. When General Samuel Banfo  colleagues -General Acheampong, General Utuks, General Akufo and others - were executed, he knew he was only a centimeter away from this life and the other life.

          He began to fast and pray, asking the wonderful Lord to intervene. And the Lord answered his prayer.

          The Chairman of the AFRC, Jerry Rawling announced to the world that the execution of the senior officers would be stopped. Samuel Banfo was saved from certain death because there was a wonderful Lord who answered prayer.

The Lord Promises To Answer Our Prayer

          When we pray, God hears and answers. God is a prayer-answering God. Prayer is a privilege belonging to those who have been given power to become children of God through faith in Jesus Christ.

          The kings and rulers of the nations of the world never allow many of their people audience. They just cannot afford to. The few who are given the privileges to come before them and speak don’t normally enjoy long audiences. But the King of heaven and earth have given His children the right and privileges to come before him any time they like, whether in the day or in the dead of the night, and stay for as long as they want before Him.

          Not only does He give us, His children, unlimited access to His throne, He also ensure that we don’t leave His throne empty-handed. The Bible is filled with the promises of God to answer the prayers of His people. A few of them are:

Jer 33:3 

Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.

Mat 7:7-11 

7. Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: 

8. For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. 

9. Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? 

10. Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? 

11. If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?

Joh 15:7 

If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.

Joh 14:13-14 

13. And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 

14.  If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it.

When the Lord refuses to answer

If the Lord answers prayers then why do many fail to receive answers to their prayers?

A Person Will Fail To Receive An Answer To His Prayer If He Does Not Pray In Accordance With The Will Of God

1John 5:14-15 

14.  And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: 

15.  And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.

The Lord Jesus Christ encourages us to come to God at all time and in all circumstances, with all our supplications and requests. Through Jesus, our petitions are admitted by and accepted of God. God, however, cannot give us what we ask for if the matter of our prayer is not agreeable to His will.

God, as a good and loving Father, will not give to us what He knows is not right to give us or is not good for us, though we plead with many tears and in real earnest.

The all-wise God will not give us the answer he knows will hinder us from fulfilling in future His plan and purpose for our life.

Make sure that what you want from God is what the Lord will wish to give you. Don’t ask for a good wife when you already have a wife because God is not in support of polygamy. (Believe it or not, I have received a few requests from people asking for my prayer so they could get another wives - and their real wives are still living with them! A ‘Christian’ woman said she married the man she was with because the Lord really told her to marry him in answer to her prayer. And the man already had a wife he was living with!).

Don’t ask God to kill that person who is insolent enough to sneer at you! Don’t ask for God’s blessing on your criminal business. (I have heard of armed robbers going to some 'men of God' for prayers that would make the robbery operations they were going to carry out succeed!)

God will certainly not answer that prayer if it is not in accordance with His will.

A Person Will Fail To Receive Answer To His Prayer If He prays with wrong motives

James 4:3

Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.

          Let’s face it, most of us have, at one time or the other prayed with wrong and selfish motive. We tell God to give us money so we could use it for the cause of evangelism, but in most cases our real reason for wanting the money is to satisfy some selfish wants. If that money fails to come in answer to prayer, it is because of wrong motive in prayer. There are thousands of things we do pray for with wrong motive. May God forgive us. And may He give us the grace not to feel disappointed when we fail to receive answers to our selfish prayers, but to realize and correct our ways.

          God knows our heart. He can see clearly into the deepest part of our heart when we are praying. He can hear distinctly the thoughts of our heart when we are praying. He is all-wise, so we cannot fool Him. Make sure that your motive for wanting what you are asking from God is right and clean, because there is no way you can fool God into thinking your motive right when it is wrong.

A Person Will Fail To Receive Answer To His Prayer If  He fails to believe God for Answers when he has prayed

James 1:5-7

5 If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.

6 But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.

7 For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord.

If you are a doubter, then your chance of being answered by God is really low. God’s condition for answered prayer is ‘ask and believe that you receive.’ 

It is only with the hand of faith we can receive from God,

A Person Will Fail To Receive Answer To His Prayer If He entertains sinful thoughts, indulges in sin, lives in sin

Ps 66:18

18 If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me:

1 John 3:22

22 And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight.

          Sin hinders prayers. Sin obstructs prayers. Sin neutralizes the effects of prayer efforts. Those who harbor sin in their hearts and those who live in sin as the habit of their lives should not expect their prayers to be answered by the holy God. The only prayer of sinners that is guaranteed to be answered is, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.”

          God hates sin because He is a holy God. To get Him to answer our prayers, we must ensure that we are not displeasing Him because of some sins in our lives.

A Person Will Fail To Receive Answer To His Prayer If  He fails to practice forgiveness

Mark 11:25-26

25 And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.

26 But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses.

Sin blocks answers to prayer, as we have pointed out above. And refusal to forgive others is a sin before God.  If we refuse to forgive others, we will not be forgiven by God. And the sins not forgiven in our lives will surely destroy the effect of our prayers.

Failure to forgive others, holding grudges and allowing bitterness in our heart against others will impede answers to prayer. Forgive others to be forgiven and for your prayer to be answered

A Person Will Fail To Receive Answer To His Prayer If he is not living in Christ

John 15:7

If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.

Anybody who is not in Jesus Christ should not expect God’s blessings. The blessings of God, which include answers to prayers, are ‘the children’s bread’.

God, however can use the prayer of a person who is abiding in Christ to help or bless another person who is not. But there is nothing like being in Christ as a child of God. Only when you are a child of God can you have full confidence that whenever you pray to God, the Father of heaven and earth will surely give you what you ask from Him.

STEPS TO ANSWERED PRAYER

Decide on what you want from God

Be clear in your mind as to what you want from God. If you listen to some people praying, you will understand that they don’t really know what they want from God before going before Him in prayer. They talk about this and that in a disorganized way and stumble around for a while before they conclude with “in Jesus’ Name… amen!”

If your purpose is just to fellowship with God, without really desiring anything, it is all right. You can worship and praise for as long as you want. You can talk to him about this and that. But when your intention is to have some things done by Him, you must be clear in mind as to what you want done.  When you talk to Him, you must make it clear to Him what you want. Don’t generalize and don’t puncture your prayers with “if…may be… perhaps…” Get to the point and present your request to Him as simply and clearly as you can.

Find the scriptures that definitely promise you the things you want

          If I want God to deliver me from a trouble into which I have got, I know God will help me because of the following promises of God in the Bible:

Psa 91:15 

He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honour him.

Isa 43:2 

When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.

I can believe that if I ask God for healing, He will heal me because of the many scriptures which make it clear to me that healing is God’s will for me. Some of the scriptures are:

Exo 23:25 

And ye shall serve the LORD your God, and he shall bless thy bread, and thy water; and I will take sickness away from the midst of thee.

Exo 15:26 

And said, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the LORD that healeth thee.

Psa 103:2-3 

2. Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: 

3.  Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases;

Jam 5:14-15 

14. Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: 

15. And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.

Ask God in Jesus’ Name for the thing you desire

Joh 14:13 

13. And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

14.  If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it.

John 16:24

Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.

God will only listen to prayers said in the Name of Jesus. No other name will work. Jesus’ Name is the key to the power-house of God. It is only in the Name access to the throne of power can be got.

Believe you have the answer from God

Mark 11:24 

Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.

          When you have prayed, believe you have the answer. Don’t wait until the answer materializes before you believe. Don’t forget, ‘faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.’ Heb 11:1.  ‘To have faith is to be sure of the things we hope for, to be certain of the things we cannot see.’ (Good News Bible).

          Let your faith make you sure of the answer to your prayer, which you have not yet seen physically. Don’t wait to see the answer before you believe. Confess in faith that according to the word of God you have what you have asked from God in prayer.

Rom 10:10

10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

The confession of our mouth is very important. If you confess victory you receive victory. If you confess defeat you receive defeat. Let your every thought, speech, desire and action affirm that you have what you have asked for.

Praise God

Praise God for the answer until the answer materializes. Praise is an action of faith:

2Ch 20:21-22

21. And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed singers unto the LORD, and that should praise the beauty of holiness, as they went out before the army, and to say, Praise the LORD; for his mercy endureth for ever.

22. And when they began to sing and to praise, the LORD set ambushments against the children of Ammon, Moab, and mount Seir, which were come against Judah; and they were smitten.