Hello Everyone,
During the night, an angel went to Peter and miraculously released him from jail. Peter went to the home where the people were praying for him to be released. Peter knocked on the door, and the servant girl, Rhoda, recognized Peter's voice. She ran to those praying and announced that Peter was at the door.
They told her she was "out of her mind." When she insisted that Peter was at the door, they concluded that Peter had been executed and it was Peter's ghost at the door. Peter kept knocking, and finally, they let him in.
This story illustrates how many Believers pray. We pray, not really expecting God to do anything. When He does something, we miss it entirely because we never expected Him to respond. What's more, the Believers in the story put forth effort and energy into disproving the very answered prayer they were praying for. We do the same thing.
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Expect God To Respond
The basis of all answered prayer is the expectation that God will respond. Your expectation sends a message to Him that you believe He will answer this prayer. If there is no expectation, then there is no belief (faith); without that belief, there's not much chance that God will respond.In my book, Prayer: Life in the Spirit, I talk about a group of Christians I call Willers. These are Believers who base their prayers on a verse in 1 John:
1 John 5:14 NIV
Because of this verse, Willers ask God for something and always tag the phrase "if it is your will" to the end of the request, thinking they satisfy the requirements of 1 John 5:14.
The problem with the Willer's Prayer is that it allows one verse to dictate their entire understanding of prayer. The Willer's Prayer interjects doubt and unbelief into the prayer. James says:
James 1:6-7 NIV
We don't ask God for something and then give Him a way out or a reason not to answer. This does nothing but support your unbelief, giving you advanced reasoning as to why God did not answer your prayer. It’s the same disingenuous prayer made by the Believers in Acts 12.
We should always pray according to the will of God, but it is essential to first seek to understand His will before we pray. Prayer is not a time for offering hollow or uncertain requests that reflect doubt in God’s willingness or power to respond. Instead, it should reflect faith and alignment with His divine purpose.
God Answers Every Prayer
The first thing we need to understand is that God answers EVERY prayer. We might not like the way or method that He answers it, but He answers every prayer. He does so in one of four ways:
- Yes
- Wait
- I have something better.
- No
The “No” answer should be a rare event. No means you were asking for the wrong reasons or motives:
James 4:3 NLT
If you can accept the fact that God answers every prayer, then our perspective on life should be looking for and expecting God to work in our lives and the lives of others because of the prayers we have prayed.
Many believe that God desires wealth, fame, and prosperity for Christians. They believe that prayer is one of the means of accomplishing that. This view is a worldly viewpoint and takes the Bible out of context. The Apostles, who were most familiar with the teachings of Jesus (Christianity), lived lives of incredible pain, suffering, and hardship. Associating ease, comfort, and prosperity with the Gospel is sacrilege. There is a special place in hell for the people who teach these things to people:
Matthew 18:6-7 NIV
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Bad News Is Good News
In most cases, perhaps 80% of the time, the item becomes demonstrably worse when we ask God to repair a person or circumstance. This temporary outcome is a sure sign that God is working, and there is cause for rejoicing.It's like when we clean out that old closet: The best way to tackle the problem is to take everything out of the closet, throw away the junk, and put the good stuff back inside in an organized and orderly fashion. Initially, the job is a big mess, but eventually, there will be order, and things will make sense.
God often works through something the Bible calls “Godly sorrow” (2 Corinthians 7:10). It’s the Bad News Is Good News Scenario. We try to circumvent it all the time. It works like this:
A week later, our child loses their job.
We cry out to God, Oh God, please give our child a new job.
A month later, our child breaks their leg in a fall.
We cry out to God, Oh God, please heal our child’s leg.
After that, our child gets arrested for drugs and goes to jail.
We cry out to God, Oh God, please release our child from jail.
We ask God for deliverance so God can bring about the conditions for Godly sorrow, but at every sorrow event, we go to God, cry foul, and beg God to reverse the very thing we asked Him to do.
People come to God because their lives are broken. We should rejoice when we pray for something, and things turn bleak and darker. In the Book of Luke, Jesus made a statement about the end times, but it also applies to prayer situations:
Luke 21:28 BSB
This doesn't mean we should rejoice when those we love experience suffering. Instead, it calls us to show deep empathy for their pain, allowing our hearts to break alongside theirs. While we share in their struggles, we find comfort in trusting that God is at work, even in the midst of their trials.
This requires incredible strength. This kind of strength only comes from God.
Don’t Take The Magic Genie Approach
We should never think of God as a magic genie, existing merely to fulfill our every wish or whim. God is far greater than that. He is the sovereign Creator who designed and formed the entire universe, the One who intricately crafted us with care and purpose. Our relationship with Him is not about what we can demand but about aligning ourselves with His divine plan. Our role is to serve and glorify Him, living in harmony with the purpose for which we were created.In His infinite wisdom and love, God has given us the extraordinary gift of prayer—not as a tool for self-centered desires but as a powerful means of communication and partnership with Him. Through prayer, we are empowered to seek His guidance, align with His will, and carry out the mission He has uniquely entrusted to each of us. This is the true privilege and responsibility of our faith.
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Final Thoughts
God’s will is not some unknown, enigmatic mystery. If a person you know needs a job, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that we need to ask God to give this person a job, a coat, a meal, a home, deliverance, healing, etc.God’s Will is not some static path that we must try to discover. His way is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. His way is His will. If God’s will is fluid, bound only by holiness and the fruits of the Spirit, then our prayers have enormous potential to change our lives and the lives of others.
Mark 11:24 NKJV
Think about Elijah in the Bible. He had extraordinary powers, yet James tells us that Elijah was just an ordinary man (James 5:17). Elijah prayed, and it did not rain for 3 1/2 years. Just like Elijah, we are ordinary people. We don't need to be endowed with extraordinary powers or spiritual gifts to be able to pray in powerful ways.
To be powerful in our prayers, we must pray boldly and expect God to answer our prayers according to the four answers I outlined previously.
God Bless!
Mark
Questions For Further Study
- Expectation in Prayer: How can believers cultivate a stronger sense of expectation in their prayers without falling into the trap of demanding specific outcomes from God?
- Willers vs. Doubters: What practical steps can Christians take to balance faith and submission to God's will, avoiding both the "Willer's Prayer" doubt and presumptuous demands?
- Understanding God's Answers: How can believers better recognize and interpret the "wait" or "I have something better" answers to prayer to maintain faith during uncertain times?
- Godly Sorrow and Transformation: What biblical principles or examples illustrate how God uses "godly sorrow" to bring about lasting change in a believer's life?
- Purpose of Prayer: How can Christians shift their perspective from viewing prayer as a means to get what they want to understanding it as a tool for aligning with God's divine purpose?
The Power Of Prayer Series
