You Want Your Prayers Answered.

 We want our prayers heard. We are told to pray.

Php 4:6  Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. 

So we pray. Then we wonder WHY our prayers are not seemingly being answered- we don't like no response- we don't like no being the answer to our prayers.  We can't comprehend why prayer after prayer seems to be getting the, no response. 

When we realize that our prayers must be prayed for GOD'S WILL to be done, we have to know that He hears, and all of His answers are for the best. 

Jas_1:6  But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering.

Ask in faith. 

Faith comes by hearing.

Hearing by the word of God.

Ask according to the word of God this is asking in faith. 

Everything we pray for MUST be prayed in faith and therefore it MUST be according to God's word!

If you're praying for riches, those that exceed your basic needs, where do we find in the Word of God instruction to pray for riches to give us worldly pleasures? 

If we're praying for specific healing, and the healing doesn't come. We are told in the Word of God that  Paul prayed three times for healing for his infirmity, and he wasn't healed.  God said to Paul- 

2Co 12:8  For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. 

2Co 12:9  And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 

God knew Paul needed his strength made perfect and perchance the strength he needed was a spiritual strength over a physical healing.  God answered Paul, and Paul was not given healing.  Paul wanted God's will in his life to be done over anything else. God knew that the strength Paul would receive from his having to suffer would give Paul what He truly was asking for and Paul trusted God when he wasn't healed.  Did Paul's asking God for healing go according to God's word? Yes. But God's will supersedes all. We pray first and foremost for HIS WILL to be done. If we mean that, then we must TRUST HIS WILL is being done. Our faith, that faith we get and cultivate through the Word of God, must extend to allowing for God's will and our acceptance even when we can't comprehend.

Did Abraham have all the details - no, he had to live in God's will, trusting in God's will.

Did Moses have all the details - no, he had to live in God's will, trusting in God's will.

The list goes on and on of those whose lives were seemingly wrecked in various ways, as they lived uncertain lives filled with heartache and torturous happenstances. God did not abandon these men and women, he knew their will beyond the day to day prayers was for His will to be done in them and He answered that prayer over all others. 

Mat 6:9  After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. 

Mat 6:10  Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.

THY WILL BE DONE…

This is the manner we pray after and trust, and have faith in this Word of God! 

A.T. Jones- Excerpt-

Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.

Therefore the word of God is the only means of faith.

Therefore, where there is no word of God there cannot be any faith.

And where the word of God is, faith is entire dependence upon that word for the accomplishment of what that word says.

From all this, which is the truth, it is perfectly plain that in order for anyone to ask in faith, he must first of all be sure that he has the word of God for what he asks.

Having the word of God for what he asks, he, like David, can find it in his heart to pray with perfect confidence,  which is only in perfect faith.

He who thus prays knows that he is asking according to the will of God, for he knows that he has the plain word of God for it.

Therefore he knows that God hears him, and knowing that God hears him, he knows that he has the thing for which he has asked, because the sole basis of his hope for it is the word which has spoken it, and which is the sole basis of his asking.

The Lord tells us thus to pray, and thus he has made provision for the steady, strong, and continuous growth of faith.

Many people pray but do not know whether it is the will of the Lord that they should have what they pray for and so do not know whether they can certainly claim it; and not knowing whether they can claim it, they are all at sea as to whether their prayers are answered or not.

The Lord does not want anybody to move uncertainly. Therefore, He has given His word, which thoroughly furnishes every one unto all good works and by which are given all things that pertain unto life and godliness.

And anyone who seeks in the word of God the things which God has there provided for all and upon that specific word prays for that thing, thus asking according to the plainly expressed will of God, knows that his prayer is heard and that he has the thing for which he prayed.

So doing, the prayers will be always certain, the life will be filled with the direct gifts of God, and the faith will be sure and strong and will be ever increasing in strength.

Many pray the prayer of the disciples, "Lord, increase our faith." This is well. Yet along with this, it must never be forgotten that faith comes only by the word of God. Therefore, as certainly as your faith shall be increased, it can be only by there being in you an increase of the word of God. And the only way that there can be in you an increase of the word of God is by your harkening to that word, praying to the Lord for the thing which that word says, depending wholly upon that word for that thing and thanking him that you have received it. Then and thus that word is received by you and lives in you.

Thus while we can pray, "Lord, increase our faith," at the same time we must remember that we are to build up ourselves on our most holy faith. Jude 20.

Jud 1:20  But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost,

This is how to exercise faith. Faith can be exercised only on the word of God, for where there is no word of God,  there cannot be any faith.

And "understanding how to exercise faith, this is the science of the gospel."

February 28, 1899