Keys to Answered Prayer Part 2

By John E. Thomas

In last month’s blog, [insert link (read here) to last post] I wrote about three “conditions” Scripture puts on prayers that will be answered. We talked about the importance of faith, what it means to pray in Jesus’ name and the centrality of abiding in God and His Word.

I’ve found seven of these conditions in Scripture—promises that we will receive what we ask God for. Let’s look at points four through seven.

4. Pray with persistence.

And He told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart.

— Luke 18:1

I’ve heard people say that if you have faith, you can pray for something one time and stop, trusting that God heard and will answer. While that sounds nice, it is not biblical.

Yes, we trust that God hears us the first time we pray. We also trust that He knew what we would pray even before we prayed it (Matthew 6:8), but that does not mean we stop asking. We keep on praying. We keep on seeking—not because we are trying to convince God to help us, but because He asked us to. He is a good and righteous Judge (Luke 18:6–8).

5. Pray with the right motives.

You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.

— James 4:2–3

When the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray, He gave them a prayer model and directed them to pray for God’s will to be done. Sometimes when we’ve been praying for something but haven’t seen an answer, we need to check our motives. Why are we praying for this specific thing? Is it so we can “get ahead”? Is it for worldly reasons? Or is it something God has put on our hearts?

When we’ve spent time in prayer stewarding our hearts, we can trust our hearts to desire what God desires. (See my teaching series Cultivating an Effective Prayer Life.) But until our souls are brought into submission to our spirits, being led by the Spirit of God, we may find ourselves praying soulish prayers, which God usually doesn’t answer.

The “why” of prayer is more important than the “what” of prayer. Our motives are paramount, over and above the prayer’s content.

6. Pray according to God’s will.

And this is the confidence that we have toward Him, that if we ask anything according to His will He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of Him.

— 1 John 5:14–15

If we are going to pray according to God’s will, we must know what His will is. Some pray, “If God wills,” as a way to avoid involving their hearts in the prayer. It’s a cop-out for unbelief. Others say we shouldn’t pray, “If God wills,” because it somehow implies a lack of faith on our part. However, praying according to God’s will is a principle we find in Jesus’ own prayer life. “Not what I will, but what You will” (Mark 14:36).

The key is to figure out what God does will. In the Lord’s Prayer we are told to pray for God’s will to be done on earth as it is in Heaven. What does Heaven look like? There is no sin, no sickness, no rebellion, no sorrow—you get the idea. We pray for the removal of everything satan brought into the world after he tempted Adam and Eve to sin. We pray for the destruction of the devil’s works (1 John 3:8). We pray for God’s Kingdom to come in every area of life.

7. Pray with secure hearts.

Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; and whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do what pleases Him.

— 1 John 3:21–22

One of the keys to greater confidence in prayer is knowing we are forgiven. If we have sinned, we can turn away from that sin, confess it to God and be completely restored. He is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9; Isaiah 1:18).

If we have confessed our sins to Him, God has forgiven us. Our sins are gone. We can come to Him with confidence and present our requests before Him, knowing we will receive.

That We May Come to Know Him Better

Most people I talk to would love to see more of their prayers answered. I know I would! My hope is that the seven keys we’ve covered in these letters will make your prayer life more effective—that you will be better informed about prayer and see more miracles, more breakthrough, more of God’s presence crashing into your circumstances. My desire is that all of us would come to know God better.

Streams Ministries exists to help restore the awe of God on the earth and assist you as you fulfill the purpose He created you for. We work to bring people back to the reality of how big God is. There is no limit to His power, goodness, love, knowledge or capacity. He is equally involved in the small things as He is the big things, and He never runs out of patience, ability or desire to help you become what He was dreaming of when He first thought of you, before the world was spoken into existence.

May you know Him more. May you love Him more. May His presence surprise you and His love satisfy you. That is our prayer for you!

Additional Resources:

Cultivation an Effective Prayer Life

I AM Inheriting the Names of God