Introduction
The Bible tells us that we will receive anything we ask for from the Father if we ask for it in the name of Jesus, but yet, some of us are still waiting for answers to our prayers.
Perhaps you have been praying for healing from an incurable disease and are still waiting despite your fervently petitioning the Father on a daily basis. Or maybe you are waiting for a godly spouse to find his or her way to you but are now left wondering whether GOD is even listening to your prayers.
If this is the case for you or if you simply are just looking for practical tips to give your prayers the best chance of getting answered, then this is the article for you. We are going to discuss 3 ways to get GOD to answer your prayer and give some examples from the Bible of prayer warriors who were able to successfully move GOD into action!
1. Be broken and contrite
The Bible says in Psalms 51 that a broken heart and a contrite spirit the LORD will not despise. There is something about brokenness that moves the very heart of GOD to take action on our behalf. King David was a master of prayer and he often let GOD know how broken he was. This is because GOD is attracted to help those who admit their reliance on Him and do not try and stand on their own strength.
The Bible tells us that GOD resists the proud and He gives grace to the humble (James 4:6). Sometimes GOD is waiting for us to reveal our total reliance on Him before He acts. Any amount of pride is like a stench in the nostril of our Father GOD and will stop Him from interceding on your behalf, so one of the best ways to get Him to listen to you is to renounce any pride and acknowledge your own broken state. Sometimes our own situations end up humbling us and oftentimes GOD even had a hand in this because He wants to bring us to the end of ourselves so that we will realise our need of Him.
An example of this may be that you have a life-limiting chronic illness that makes daily life impossible without GOD’s intercession. You may pray for the grace to get through the day or the strength to fulfil your daily tasks. When you are in that that position of brokenness before GOD he is not going to ignore your petitions. GOD loves His servants to be reliant on Him. In the book of Judges, Gideon was going to go up against the Midianites and GOD would not help Him until his army was reduced to 300 men. He did not want Gideon and the children of Israel to be able take credit for the victory as they might have done if the battle was between two sides with fairly equal numbers. He wanted them to know that it was He and only He that ensured their victory. Blessed be the LORD. He gives grace to those who know that their only strength is in the LORD and those who put all their chips in with Him not thinking up any ‘Plan-B’ or relying on any worldly form of strength. He may ask you to throw away all of your medicine before He decides to heal you of that affliction because He wants to make sure He gets all the glory and the praise. GOD might refuse to move in your life until you reveal to Him your own broken heart and contrite spirit.
2. Pray according to the will of GOD.
One way to make sure that your prayer will definitely get answered is to pray according to GOD’s will. When Jesus taught his disciples to pray He taught them to pray the phrase, ‘Thy will be done.’ This is very non-specific but it also encapsulates a vast range of situations. It is not GOD’s will for us for example to be sick or have disease. He had a desire when He created each and every one of us that we would live an abundant life of victory. (John 10:10).
It is the devil who comes to steal, kill and destroy therefore it must be in GOD’s will to remove this sickness and this disease from us. The Bible tells us that if we ask anything in the name of Jesus and it is also according to his will then he will surely answer us. (John 5:14-15). So in this, it is important to discern what GOD’s will is in any given situation. It would not be helpful to, for example, pray for GOD to return your wayward boyfriend to you, if infact it is not in GOD’s will for you to be together in the first place.
Pray for GOD’s perfect will to be revealed to you and then when you pray according to this you are just asking Him to fulfil what He has already decided He wants to do. Sometimes it is our prayers that He is waiting for to spring into action to fulfil what it is that is His purpose for you. It may be your purpose for example to build a homeless shelter in future which saves thousands of people off the streets and leads them to Christ. Well if you pray for the finances to achieve this then this is according to GOD’s will and it is a prayer that He will certainly answer. However, if you are praying for the funds simply for your worldly desire then this is not going to be pleasing to GOD. Pray according to His will.
3. Fasting
Fasting is a way that we as believers can strengthen our spirit and starve the flesh making our prayers more effective. Going back to the Old Testament times fasting has been a method that the people of GOD used to get answered prayers. In the book of Esther a young lady was faced with the impending doom of her entire people. An evil lieutenant of the king, a man called Haman was dead-set on exterminating her uncle Mordecai and the rest of her Jewish brethren so she got down on her knees and began to pray fervently.
But what she also did was make the decision to eat no food and drink no water for 3 days and 3 nights. Her fasting and prayers were successful and when she came before the king on the 4th day the fortunes of her people had changed and it was Haman who ended up hanging on the very same gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai.
Her fast is now known as the Esther fast but there are other types of fasting that you can do. You may decide to eat no food between the hours of 6 am and 6 pm as a starting point and then work your way up to longer fasts later. What fasting does is it afflicts the soul before GOD and shows Him that you are serious about getting the answer to your prayer. Fasting grabs His attention and makes your prayers much more powerful. There are certain demons, for example, that will not come out of a person except through prayer and fasting. (Matthew 17:21) Sometimes prayer alone is not enough so if you have a prayer request that has not been answered and have not tried fasting yet, it is definitely worth giving a go.
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Conclusion
Our merciful and awesome Creator has shown himself time and time again willing to answer our prayers and there truly is no limit to what He is able to do in our lives.
What we sometimes forget is that GOD is our Father and He wants to bless us. He wants to bless us even more than we want the blessing. It may feel like He is not listening but GOD hears every single one of our prayers, he is an all-seeing, all-knowing GOD.
If you are still waiting for an answer to your prayers it may be that the answer He is giving you is, ‘Wait’ and ‘Persist’. GOD rewards our persistence beloved. Keep on praying. And use the tips that I have shared in this article and you will experience dramatically improved results. May the LORD bless you abundantly in the name of our LORD Jesus Christ. If you have any questions or testimonies then please share below.
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