Forgiveness

How to Get Your Prayers Answered

If you’re not satisfied with the results you’re getting from your prayers, there’s a word in the Bible that can help you: receive. That one simple word can make your prayers more effective. It can take you from wanting and wishing to knowing—absolutely—that you have the answer to your prayers.

That is how God intends for you to pray. He never meant for His children to spend hours talking to Him about everything in the world and then walk away with nothing to show for it. No, God’s will is for you to “…come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive…” (Hebrews 4:16). He wants you to follow the instructions Jesus gave in Mark 11:24: “What things so ever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them” (KJV).

Look at the word “receive.” In the original Greek, it’s defined as “to take.” So it’s actually scriptural to say, “Whatever you desire when you pray, believe that you take it, and you shall have it.”

The word take puts prayer in a whole new light! It tells us that if you want to get what you pray for, you can’t just say, “Lord, I want this and I want that.” You can’t just hope and pray that God is generally good and He will bless you somehow. You have to reach out by faith, take hold of the thing you’re believing to receive, possess it and make it your own.

So following what Jesus said in Mark 11, here are four steps to getting your prayers answered:

Step 1 to Getting Your Prayers Answered: Have Faith

Everything Jesus purchased for you through His life, death and resurrection—victory over sin, joy, peace, healing or financial abundance—develops in your life by faith. Mark 11:22-23 demonstrates that you must have faith in order receive answers to your prayers. We must have faith in both His ability and His willingness to give us what we ask. To learn more about faith that pleases God, read this article, “How Do I Receive Faith”.

Step 2 to Getting Your Prayers Answered: Speak Faith

Once you’ve established your faith on God and His Word, you’re ready to put your faith into action by speaking. You’re ready to say what you want to come to pass. Jesus told us to speak words of faith over the natural situations in our lives. Remember the fig tree in Mark 11; Jesus spoke to it and it died. In the same way, when you ask God for something, you take it, believing that you have it from the moment you ask.

Step 3 to Getting Your Prayers Answered: Refuse Doubt

Once you’ve begun to speak words of faith based on God’s Word, refuse to take the devil’s doubts. Refuse to believe and receive his lies. Think again about what Jesus said and you’ll see why that’s so important. He told us that “whosoever shall say…and shall not doubt in his heart…shall have whatsoever he saith” (Mark 11:23, KJV). Doubting is dangerous! If the devil can put doubt in your heart, it will soon be in your mouth, and he can steal the blessings of God.

Step 4 to Getting Your Prayers Answered: Start Forgiving

According to Jesus, there’s one more thing we must do before your prayer of receiving is complete. “But when you are praying, first forgive anyone you are holding a grudge against, so that your Father in heaven will forgive your sins, too” (Mark 11:25).

As an obedient believer who wants to receive from God, you can’t afford to hold anything against anyone. The reason is simple: Faith doesn’t work in an unforgiving heart, so if you won’t forgive, you can’t believe and receive.

Instead of hoping and praying, you can start praying and taking (receiving). And that’s not only rewarding…it’s a whole lot of fun!

 

 

Written with permission from Kenneth Copeland Ministries©

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What Things Can Block My Prayers?

Unanswered prayer is not the result of God’s unwillingness to use His power, but because of hindrances we allow to overcome us. The Bible says His eyes look to and fro throughout the earth to show Himself strong in behalf of those whose hearts are perfect toward Him (2 Chronicles 16:9). When we are aware of these hindrances and how to avoid them, we will experience the joy of answered prayer.

Two of the greatest hindrances to the Christian’s prayer life are doubt and unbelief. Doubt is the thief of God’s greater blessings. It keeps us in a state of separation from Him. Some people doubt there is a God or doubt He will perform His promises in response to their prayers. As a result, they do not respond to His written Word. This hinders His power on their behalf.

Unbelief is when a man knows there is a God, yet does not believe what the Bible says. He may know what the Bible says, but has chosen to believe what he can see and feel instead. This will definitely hinder his prayer life. Pray according to the will of God, and believe you receive when you pray. The Word of God is His will.

Another hindrance to prayer is found in Mark 11:25-26. It says, “And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have aught against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses. But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses.” This is vital. Prayer will not work without forgiveness. Strife can also hinder your prayer life. Strife is merely acting on unforgiveness. James 3:16 says, “For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work.” When you take confusion and add it to Satan’s work, problems arise. The absence of strife is the key to getting rid of confusion and evil. It is the predominant, primary prerequisite for answered prayer.

Finally, dwelling on past failures can hinder our prayers. Instead of putting our painful failures behind us, we often dwell on them until those failures become more real to us than the promises of God. We focus on them until we become bogged down in depression, fearful that if we go on, we’ll only fail again. It’s a downward spiral that leads from discouragement to depression to despair. All you have to do to break out of it is to get your eyes off the past and onto your future that’s been guaranteed by Christ Jesus through the exceeding great and precious promises in the Bible. God remembers your iniquities no more (Hebrews 8:12), so neither should you. Instead, replace thoughts of the past with scriptural promises about your future. As you do, the spiritual aches and pains and bumps and bruises that have crippled you for so long will quickly disappear!

 

Written with permission from Kenneth Copeland Ministries©

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