Keys to answered prayer

It is possible to pray and get what we pray for

The Bible gives a beautiful picture of how God welcomes us when we come to Him. It is Jesus’ well-known story of the Prodigal Son who had strayed away from home, wasted all his living, gotten himself into real deep trouble and ended up absolutely down-and-out. When this young man came to the end of all his resources, his thought was, I’d better go back home. Perhaps my father will receive me. I couldn’t ask him to take me back as a son, but I could ask him to take me as one of his hired hands. Now I want you to notice how his father received him. [The son] got up and went to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.

Luke 15:20 NKJV

“And he arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him.

1. Submit yourself to the will of God

Hebrews 5:7 NIV

During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission.

We can look at this verse from the viewpoint of Jesus as our example of a priest, and how during His earthly life Jesus offered up prayers and petitions to the Father. But at the end of this verse we are told something else that is important. We are told why God the Father always heard the prayers of His Son. It says that Jesus was heard because of His reverent submission. This is the first key to the answer to prayer .

In this verse the writer of Hebrews is referring to the time when Jesus was praying in the Garden of Gethsemane. Here is a description of that event from the book of Matthew:

Matthew 26:39 NKJV

He went a little farther and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.”

Matthew 26:42 NKJV

Again, a second time, He went away and prayed, saying, “O My Father, if this cup cannot pass away from Me unless I drink it, Your will be done.”

When we come to God we have to say, “Your will be done.” And within those words resides this meaning: “If Your will and my will are not in accord, then I renounce my will in order that Your will may be done.” Where the two wills conflict, it is the will of God that must be allowed to have free course.

If God were to answer all the prayers of the old self in every one of us, the universe would be in chaos.

So when we pray for anything, we need to begin by asking ourselves, Am I praying for this thing because I want it, or because God wants it? It makes a great deal of difference. If it is because I want it, my prayers may not be answered; but if it is because God wants it, then my prayers will be answered.

2. Have faith when you pray

Hebrews 11:6 NKJV

But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

Most people do not have trouble believing that God exists. If that were all, we would meet the condition of faith. But that is not all. We are also required to believe that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him.

Faith of this kind is not primarily concerned with doctrine or theology. Rather it is about relationship. It involves trust in God as a Person. It is confidence in His character, His reliability.

Matthew 21:22 NKJV

And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.”

1 John 5:14–15 NIV

This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.

How can we acquire the kind of faith that approaches God with confidence? Thank God that the New Testament does not merely tell us that we have to have faith; it also tells us how to get it. We find this in Romans

Romans 10:17 (NKJV)

So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

Jesus told us that our Father already knows what we need (see Matthew 6:8). When we come to God telling Him we need things, we are not telling Him something that He does not already know. Prayer is getting into that attitude and relationship with God where you know you will receive what you need when you ask Him. That kind of faith comes from hearing what God has to say.

Proverbs 4:20–22 NKJV

My son, give attention to my words; Incline your ear to my sayings. Do not let them depart from your eyes; Keep them in the midst of your heart; For they are life to those who find them, And health to all their flesh.

John 16:23–24 NKJV

“And in that day you will ask Me nothing. Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you. Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.

3. Pray in the name of Jesus

John 16:23–24 NKJV

“And in that day you will ask Me nothing. Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you. Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.

Firstly , when we pray in the name of Jesus we are coming to God on the basis of what Jesus has done on our behalf.

Jesus paid the penalty for our sin when He died in our place. He also took our guilt and our condemnation, which opened the way for us to come to God without feeling guilty or ashamed. We now have the right of access to God.

secondly, we are praying on the basis of who Jesus Himself is, not who we are.

The writer of Hebrews says that we come before the Father with Jesus as our great High Priest:

Hebrews 10:19–22 NKJV

Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, and having a High Priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

When we come in the name of Jesus, then we come with Him as our High Priest and our Advocate. As our High Priest, He offers up our prayers to God on our behalf—and because they are offered up by Jesus, we know that they reach God. As our Advocate, He speaks directly to God on our behalf. He pleads our cause better than we could ever do ourselves. When we make mistakes and errors and even sin, we do not need to stay away from God and feel ashamed. We can come to God freely because of Jesus.

Thirdly, you recognizes the relationship that we have with God through Jesus Christ

Ephesians 1:3–6 (NKJV)

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,

just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love,

having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.

God had an eternal purpose in His heart and mind before time ever began or Creation ever took place. God foreknew us and determined that through Jesus Christ He would adopt us into His family as His children. All this was worked out in time and human history when Jesus came and died on our behalf.

I love that phrase accepted in the Beloved. That is what we are: We are accepted by God as His children when we come to Him in the Beloved, Jesus Christ. We are not accepted because of what we were but because of what Jesus is.