Keys to Answered Prayer #2
 

KEY TO CHANGING HOW YOUR PRAYERS ARE ANSWERED

Answered prayer always comes back to this: Is God’s way the best? Or, do you have a preconceived idea about what your answer should be and that is what you are standing on until you get that answer? Many Christians take stands of faith that are nothing more than attempts to spiritually blackmail God. That mode of thinking goes like this: “I finally found a verse in God’s Word says what I believe I should have... and I’m standing on my faith until I get it!” Ask yourself if your prayers are simply a form of trying to get God on board with your plans. Have your wants and desires distracted you from your spiritual purpose in God’s kingdom? We all allow, even embrace, things in our life that pander to our souls (one example that comes to mind is television - particularly American Idol!).

Think about someone who usually ignores you twenty-three hours and fifty-five minutes of the day showing up when he or she want something from you. God probably does not measure whether He answers your prayers by how much attention you pay to Him, but He certainly does respond to those who are eager to spend time with Him, read about Him, and share about Him. God also responds to those who want to hear what He has to say.

What about genuine crises where you truly do need Him to intervene in your life circumstances? There is a very interesting little story that has been around for years, but it is quite appropriate here. John, a man of strong Christian faith, was warned by a rider on horseback shouting that the river was rising and a flood was coming. The rider offered to take John to safety, but John said, “I’m a Christian and my God will take care of me. No thanks, I’ll wait here for His answer.”

The water of the river began to flow into the little valley where his home sat. A small motorboat came by and a man called out, “John, there is a flood coming. Jump into my boat and we’ll head for safety!”

John said, “I’m a Christian and my God will take care of me. No thanks, I’ll wait here for His answer.” The water continued to rise and John had to move up onto the roof. A helicopter flew over his head and the pilot shouted, “Get in the basket and we’ll carry you to the top of that cliff where you will be safe!”

John said, “I’m a Christian and my God will save me. No thanks, I’ll just wait to see what He is going to do.” The helicopter flew off as the water continued to rise. Finally the flood swept him away and he drowned. When he arrived in heaven, John was upset. The first thing he wanted to do was ask God why he had drowned. He said to God, “Lord, I believed in You. I told everyone that You were going to take care of me. I kept waiting for your answer.”

God replied, “John, I did answer you. I sent you a horse, a boat, and a helicopter.”

How often has it seemed to you that God is ignoring your prayers, just like John felt He had ignored him in this story? If you have been praying right prayers, your perfect answer did come but it may not have fit your pre-conceived ideas of what God would or should do for you. There are times when His answers are so different from what you expect that you ignore them, saying, “My God wouldn’t do that,” or “My God would never ask me to do that.”

Unless you are deep into surrendering your entire life to God’s will, your soul will fight against whatever God wants to show you and give you. However, in spite of the decisions you make, He will still be working out whatever He knows is best for you whether or not it fits your concepts of appropriate answers! It will just be more difficult and frustrating for you until you get lined up with His best plans.

Perhaps a neighbor is suing you over an issue that started small but grew into a full-blown complication. You ask God to resolve the issue (even though you had not asked His help or advice about the situation previously). God sends you a horse in the form of a Scripture speaking of loving your neighbor. But you keep waiting for God to send your answer! God sends you a motor boat that appears in the form of someone speaking to you about forgiving others. You think, “That certainly isn’t the case of what needs to be done here!” and you keep waiting for God to send your answer. God sends you a helicopter, but you are too busy hiring an attorney to countersue your neighbor. The flood arrives in the form of a verdict in favor of your neighbor and you are astounded as to why God didn’t answer your prayers.

He sent you a horse, a motor boat, and a helicopter, but your soul’s predetermined plans kept you from seeing them.

Are your prayers directed at reminding God about everything you are still waiting for or the things others have done to you? Do you question God about why you haven’t received blessings like George or Sally? Do you remind Him that you do more and give more to your church than they do? God will listen to you, but probably conclude that He hears nothing to respond to because another one of His children is just having a brat day. You know those prayers:

He answers when we pray for blessings, strength, truth, and encouragement to be poured out upon those we would rather had coals heaped upon their head. He answers when we pray and ask forgiveness for our wrong attitudes and thoughts and feelings about others. His answers come in direct relationship to how you are clearing out your soul’s static (fearful thinking, doubtful thinking, anxious thinking, stronghold thinking, etc.).

Have you thought about how God might let some things happen to get your attention about your self-focused wrong thinking because He cannot get you to listen to Him any other way? Ouch, but true enough! God even sends difficult people across your path to accomplish things in your character that you won’t let Him work in you any other way. For instance, you may have convinced yourself that you really are walking in all the Spirit’s fruit as listed in Galatians 5:22-23. That’s your story, and you’re sticking with it! “But the fruit of the [Holy] Spirit [the work which His presence within accomplishes] is love, joy (gladness), peace, patience (an even temper, forbearance), kindness, goodness (benevolence), faithfulness, Gentleness (meekness, humility), self-control (self-restraint, continence). Against such things there is no law [that can bring a charge]” (Amplified).

There are many Christians who are filled with fruit, all right, but it is plastic fruit. God cannot let you walk around believing that it is all good with your spiritual fruit when it isn’t, and He will allow circumstances to bring you out of your soul’s deception and denial about that. He’ll send in a difficult person or two to stomp on your hot buttons and you go into meltdown. Would God really do that? Yes, He would, because that will melt your plastic fruit and show you that you have been deceiving yourself and you need to deal with that.

God really is more interested in the development of your character and the surrender of your soul to His will than He is in making your day go the way you want it to. Pray this prayer and tell God that you are sorry for your plastic fruit, your impatience, your self-focus, and your bad attitudes. Thank Him for the horses, the boats, and the helicopters, and begin exposing and getting rid of your preconceived ideas and misconceptions about how well you are walking in His Spirit.

Pray with the Keys of the Kingdom prayer principles found in Matthew 16:19 to get answers in new and exciting ways: “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven” (NIV).

Some of the original meanings of the word bind in the Old Testament and the New Testament are: to undergird, hold, persuade, steady, cause fragmented pieces to come back into one whole, put self under obligation to, and to cling to (Hebrew and Greek). Binding prayers will stabilize you, steady you, and give you a spiritual safety harness and spiritual seat belt to Jesus.

Some of the original meanings of the word loose in the New Testament are: to untie, break up, destroy, put off, wreck, crack to sunder by separation of the parts, shatter into minute fragments, disrupt, burst, rend, and tear up (Greek). Loosing prayers shatter stronghold thinking, smash deception, tear up bad attitudes and wrong mind sets, and allow you to perform self-surgery on your own soul’s patterns of thinking.

Let’s Pray
Lord, thank you for helping me to see beyond my short-sighted requests. I’m learning that You won’t answer prayers that are not prayed in love. I bind myself body, soul, and spirit to your plans and purposes for my life. I bind my will to your will to your will. I bind my ideas of right timing to your better timing. I bind my ideas about what I want and think I need to your mind, Jesus. I bind my emotional reactions to others and to my circumstances to the comforting, healing, balancing work of the Holy Spirit within me.

Help me recognize what I see as delay is probably You working out something in me, in my circumstances, or in the lives of those around me. Help me to accept that You never put me on hold. Your Word tells me You are interested in every part of my life. You, the great God who created the universe and everything beyond, watches over the tiniest parts of my life every day. What a concept! Dear Lord, that is unfathomable to me, but I love it

Thank you for your care and faithfulness even if I am having a brat day. Forgive me for my brat days; I am working on them. Your chastening is different from being punished, and I have confused this understanding too many times. Your Word does not say that You punish those You love, it says that You chasten those You love. Chastening helps to train me and teach me how to get in line with Your fantastic plans for my future.

I want your best answers in your best timing. Help me to always remember that when the flood waters start coming. I might miss a few horses or a few boats until I get better at this, but I will learn to recognize when your answers come. I loose all preconceived ideas and misconceptions about how You should answer my prayers and meet my needs. I loose wrong beliefs I have about who or what (You or my soul) is running my life. I loose all the distractions and reactions of my soul, of the world, and of the works of the enemy from my life. I feel freer already, Lord. Bless you, Father, and thank you for what you are doing. In Jesus’ Name, Amen

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