Basic Conditions For Answered Prayer
He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him. Psalm 91:15
Prayer is one of the greatest opportunities, one of the greatest privileges and one of the greatest ministries available to all Christians. I do not read that Jesus ever actually taught His disciples how to preach, but He did teach them how to pray. I believe that everyone who seeks to be a disciple of Jesus
Christ—who desires to take his or her place in God’s Kingdom of priests—should seek to learn how to pray effectively. Remember, God not only welcomes us in prayer, He is waiting for us to pray.
Here, then, are eight conditions that Scripture gives us for approaching God in prayer in a way that will bring answers. These are basic requirements, the first step in getting our prayers answered.
1. Come with Reverent Submission
Hebrews 5:7, as we have seen, speaks about Jesus’ life on earth and how He prayed: “During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission” (niv).
We studied the first part of 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 condition for approaching God.
How was this reverent submission of Jesus expressed? 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:
And He went a little beyond them, and fell on His face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will.” . . . He went away again a second time and prayed, saying, “My Father, if this cannot pass away unless I drink it, Your will be done.” Matthew 26:39, 42, NASB
Reverent submission, therefore, consists of saying to the Father, “Not as I will, but as You will. Your will be done.” It consists of renouncing our own will and embracing the will of God.
Jesus gave us a prayer to use as a pattern; it is, of course, what we call the Lord’s Prayer. In part of this prayer He included this very principle. He taught us to pray: “Your Kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (see Matthew 6:9–10).
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.
There is an aspect of the “old nature” that is being dealt with by this requirement. In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul explained it this way:
You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. Ephesians 4:22–24, NIV
There are two “selfs”: The old self is our nature before God changed us; the new self is what God wants to make of us. For the new self to express itself, we have to first put off the old self. That is something we have to do—it is not something that God does for us. So when we say, “Not my will,” we are putting off the old self. And when we say, “Your will be done,” then we are putting on the new self. That is how we are changed or made new in the attitude of our minds.
If God were to answer all the prayers of the old self in every one of us, the universe would be in chaos. Let me give you just one simple example. The Sunday school children are planning a picnic and are praying, “Lord, keep the rain away.” Meanwhile the poor farmer’s crops are withering and he is praying, “Lord, please send rain. We need rain.” How is God going to answer both those prayers? The truth is, of course, that He is not committed to answer either unless it is the prayer of the new self, which has renounced its own will.
Or take another typical kind of example. Two nations are at war with one another. The Christians in each nation are praying, “God, give our nation the victory.” How can God possibly do that? But you see, God isn’t committed to do that.
God is committed to answer the prayers of the new self, but He is not committed to cater to that old rebel, the old self who just keeps asserting his or her own will.
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.
There are certain areas where people habitually bring their requests and petitions to God, such as asking to be healed of sickness or for a financial need to be met. Even in instances like these that we think are surely within the will of God, we still must ask ourselves, Am I praying for healing because I want to be healed or because God wants me healed? Am I praying for financial prosperity because it’s what I want or because it’s what God wants? It will affect our whole approach to God if we settle that issue.
I remember once, some years back, a woman came to me and asked me to pray for her son who was hospitalized. He was about twelve years old and had a disease that was diagnosed as incurable. I was perfectly ready to pray with her, but without really thinking I said, “Have you surrendered your son to the Lord?”
When I asked her that simple question, she became hysterical. She thought I was trying to tell her that her son was going to die. I did not have that in mind. I simply wanted to point out to her that as long as she was pressing for her will, the will of God really could not come to pass. As long as she kept her hand over her son, God’s hand could not touch him.
As long as we are trying to force our own will through, we do not allow room for the will of God.
When you think about renouncing your own will and embracing the will of God, let me suggest you bear three truths in mind. First of all, God loves you more than you love yourself. Second, God understands you better than you understand yourself. And third, God wants only the best for you. When you truly yield to God’s will, you will discover that it is what the Bible says it is: “good and acceptable and perfect” (Romans 12:2).
Reverent submission understands that prayer is not a way for us to get God to do what we want. When we say, “Your will be done,” we are becoming instruments for God to do what
He wants.
Consider what Paul said in Ephesians 3:20: “Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us . . .” (nasb). Another translation of that verse says: “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us . . .” (niv).
God’s ability to answer our prayers goes abundantly, immeasurably beyond all that we ask or think. You might say, “How could that possibly be? What could be beyond anything that I could ask or think or imagine or reason?” The answer is: Whatever God wants to do.
You see, what God wants to do is far greater and far higher and far better than anything you or I could ever imagine or think of for ourselves. As long as we limit God to doing merely what we want, we miss what God wants. So in order to receive the best from God in our prayers, we have to come to God the way Jesus came—with reverent submission. We have to say, “God, not as I will, but as You will. God, I am not praying to be healed because I want to be healed, but because I believe You want me to be healed.”
I lay sick in a hospital for one year and doctors were unable to heal me. I did not get out of the hospital healed until I had learned that God would heal me because He wanted me healed, not because I wanted to be healed. Can you bear that lesson in mind?
When you are praying with reverent submission to God’s will, you are going to go far higher than you ever could by asserting your own will.
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