Sometimes we pray for things we don't need and are not good for us.

I heard of a man in World War II who prayed for God to move him from one concentration camp to another. It was just a few miles away and he prayed and God answered his prayer.

He was very happy but it was short lived. In a few weeks the Allied forces came into the camp he left and liberated all the prisoners. He stayed two more years in the other camp. He used his faith and his prayer was answered, but it prolonged the problem.

First of all, you need to determine what is the will of God. When you know God's will, you know that God is going to hear you. The Word says if God hears you, you will get what you ask.

When I was growing up, I knew if I could get to my dad, I could get that nickel I wanted to take to school the next day. But sometimes my mother would say, "No, don't bother him now. He is asleep." So I couldn't get an audience with him.

I knew if I could get an audience with him, I would get what I wanted. The Word tells us how to get an audience with our Heavenly Father.

Sometimes we think the Lord must have heard us because we have goose bumps running up and down our back. That has nothing to do with it. You may get some feeling (and that's all right), but you don't base your faith on feelings.

What if you don't get any feeling at all? That is all right, too. That doesn't change the Word of God.

...let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.
(James 1:6-8)

You receive because you believe God and act on His Word. Goose bumps will never produce an answer to prayer...but faith will!

Source: Releasing God's Power Through Prayer by Charles Capps.
Excerpt permission granted by Harrison House Publishers