Have you ever had so many needs that you felt like a prophet would have to pray all night to get them taken care of? I have! Shortly after becoming a Christian, I requested prayer for my financial needs. I expected the preacher to make such inspired intercession that everyone would fall on their knees. I imagined him weeping over my problems as Jesus wept over Lazarus' death.
But to my amazement, he merely laid his hand on my chest, bowed his head and said, "Lord, bless him. Meet his every need, in the Name of Jesus." Then he turned and walked away!
What a disappointment! My problems were big! I figured it would take a big prayer to cover them. But you see, I was operating in unbelief, and this man of God was operating in faith. He was concentrating on the answer - Jesus - and not on my problems.
Since then, I've learned a lot about prayer. I've stepped beyond shooting scattershot prayers, just hoping for something to happen, and I've learned to follow the guidelines to prayer that are given in the Word of God. You see, God never meant for us to stumble around in the dark when we pray.
Philippians 4:6 says, "Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God." God intends to answer our requests. He wants us to get results when we pray. But first, we have to put away our childish ideas about prayer and replace them with God's power-packed principles.
For example, one thing we need to learn is that it is not the length of our prayers that gets results. In John 3:22-23 it says, "What so ever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight. And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment."
Praying all night is not what gets the ear of God; it is believing on and praying in the Name of Jesus. Praying all night is quite an accomplishment, but praying in the Name of Jesus is basing your prayer on His accomplishments, not on yours.
Of course, if you haven't been living a life that is pleasing to God, your prayers will be hindered. Disobedience robs you of your confidence in Him, but even then Jesus is still the answer. He is your Advocate with the Father.
Don't run from God when you sin; run to Him! Act on 1 John 1:9. Confess your sin and receive your forgiveness. Don't let sin and condemnation keep God from moving in your life, your heart and your circumstances. Jesus is faithful and just to forgive you when you repent. He wants to answer your prayers.
Another key to answered prayer is praying according to the will of God. The problem is that many believers are in the dark about God's will. Religion has told us, "You never know what God's going to do." But that's not true! He's told us in His Word exactly what He will do. The written Word brings the will of God out of the realm of obscurity.
When we pray in line with the Word, we pray according to the will of God. When we let the Word of God engineer our prayer, "This is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he hears us: And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him" (1 John 5:14-15).
Prayer based on the Word begins with the answer and doesn't concentrate on the problem. Let's take healing as an example. First Peter 2:24 says that by the stripes that Jesus bore, we were healed. Just as in the forgiveness of your sins, your healing was provided for through the cross. If the Word says you were healed, then God's will is for you to be well. Let the Word of God settle the issue once and for all. Throw out all the arguments, and believe the Word.
Mark 11:24 says, "What things so ever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them." Notice that it says for you to believe when you pray. Make the decision that God's Word is absolutely true. If God said that you were healed, then believe that you were healed when you prayed, not when you began to feel better.
When you base your prayer on the fact that the answer is already yours, then the only thing left is to begin the application of your faith. Faith is your response to what God has already provided.
Faith is released in two ways: by saying it and by acting on it. If 1 Peter 2:24 says you were healed, then don't say, "I'm sick." Say, "I believe that by the stripes Jesus bore for me, I am healed." And then act like it. Real Bible believing demands action.
If someone came running in your front door and said, "The house is on fire!" and you believed it, you would immediately get out. You wouldn't wait until you saw smoke!
Faith in God's Word works the same way. Don't wait until you feel healed to believe it. Believe it before anything you can see ever happens, or it will never happen. Faith makes prayer work; prayer doesn't make faith work.
If your needs have been piling up, don't panic. Pray! Your spiritual, mental, physical, financial and social needs can be met by the power of Almighty God. Just follow God's principles of prayer and make your requests known unto Him; then start to praise, knowing the results are on the way!
Eagle Mountain International Church, Inc.
aka: Kenneth Copeland Ministries
For the last 50 years Kenneth and Gloria Copeland have been passionately teaching Christians all over the world how to apply the principles of faith found in God’s WORD to their lives.
