1 John 5:14-15 “Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. (15) And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.”
The Holy Spirit in the above quoted passage of scripture confirms the same truth to us that Jesus taught, for in this passage He clearly teaches us that God hears the requests that are made to Him in accordance to His word (His will and His word are the same) and it is those requests that He answers. And so we can see that the converse of this passage is also true, i.e. if we ask anything that is not according to His will, He will not hear us and we will therefore not receive the petitions that we ask of Him. Many Christians fall into this error because they do not first establish what God has said on the subject before they petition Him in prayer, and as a result very often their petitions fall outside of His will. Those prayers therefore go unanswered, which results in many saints becoming disillusioned and questioning their faith in God.
James 4:1-3 “Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? (2) You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. (3) You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.”
In the passage of scripture quoted above the Holy Spirit teaches us that many Christians do not have, simply because they do not ask. You will recall at the beginning of this section that we saw that the very first thing that God requires of us is to ask Him. But the Holy Spirit does not stop there because He goes on to tell us the reason why some of our prayers go unanswered, for He says that we ask and do not receive because our motivation is wrong. Prayer requests made to God for the gratifying of our fleshly desires will not be answered. The word of God teaches us to make no provision for the flesh to fulfil its desires (Romans 13:14). And so if God instructs us to make no provision for the desires of the flesh, then He is certainly not going to answer any prayer requests made to Him for the gratifying of our fleshly desires. Any natural parent will not give their children something that they have asked for; if they know that what they have asked for will harm them. And so even if their children cry when they don’t get what they want the parents stand firm in their decision, because they know what is best for their children. God is a good Father, and as such He will not give us anything that will harm our relationship with Him. Gratifying the desires of the flesh has the effect of drawing believers away from having a close relationship with the Lord, and God will therefore not grant those requests. And so this is another example of lack of results in prayer because of people praying contrary to the word of God.
Michael E.B. Maher
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