Do You Believe God?

Do you really believe God will answer the prayers that you ask Him? Perhaps I should phrase this a different way: do you believe God will grant the requests of your prayers when you ask Him? You see, I have learned that many Christians are of the understanding that God answers every prayer; some times He says 'yes' and sometimes He says 'no'. That is not a Biblical statement. I am finding more and more that the biggest factor in whether or not we receive the requests of our hearts is us.

Jesus promises us that if we seek first His kingdom and righteousness all the other things we need in life will be added to us following (Matthew 6:33). So, it logically follows that if you are not seeing all the necessary provisions in your life - and the Word of God never lies - then clearly you are not really putting the kingdom of God first place in your life. Jesus also promises us that if we abide in Him and His Word, then we may ask God anything and He will grant it (John 15). So, logically, if your prayers are not being answered when you ask God for anything Jesus' name, then you must not be really abiding in the Word of God. Now, I know that 1 John 5:14 tells us that we should be praying God's will and that then He will grant us our requests, but that is also what Jesus was telling is disciples in the Gospels! Abide in the Word of God and you cannot make an unholy request. His will is found in His Word.

His will is for us to be healthy, wealthy, holy, blameless, self-sufficient, wise, strong... Every victorious word you can come up with, He wants us to be that. Jesus went through too much for us to be shorting ourselves of all that He has for us. He did the suffering so we do not have to, and yet we keep placing an emphasis on Christian suffering. God does not want us to feel pain; that is under the Curse. Jesus redeemed us from the Curse, by taking the Curse upon Himself (Galatians 3:13). We are no longer to function in anything that is under the Curse of Adam, yet we constantly do. We claim it is "bearing our cross" for Jesus.  What it really is is ignorance and foolishness. We are not suffering anything as a result of God; it is a result of ourselves blocking God from doing all that He promised.

He promised us that we would be blessed with the Blessing of Abraham (Galatians 3:29); so if you are not operating in the fullness of that Blessing it is your fault. It has to be - God cannot lie to us. If the promises of God written in His Word are not operating in your life it is because of something you are doing. It cannot be from God. His Word promises that if anything assails us it is not from Him (Isaiah 54:15). However, I also will point out (because I know many of you are thinking it) that Jesus never promises us that tribulations won't come. I am not talking about living a happy hippie life with puppy dogs and rainbows until Jesus comes. Jesus promises us that life will still happen, but He also gave us His Word that He has robbed it of power to harm us (John 16:33, Amplified). If the tests of life are causing you harm they are in direct violation of Jesus' Word. Don't embrace it; fight it.

The first thing for us to do is make the Word of God and the kingdom of God our number one priority. That means you wake up each day looking for ways to bless God and make His kingdom known. It means that you put into practice the Word of God that you already know. It means that you make time (and make it if you have to) for His Word and for prayer. He knows our schedules. He knows that many of us have gotten ourselves bogged-down with work, projects, activities and so on. He will be gracious to you. If you only have a half-hour to give Him, then just give Him that. He won't mind. If all you have is a half-hour of free time each day and you use it to sit on the couch, talk on the phone, hang out with your spouse or take a nap, then you are not putting God and His kingdom first. He will not honor that. Take stock of your life at this moment. What are you doing to hinder the promises of God in your life? The Word of God is tried and true and it cannot lie. Jesus said all of our needs would be met - but there were conditions involved. If your needs are not being met, maybe it is because you are not fulfilling your end of the bargain, no matter how much you may think you are. God does not want us to go through the suffering Jesus went through, Jesus did more than we can ever imagine to eradicate the power and effects of the Curse in our lives. If the Curse is still running ramped in your life, start looking for the access point. If the Blessing of God is not flowing in full operation, start looking for the kink in the hose. If we are not living like heaven on earth, it is not God's fault. We have to do what He tells us to do, and believe His promises to us, or else the Curse that Jesus died to defeat will continue to make our lives more difficult than they ever should be, and we will continue to believe well I guess God said 'no' this time...