Living the life God intended

Have you ever wondered why sometimes your prayers go unanswered?  We have all heard the common reasons – we need to wait longer for the answer, it is not in our best interests or it’s not according to God’s will for our life at the moment.  My question for all of us today is are we praying for the right thing?

My reason for asking this question is that last week I was speaking to my headache and commanding it to leave in the Name of Jesus.  We have all read the scripture that at Jesus’  Name, every name will bow.  Well, for me, that was the name of headache.  As I was commanding it to go, I heard God whisper to me – “you need to pray your sinuses will be unblocked because that is the cause of your headache”.  That revelation from God really stirred me.  How often have I thought I was praying the right way or for the right thing, when I should have been commanding the symptom to disappear and not praying for the cause to disappear.  I would say that’s the reason most of my prayers don’t get answered.  Let’s have a look at a few more examples:

1. We are praying for our parents salvation but they don’t have a concept of heaven or they think God is out to get them with a big stick.  This is what happened to my dad a few weeks ago just before he passed on into heaven.  I have blogged about this before so basically he didn’t want me to pray for him at all so I prayed in the Spirit quietly.  I rang a pastor friend of mine and he prayed that my dad would receive a visitation from the Holy Spirit.  He did receive that visitation, realised heaven was real and gave his heart to Jesus.  I had been praying for years but I wasn’t praying for God to open his eyes up to see Jesus.  When that was prayed, God answered.  It may not be the same for your loved one.  I will give you some steps below.
2. We are praying for a good job with a good income but we haven’t completed any formal study in that field.  God is not going to drop a job in your lap (most times – sometimes a miracle happens), if we haven’t prayed about it and then stepped out in faith to get ourselves some education.

So let’s look at some of the ways that you can know you are praying right that have worked for me.

a.  Get before God and get His revelation knowledge on the what your need is.  He may tell you to do something strange like have coffee with the person once a week, send a text message to them telling them God loves them and has a plan for their life or maybe He will tell you to just keep believing and walking in faith that your prayers are answered.

b.   Read your Bible.  I know this sounds obvious but I have often received a scripture that answers a need or that I can hold close to my heart in faith when I am believing for something.  Maybe your need is encouragement and a verse can just “spring” out of the Bible at you and be a direct answer to your need.

c.   Seek wise counsel from your pastor or life group leader or put in a prayer request so you know others are standing with you.  It helps a lot when we know we can face things with people standing beside and behind us praying for us.

d.  You also need to ask God to reveal to you what the root problem is that is causing you to have a need.  My root problem was blocked sinuses not a headache and that’s how I needed to pray.  Yours might be financial and God will reveal to you those areas where you are not obeying His Word.  Repent and start doing what the Bible says.  It may be hard but it is always worth it.  Forgive if you need to forgive – that can release a lot of things from our lives.

As you walk through this week, I want to remind you on one thing – God is always for you and not against you.  Run to Him not away from Him.  If you have a need in your life that seems so big, God has all the answers.  It is time to seek God and pray the right way for the right thing.  Keep living the life God intended for you.  You are a child of God and loved by Him.