How To Get Answers To Your Prayers (1)

By James Quansah, Pastor

A GREAT number of Christians pray to God in the hope of receiving answers. What will you do if your prophet or pastor quotes Matthew 7: 7 which says, “Ask, and it will be given; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you?” Obviously, you will immediately begin to ask, seek and knock because the verse eight of the same chapter says, “For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.

Many church folks who take these scripture at face value, therefore, change churches, prayer camps and fellowships to pray for God to address their plights.  Many do not only pray but also fast in the hope of getting answers or solutions to their problems. But the sad reality is that after days, weeks, months, and even years of prayers with fasting at home, church and prayer mountains the problems persist if not worsen.

What can be hindering the answers to the prayers? Many factors may be responsible for this challenge. One problem facing the Body of Christ today is that most people pray without sound knowledge. It is very important for us to understand that not everyone who asks, seeks and knocks in the name of Jesus Christ receives, finds and gets doors of blessings opened to him.

In his letter to the Jewish Christians in the Dispersion, James states, “…You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly…” (James 4: 3). Sometimes, we need to sit down and go into the Bible to find out why our prayers do not receive the anticipated results. We must ask ourselves some fundamental questions before we pray. I call it self-examination before prayer.

In his epistle to the Corinthian church, Paul, the apostle, urged the believers to examine themselves to see whether they were in the faith (2 Corinthians 13: 5). This is something which is very important for all Christian believers to do because we do not pray to an unintelligent, gullible, and ignorant God. The LORD God knows everything about us far more than we do. Being in the faith is tantamount to being a child of God.

Be a Child of God

The fact that someone dresses up decently, attends church meetings regularly, gives offerings and has his name written in a church register does not make him or her a child of God. To be recognized in heaven as a child of God, you ought to have heard the word of truth or the gospel of salvation, believed in the birth, ministry, death, burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ in your heart, sincerely repented of your sins and confessed Him the Lord and Saviour of your life with your mouth.

Above all, you must have been sealed with the promised Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1: 13). A person is not a child of God unless his spirit (heart) is renewed spiritually, regenerated, reborn (Born again) by the Holy Spirit. Unfortunately, today, many people have not been confronted with the truths of the gospel of Christ Jesus in order to be saved. Their pastors always pick some Old Testament stories to preach materialistic sermons to entertain and excite their emotions for financial gain.

Most these believers were merely invited to church without being led to Christ Jesus. Others are those who say they were born into the church family.  They mistakenly assume that once they belong to a church they are children of God, but that is a deception. We must understand that there are also mere religious folks who attend church meetings.

Walk in Righteousness

A true Christian is a new creation in Christ Jesus; there is a tangible evidence of divine transformations in his life. His relations, friends and the Holy Spirit bear witness that he is a changed person. The true follower of Christ Jesus has the Spirit of God dwelling in his heart. He lives a life of righteousness, holiness and purity so that his prayers may be heard and answered. He knows that sin hinders prayers from being answered.

“Behold, the LORD’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear” (Isaiah 59: 1- 2). “We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshipper of God and does his will, God listens to him”, (John 9: 31).

God does not answer the prayers of fornicators, adulterers, drunkards, thieves, murderers, abortionists and all people who practice sin. God only answers a sinner’s prayer when he offers a sincere prayer of repentance and forgiveness of his sins from his heart with a decision to follow Christ.

We must understand that God loves sinners but hates their sins. Sin’s power must be broken off our lives if we want our holy God to hear our cries and answer them. If this is not done, we will erroneously whip the devil, clap our hands, stamp our feet, drink all kinds of oils, pay huge sums of money to consult prophets and use our Bibles as pillows but our situations will worsen.

Have God’s Word in You

You also need to ask yourself if you have been reading, studying, listening to and receiving the Word of God in your heart, and you are willing to obey its instructions. Many Christians travel long distances to pray but refuse Bible studies. They hate hearing the Word of God. They will never attend teaching services. They do not know that the God who commands Christians to pray without ceasing also orders Christians to have His Word in their hearts and mouths always.

James Quansah is the Executive Director of Christ-Conscious Leadership Centre (CLC) and lead Pastor of End-Time Christ’s Commissioners (ECC), Kumasi, Ghana. James is also a journalist by profession. He is married with four children.

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