Many people think that the only answered prayers are those that God answers with a yes. We discussed in an earlier
lesson that God sometimes answers us with no and wait. God's answers are always for our good, and they inevitably
call us to grow in our faith and to walk more closely with Christ. Nevertheless, we desire God to say yes in answer
to our petitions.
We must recognize at the outset that God does not answer our prayers on the basis of our self-worth or our accomplishments.
In other words, we cannot earn a yes answer from God. His answers are not granted on the basis of our being good
in our own human nature. Rather, God's basis for answering our prayer is His love. If we ever doubt this we need
only to look to the Cross. God sent His only Son, Jesus Christ, to die for our sins so that we might be restored
to Him in loving fellowship and live with Him forever in heaven (John 3:16).
God gives His children the desires of their hearts if the desires of their hearts are within the parameters
of God's will. If you delight in the things of God you will desire to do God's will. God will quickly give you
your desires because they are His own for your life.
When we ask something of God, He says yes to us if it will build us up, lead us to eternal life, and help us
to be more fruitful witnesses for Him on earth. He knows what is best for us. He will only give what is useful
and beneficial for us and for those with whom we have a relationship.
Avoiding the Two Extremes
Many people think that God desires for them to live in poverty. They deny their needs and shun possessions in
an effort to increase their faith. The fact is, God delights in providing us what we need. We are to receive God's
blessings with a spirit of gratitude. We may enjoy possessions but we do not place our trust in them. Our loving
heavenly Father does not want us to live with great areas of need in our lives. That brings no glory to Him.
At the other extreme are people who think that God should give them everything they want at the snap of their
fingers. The reality is that there are certain things that God does not grant to us for our good. If He granted
all of our requests, we could easily become greedy and lose sight of His call for us to help others who are in
need.
God balances His giving to us. He desires that we walk in close relationship with Him, trusting Him to meet
our needs and to equip us fully in every area of our lives to do the work He is calling us to do.
Prerequisites for Yes Answers
In the Scriptures God has outlined five prerequisites for receiving yes answers to our prayers.
1. Right Relationship
God wants us to live in a right relationship with Him and with others. Of course, at times we slip and cause
our relationships with Him and others to be strained. We are human beings and we have a great capacity to fail
and to err. God knows that.
God does not look at our track record nearly as much as He looks at our motivation—are our aim and desire to
love and serve Him? If so, God will correct us and continue to hear our prayers and answer them with yes. Those
who truly have a heart for God often fail and pick themselves up and try again, and fail and pick themselves up
and try again. All the while, God knows they are desiring to move ever closer to Him and to serve Him to the best
of their ability. Such people receive many yes answers to their prayers.
If our aim, however, is to continue willfully in sin and to ignore God's attempts at correcting us, then God
is under no obligation to hear and answer us. We are choosing to pursue our own self-interests, which God knows
inevitably will lead to our downfall. God will not contribute to anything that will be a negative to our spiritual
growth or cause pain to others.
What the Word Says
If I regard iniquity in my heart,
The Lord will not hear. (Ps. 66:18)
What the Word Says to Me
What the Word Says
When You said, “Seek My face,”
My heart said to You, “Your face, LORD, I will seek.”
Do not hide Your face from me;
Do not turn Your servant away in anger;
You have been my help;
Do not leave me nor forsake me,
O God of my salvation.…
Teach me Your way, O LORD,
And lead me in a smooth path. (Ps. 27:8–9, 11)
What the Word Says to Me
• In your life, have you ever asked God for something that you knew was contrary to righteousness? What was
the result?
2. Right Method
God does not give us a universal formula for making our petitions, but He does ask us to be definite and specific
in our prayers. He also tells us to ask with thanksgiving and with faith.
Some people pray, “God, bless the nation; God, bless the church; God, bless my family,” but what do they mean?
How do they define blessing? Nobody would say to a waitress in a restaurant, “I want food and drink.” When
we order in a restaurant, we make a specific request. I know people who say, “Well, God can read my mind and my
heart. He knows what I want.” My response to them is, “If you have a blank mind, what is God reading?” When Jesus
approached Bartimaeus, a man He obviously could tell was blind, He asked him, “What do you want Me to do for you?”
(Mark 10:51). Jesus asks the same question of us.
We are also to pray with thanksgiving. Our praise and thanksgiving to God are direct reflections of our faith—we
are saying to God, “I know, Lord, that You are working all things together for my good and that You will grant
me only what is for my eternal benefit. I thank You for giving me precisely what I need, when I need it, and in
the proper way. I am voicing to You my desires for what I believe is best for me, but I thank You for hearing me
and granting to me what You know to be the best for me.”
What the Word Says
Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made
known to God. (Phil. 4:6)
What the Word Says to Me
What the Word Says
Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have
them. (Mark 11:24)
What the Word Says to Me
What the Word Says
Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full. (John 16:24)
What the Word Says to Me
• How do you feel when you ask something specifically and directly of God? How do you feel when you pray
with thanksgiving?
3. Right Requests
If we desire to receive a yes answer from God, the request that we make of God must be according to His will
(1 John 5:14). God has a plan and a purpose for your life. He sees precisely what will be involved and required
for that purpose to be fulfilled—today, tomorrow, next year, and on down the path of your life. He will not grant
you a petition that causes you to stray from that plan.
On the night before His crucifixion, Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, “Not as I will, but as You will”
(Matt. 26:39). Jesus did not want to stray even one degree from God's perfect plan for His life. His prayer must
become our prayer. Then, and only then, can we be assured of continual yes answers.
God's plan for us includes timing. Some things may be right for us, but not right now. When we pray, “Your will,
not mine,” we must be aware that we are also praying, “Your timing, not mine.”
What the Word Says
Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And
if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him. (1
John 5:14–15)
What the Word Says to Me
What the Word Says
Every purpose of the LORD shall be performed. (Jer. 51:29)
What the Word Says to Me
What the Word Says
To everything there is a season,
A time for every purpose under heaven.…
God shall judge the righteous and the wicked,
For there is a time there for every purpose and for every work. (Eccl. 3:1, 17)
What the Word Says to Me
• In your past experience, have you had a time when you knew God was answering you with a resounding yes?
On what did you base your knowledge? What was the result?
4. Right Framework
Although there is no formula for prayer, there is a framework. Our prayers are to be voiced in the name of Jesus.
Many people close all of their prayers with the phrase, “in the name of Jesus, amen.” Some do this as if this
phrase is a magic tag to get what they want. Nothing could be farther from the truth of God. Others take God's
promises regarding the name of Jesus to mean that they can ask for anything they want and then seal it with the
name of Jesus to ensure they get it. They look for a particular Scripture that seems to assure them of a promise
of God and then claim it “in the name of Jesus” for themselves. They are asking amiss. The emphasis must always
be on our residing and abiding fully in the name of Jesus and not on the request we make!
To pray in the name of Jesus means to pray as if Jesus Himself were voicing the prayer. To be “in His name”
is to have so buried our identity in His identity that we are totally and completely covered with Christ. To any
observer in the heavenly realm, we are operating as if Christ Himself were acting or speaking.
What we ask in Jesus' name must be completely in character with what Jesus would ask if He were walking in our
shoes, living our lives, going where we go, and meeting whom we meet. What would Jesus need? What would Jesus desire?
These are the things that we are to request in Jesus' name. When we do, we are in the proper position to receive
a yes answer from God.
What the Word Says
And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything
in My name, I will do it. (John 14:13–14)
What the Word Says to Me
What the Word Says
I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever
you ask the Father in My name He may give you. (John 15:16)
What the Word Says to Me
• What new insights do you have into praying in the name of Jesus?
5. Right Attitude
We are always to make our petitions without doubt. Our attitude must be one of faith. Many people ask God for
things but the tone of their voice conveys, “Oh, but I'm not worthy of this.” Perhaps they are attempting to be
humble, but if so, they are displaying a false humility. God calls us to make our petitions boldly and in faith,
without doubt.
On what do we base our faith? On the fact that God wants only what is best for us. If we ask for what we are
certain God desires for us, we must ask as if we are already in the process of receiving it. You may say, “But
what if I am asking for the wrong thing?” If you are, and you are asking in the context of a right relationship
and framework, being specific and definite and thankful, and asking to the best of your understanding of God's
will … then the Lord will show you if you are asking in error. You aren't omniscient and God doesn't expect you
to be. What He does expect of you is that you operate in the fullness of your present level of understanding and
faith, and also with an open heart for Him to correct you and guide you into the precision of perfection
that He desires for you. If you come to Him with that attitude, He will grant you many yes answers, and He will
lead you to ask only for those things that He can answer with a yes!
What the Word Says
If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all literally and without reproach, and it will be
given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed
by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-mined man,
unstable in all his ways. (James 1:5–8)
What the Word Says to Me
What the Word Says
I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God which was given to you by Jesus Christ, that you were
enriched in everything by Him in all utterance and all knowledge, even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed
in you, so that you come short in no gift, eagerly waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will
also confirm you to the end, that you may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Cor. 1:4–8)
What the Word Says to Me
• In what ways are you challenged in your prayer life today?
All for God's Glory
When we voice our prayers out of a right relationship with God and in a definite, specific and thankful way,
and we know that our attitude is right … to a very great extent we can be assured that we are praying in Jesus'
name and that our requests will be in keeping with God's will. Each of the five prerequisites to yes answers works
together with all of the others. For example, a right attitude flows from a right relationship. A right request
is best voiced with the right method. The right framework is directly linked to a right relationship.
The reason God says yes to our prayers is not only that we might find fulfillment and meaning and joy in our
lives, but also that God might be glorified. Jesus said, “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see
your good works and glorify your Father in heaven” (Matt. 5:16). When nonbelievers see us living in right relationship
with God and God answering our prayers, they are drawn to God. They desire to know Him better and to receive more
fully from Him.
God desires to say yes to you when you pray. We must make it our desire to pray in such a way that He will say
yes to us.
• What new insights do you have into receiving God's yes answers to your prayers?
From Talking With God: Discover New Insights to Help Deepen Your
Prayer Life by Charles Stanley. Copyright 1997 by Charles Stanley.
