Pastor's Blog

Quote from the audio message, "Thy Kingdom Come."

I want to speak to you in this message on certain requirements for getting our prayers answered. But first of all, I just want to read to you three statements from the New Testament about what prayer can do. The first is found in Matthew 21:22. Jesus Himself is speaking and He says:

“And all things whatever you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.”

Notice, all things that you ask in prayer you will receive. There’s no restrictions. There’s just one condition—believing. The condition there is faith. And then we turn to John’s gospel, chapter 15 and verse 7. And again we have the words of Jesus to His disciples:

“If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, you will ask what you desire and it shall be done for you.”

Another version says “ask what you desire and it shall be done for you.” Notice there what you desire. There’s no other restriction, but the condition is if my words abide in you. In other words, if we pray according to God’s word.

And one final Scripture in the first epistle of John, chapter 5, verses 14–15:

Now this is the confidence that we have in Him [that is, in God], that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of him.

There again it says whatever we ask. But again there’s a condition attached, it’s according to His will.

So if you take those three passages together, you’ll find that the scope of prayer is unlimited. Nothing is excluded. But, the conditions are threefold: faith, according to God’s word and according to God’s will. And they go together because God’s word reveals God’s will. And we know that when we’re praying
according to God’s will we will get what we pray for.