Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss…
James 4:3
11. THE ELEVENTH STEP TO ONE HUNDRED PER CENT
ANSWERED PRAYER IS: DO NOT PRAY AMISS.
Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss…
James 4:3
Unfortunately, many Christians ask God for things He cannot give them. God does not answer prayers that have gone amiss. Praying amiss means that you pray unacceptable, unsuitable, inappropriate, inadmissible, impermissible, unsatisfactory and impossible prayers.
God will not do things which are against His principles.
Faith is very different from foolishness. There are many Christians who exhibit silliness when they pray. God is not a fool. Please do not try to make Him one.
The fact that you are allowed to exercise faith does not mean that you should be irrational. When God takes no notice of foolish prayers, do not say that prayer does not work. It is your foolish prayers that are not working.
If you ask God for somebody’s husband, you are praying a foolish prayer. Some young men, starting out in life, ask the Lord for huge mansions and fantastically expensive cars. It is true that God wants to bless you, but do not expect God to promote you overnight. Look at your Bible carefully. All the people who were blessed experienced it over a period of several years. If you are a married person and
you do not use contraceptives, please do not bind the babies in your wife’s womb. God does not respond to foolishness.
If you have a job to do and you do not do it, do not pray that your boss will fall sick so that he will not see the lapses in your work.
As you grow older do not bother to pray for your youth to return. It is gone forever. You cannot retrace your steps. There is a natural aging process that you cannot bind or revoke!
Why do you bother to ask God to give you an airplane when you don’t even own a bicycle? You might as well ask Him to make you the Queen of England.
If you are praying to God to help you to divorce, you are praying amiss. God does not want you to divorce. How can He help you to divorce?
What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.
Mark 10:9
God cannot answer when you pray amiss! You may divorce by your own choice, but do not pray amiss. God does not break up marriages, He brings people together.
You must realize that there are divine laws operating in the universe. There is no use praying about things which cannot be done scripturally. I am not talking about the laws of your country. I am talking about the laws of God.
There is no man on this earth who can escape the curse declared over Adam.
IN THE SWEAT OF THY FACE SHALT THOU EAT BREAD till thou return unto the ground; for out of it was thou taken: for dust thou art, and UNTO DUST SHALL THOU RETURN.
Genesis 3:19
All men are experiencing the sweat of this life. All men are returning to dust. All men will go to the grave one day. It is just a matter of time.
No matter who they are, all men have to sweat to prosper. No matter how rich they are they will return to the ground. There is no use praying against it. You cannot pray that you will prosper without working hard. You cannot pray that you will not die. That is illegal!
Until Jesus returns, you and I have to go the way of all men. Great men like David knew that there was no escape from death.
Now the days of David drew nigh that he should die; and he charged Solomon his son, saying, I GO THE WAY OF ALL THE
EARTH...
I Kings 2:1, 2
What is the way of all the earth? It is the inescapable experience of death that all human beings must go through. There is no use in binding or cancelling it!
You will keep getting disappointed in God with such prayers. Do not pray that you will not have to work hard. Working hard and sweating your way to prosperity is the legal way for us all to prosper. What you must rather do is to pray for wisdom to alleviate the effects of these curses.
It is the wisdom of medical science that alleviates the trauma of childbirth. Through the wisdom of medical science, many women have experienced little pain in childbirth. Many women have had less sorrow in childbirth through the use of wisdom.
It is the wisdom that comes through education that lightens the load on the sons of Adam. All the sons of Adam will labour, but some labour is easier than others. I would prefer to be a doctor than a cleaner. In both cases, I would go through the sweating process to
eat bread. But I assure you that the labour of a doctor is different from that of a cleaner.
12. THE TWELFTH STEP TO ONE HUNDRED PER CENT
ANSWERED PRAYER IS: PRAY ONLY FOR WHAT YOU SEE THE
FATHER DOING.
Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but WHAT HE
SEETH THE FATHER DO: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.
John 5:19
If you pray about things that cannot be answered, you will only erode your confidence in prayer. If you pray about things that God is not doing, He will not answer you. Jesus avoided praying for something when the Father was not doing it. “And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing ACCORDING TO HIS WILL, he heareth us:” (1 John 5:14).
This is yet another step to gaining one hundred per cent answers to your prayers. God has given us His Spirit to lead us in specific situations. You must be led by the Holy Spirit when you are praying and you must pray for His will. Many pastors are unsuccessful in their prayers because God is not leading them specifically in their prayers.
Once Jesus visited a “hospital”. There were multitudes of sick people there. However, He prayed for only one person.
After this there was a feast of the Jews; and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool, which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having five porches.
In these lay a great multitude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the water. For an angel went
down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water: whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had.
And a certain man was there, which had an infirmity thirty and eight years. When Jesus saw him lie, and knew that he had been now a long time in that case, he saith unto him, Wilt thou be made whole? The impotent man answered him, Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool: but while I am coming, another steppeth down before me. Jesus saith unto him, Rise, take up thy bed, and walk.
John 5:1-8
Why did He not pray for the other hundreds of people who needed help? Jesus operated in these very steps to getting one hundred per cent results. He only dealt with cases He knew would give Him positive results!
It may not be God’s will to heal everybody. Perhaps the circumstances under which everyone became ill were different.
Perhaps in God’s plan, it was not yet time for certain healings to manifest.
Jesus knew that it was difficult to get involved in things that God was not doing. Jesus explained why He prayed for only one sick person when there were hundreds who needed a miracle. He said, “I do what I see my Father doing.” In other words, if it is not something that God is actively and presently involved in, I will not even bother to pray about it. It may be legally right to do something, but it is very difficult to succeed in something if God is not presently involved with it. If Jesus did not pray difficult prayers, why should you bother?
Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but WHAT HE
SEETH THE FATHER DO: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.
John 5:19
If you do not use these principles, you will soon say that God does not answer prayers. Dear friend, it is very possible to get only a
“yes” answer from God for all your requests, if you can diligently practise the steps outlined in this book. Obviously, God will have to say “no” when you ask Him for things which are “impossible” for Him to do.
Take for example Joab, the army commander of King David. Joab killed an innocent man and David cursed him. King David cursed Joab’s family forever. He said:
Let it rest on the head of Joab, and on all his father’s house; and let there not fail from the house of Joab one that hath an issue, or that is a leper, or that leaneth on a staff, or that falleth on the sword, or that lacketh bread.
2 Samuel 3:29
If you study the details of this curse you will find out that sickness was to be a permanent part of Joab’s family. Anyone who found himself praying for Joab’s family would find himself praying a difficult prayer. It would be difficult, though not impossible, for the Lord to revoke the curse on Joab’s family. This curse is different from God’s curse on Adam and Eve, in that it was pronounced by a man.
Adam’s curse was pronounced by God Himself and obviously carries more weight.
Perhaps some of Joab’s relatives were at the “hospital” that Jesus visited. Perhaps that is why God directed Jesus to pray for only one person. Jesus explained that God had led Him to pray for only one person. Perhaps God was not ready to undo the curse on some people’s lives. Perhaps God does not have sufficient reason to undo a legal curse that is on certain people and their families.
…Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do…
John 5:19
Allow yourself to be led whenever you are praying. Pray for what you see the Father doing. Be led by the Spirit when you are praying. Don’t rush into complex situations blurting out powerless prayers which God will not answer.
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