How To Get Your Prayers Answered

Have you ever wondered how to actually get your prayers answered?

Is there a trick to it?

Let me tell you a story.

The phone rang, which doesn’t happen too often nowadays now that we have email and texting, and it was a distraught family member on the other end. A close relative was on holidays and was now in a hospital in a medically induced coma. What? How on earth did this happen? I thought they were fine when they left. As it turned out, they weren’t fine when they left and the problem just escalated over time.

My husband and I just looked at each other and I said, “Let’s ask God how this ends.” We got on our knees and this is the short prayer that we prayed.

“Lord God, You alone know all things. Only you can heal our relative. We are asking you to heal them in Jesus’ Name. Please will you show us how this is going to end and tell us what to pray to reach this end. Thank You that You will answer.”

That was it. Not long-winded, just short and sweet. We know that healing is God’s will. We weren’t asking Him to do anything that was against His will or His character.

So, let me break it down for you in 5 short, easy steps. We’ll take Daniel’s example in Daniel, Chapter 10.

1. Acknowledge that God is the biggest, that He knows everything and that you need Him.

Daniel 10:12, “Then he said to me, “Fear not, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand and humbled yourself before your God, your words have been heard, and I have come because of your words.”

God is your Creator. He knows how many hairs there are on your head. He knows EVERYTHING. I pray on my knees at times, as a physical sign of humbling myself before him but it is more of a heart attitude. I know I cannot bring healing about myself so I acknowledge that only God can – and I tell Him so.

Daniel humbled himself and God sent an answer in the form of an angel. How fantastic is that!

2. Ask for what you want.

Daniel 10:12, “Then he said to me, “Fear not, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand and humbled yourself before your God, your words have been heard, and I have come because of your words.”

Daniel asked for what he wanted, specifically. In this case, we wanted healing. That’s just what we asked for – complete healing for mind, body and soul. Be specific. God likes specific prayers. He is very much into detail. Look at how He created the human body – with His own hands! Only He can heal a body in the way it needs. Ask.

James 4:2, “………… You do not have, because you do not ask.”

Pretty simple isn’t it.

3. Pray ‘upside down’ prayers and listen for the answers.

Daniel 10:12, “Then he said to me, “Fear not, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand and humbled yourself before your God, your words have been heard, and I have come because of your words.”

This is my absolute favourite part. This where we ask God what our answered prayers look like. That’s why they are upside down prayers. I don’t often have a time where God doesn’t show me at least a little of what the end looks like. Daniel ‘set his heart to understand’. He wanted answers and he asked them of the only One who knows. Smart man. This can come as a picture in your imagination, a thought or a Bible verse brought to your mind. It can come through a circumstance or even a conversation. There are many ways in which God speaks which I will share in future posts.

Then, ask God how to pray for the answer to come to pass. In our case, we needed to pray for angels to go and protect them as Satan had a plan for their life and as far as it was up to us, we weren’t going to let that happen. Pray as the Lord shows you.

Revelation 21:6, “And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. ………”

God knows what the end is from the beginning. I cannot find anywhere in the Bible, that says that He is not willing to tell us the outcome of our prayers. We may as well ask Him, then and expect an answer.

4. Don’t give up.

Daniel 10:12, “Then he said to me, “Fear not, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand and humbled yourself before your God, your words have been heard, and I have come because of your words.”

Again, Daniel ‘set his heart to understand’. When you ‘set your heart’ towards something, you are tenacious and refuse to give up until you finish what you started or you get answers so you ‘understand’. God loves it when we don’t give up. It also means that the enemy (Satan and his demons) gets a butt-whipping. Who does not want to see that!

Galatians 6:9, “And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.”

I can guarantee you. You will get at least some answers if you do not give up. Just remember, it may not always be in the way that you want or the answers you want. God does things for your best. He knows what He is doing. You can trust Him.

5. Don’t doubt – believe that God will Answer.

Daniel 10:12, “Then he said to me, “Fear not, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand and humbled yourself before your God, your words have been heard, and I have come because of your words.”

The ‘he’ in this verse is an angel, God’s messenger, the one who came to bring Daniel’s answer to his prayer. He asked God for an answer, he ‘set his heart to understanding’ (didn’t give up), God heard his prayers and sent and angel to answer him.
You may not see an angel but that does not mean that one won’t bring you an answer. God will decide HOW He will answer you. Wait in expectation. He will answer you. Be patient and wait. Expect. You will see results. Daniel got his answer and so will you.

Matthew 21:21, “And Jesus answered them, “Truly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ it will happen.”

Back to my happy ending. The Lord told me, through thoughts in my mind, that our relative would be fine and totally healed from the then current condition. That was a few years ago. They have been completely healed. Praise Jesus!

I have watched this work time and time again. I have watched God provide for our needs, heal a seemingly broken arm and foot, people receive salvation, a man being healed from an unknown brain virus and many other prayers answered, just from praying this way. It is such an powerful way of praying and eliminates most of the worry. (I am still working on eliminating ALL of the stress because that is my default nature – to worry. Thankfully, Jesus is more patient with me than I am.)

Note: All Scripture verses are taken from the English Standard Version (ESV) Bible unless otherwise stated.

Have you tried this way of praying before? If not, give it a go. I would love to hear from you in the comments below about your experiences and your answered prayers.

Many blessings to you,

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