When Your Prayers Get Nothing from God
 |
| Image from Flickr. |
Don't panic when your prayers seem to get nothing from God. I stress on the word "seem." Often, it seems that way. Answered prayers are good, but you see, there's something in unanswered prayers that they're not telling us---either they don't want to or they don't know it---because they're "stuck" with answered prayers. 😏
Often (I said often, not always), answered prayers are for those who can't afford to wait, either they have less patience or they have urgent cases in their hands. But if God is working on you big-time, he intentionally prolongs your waiting, improving on your patience, because James says "patience (or perseverance) must finish its work so that you may be perfect and complete, not lacking anything."
You're somewhat in the same situation as Abraham and Moses were (and other prophets and men of God) who suffered incredible delays or "wasting time" pointlessly in some silly wilderness. Nothing seems to be happening to you a long time (and I mean a long time!). Imagine Moses 40 years in the wilderness in company with nothing but goats and sheep? Wasn't that silly? I mean, what for? It wasn't revealed until after 40 years.
Click here to see an important revelation.
The flesh won't understand it. I imagine Moses wondering why he was in the wilderness doing a menial job while Pharaoh was in position to develop his career fully. We wonder why some pastors are given mega ministries that seem getting mega-er all the time, while we 're stuck with a small church. We're doing what God wants but it all seems pointless. Familiar?
Just make sure you're not wallowing in sin unrepentant. Sin makes us unproductive. Well, there are some who soak in sin and enjoy it and still get more "blessed" and look so productive. It happens in the real world. But it only looks glamorous in the "real world," not in the Spirit realms. Remember, God operates in the Spirit realms and only uses the worldly realms to judge wrong. And the judgment is often in the form of what looks like "blessings" and "favors" to natural men. Spiritual men know better.
The rich are wise in their own eyes; one who is poor and discerning sees how deluded they are. [Proverbs 28.11]
So, your prayers get nothing from God, but you keep praying anyway. And this is what astounds heaven---you get nothing and yet you keep praying. You cry day and night as the "chosen ones" did in the parable and yet God "keeps putting them off" [Luke 18.7]. Angels marvel seeing how you just love to talk to God even if you "seem" to get nothing from it.
But actually you do get something. You're investing time and effort spiritually and get a harvest of Christ-like life, character and mindset, which are more precious than gold in God's Kingdom. Pure gold is just street pavement in heaven; the Jesus life and character is what's really precious up there. And we should have the same value system here on earth.
It's easy to be prayerful when you always get what you want. In a sense, you're pampered, and some believers need it because they easily get discouraged by the slightest delay. So God answers them pronto. Answers to prayers are good and praise God for them. We need them. But often, they make us weak, just like spoiled brats later develop spoiled characters. They become impatient and unreasonably demanding. They break at the slightest sign of difficulty. They always have tantrums.
So, God intentionally delays or sometimes "hides" his answers to prayers, making them less obvious, so that we don't stop praying and hoping and trusting and walking with him in faith even if he has already answered our prayers without our knowledge. Sometimes he withholds answers, sometimes he gives them so quietly so that no one notices. Hence, he says we always have to give thanks "in all circumstances." A powerful and effective worship, the bible says, is our thanksgiving offering, and I don't mean the thanksgiving offering bag or plate they pass around in church, though that, too, is important.
Remember the older brother of the prodigal son? He never got anything from his father, even a small goat, though he had "enslaved himself" to him. But what did the father say? "Son, you're always with me, and everything I have is yours."
You got that? EVERYTHING I HAVE IS YOURS. You actually don't get nothing---you get everything. Just make sure you go on being "with the Father always." Never stop talking with him though you get nothing---for now. Just pray. Soon you'd understand that in prayer, it's not really the answers that matter, but the intimacy. The LIFE created and developed out of that close, spirit-to-spirit communion.
Join my email discipleship. Just email me at godsflesgblog@gmail.com. For more radically life-changing insights, get my e-books! GOD's Flesh: "And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see him with my own eyes—I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!" [Job 19.26-17]. LIKE US ON FACEBOOK!
But actually you do get something. You're investing time and effort spiritually and get a harvest of Christ-like life, character and mindset, which are more precious than gold in God's Kingdom. Pure gold is just street pavement in heaven; the Jesus life and character is what's really precious up there. And we should have the same value system here on earth.
It's easy to be prayerful when you always get what you want. In a sense, you're pampered, and some believers need it because they easily get discouraged by the slightest delay. So God answers them pronto. Answers to prayers are good and praise God for them. We need them. But often, they make us weak, just like spoiled brats later develop spoiled characters. They become impatient and unreasonably demanding. They break at the slightest sign of difficulty. They always have tantrums.
So, God intentionally delays or sometimes "hides" his answers to prayers, making them less obvious, so that we don't stop praying and hoping and trusting and walking with him in faith even if he has already answered our prayers without our knowledge. Sometimes he withholds answers, sometimes he gives them so quietly so that no one notices. Hence, he says we always have to give thanks "in all circumstances." A powerful and effective worship, the bible says, is our thanksgiving offering, and I don't mean the thanksgiving offering bag or plate they pass around in church, though that, too, is important.
Remember the older brother of the prodigal son? He never got anything from his father, even a small goat, though he had "enslaved himself" to him. But what did the father say? "Son, you're always with me, and everything I have is yours."
You got that? EVERYTHING I HAVE IS YOURS. You actually don't get nothing---you get everything. Just make sure you go on being "with the Father always." Never stop talking with him though you get nothing---for now. Just pray. Soon you'd understand that in prayer, it's not really the answers that matter, but the intimacy. The LIFE created and developed out of that close, spirit-to-spirit communion.
Join my email discipleship. Just email me at godsflesgblog@gmail.com. For more radically life-changing insights, get my e-books! GOD's Flesh: "And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see him with my own eyes—I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!" [Job 19.26-17]. LIKE US ON FACEBOOK!