A Nugget from New Life Network
(by Dr. Larry Ollison)
Scripture for the Day (June 24, 2016)
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).
When we pray, we must pray the will of God. Only when we pray His will, will He hear us. In fact, we are clearly told in First John 5:14 that we can ask anything according to His will, and He will hear us. Then in verse 15 we are told that if He hears us, He grants us the request. But we can never forget that He only hears our request if we ask according to His will. What is the will of God? His will is found in His Word, the Holy Bible, and by praying “In the Spirit” (which has to lineup with His Word).
Through the years as Pastor, I have had countless meetings with people who were going through trials in their lives. Some of these trials were financial, some were emotional, and some were physical. When I would ask them if they had prayed concerning their situations, many times I would get the reply, “Yes, but I’m just not sure what God is going to do.” Then I would usually ask them, “Why is it that you don’t know what God would do?” And most of the time it was because they had not searched the scriptures to find God’s will or they kind of knew in a way what they thought God’s will was. But because of bad teaching or being subject to church doctrines that were wrong, they did not have a firm understanding of God’s plan for their life.
God is a good God and every good and perfect gift comes from Him (James 1:17). God wants to bless His children and even sent His Son, Jesus, to redeem them from the curse of the law (Galatians 3:13). Jesus came to preach Good News to the poor and that Good News is freedom from poverty. He preached healing to the sick and restoration to the broken hearted. So when it comes to certain things, we know the will of God and when we pray there is no need to just pray in tongues (In the Spirit). Why? Because we already know His will and we can pray with our understanding.
For example, if you are sick, we know that God said in Psalm 103:3 that “I am the God who heals thee.” So when we pray, we pray to be healed. If the problem is poverty, we know that God takes pleasure in the prosperity of His saints, so we pray for prosperity (Psalm 35:27). If the problem is a broken heart or an emotional issue, we know that the Scripture says God sent Jesus to the earth and was anointed to heal the brokenhearted (Luke 4:18).
In all of these things, we can pray in the understanding with confidence because He has promised them to us, so obviously they must be His will for us. He wouldn’t promise us something unless He desired for us to have it.
We encourage you today to delete the phrase “If it be thy will” from your prayer life. Be diligent to search the scriptures, identify the will of God through His Word, and then pray that Word and stand on it in faith. God will hear you because you are praying His will and He will honor your prayers!!!
“The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth.” (Psalm 145:18)
