Pastor, what shall I do when I have done everything I can do and yet do not receive answer to my prayer?”
I regularly hear this question from genuine believers who love and trust God.
My only answer is that you should continue doing the will of God and keep waiting in faith.
If you start in faith, make sure you complete the process in faith and not in doubt or unbelief.
Keep waiting in faith, for victory is assured to all believers that will wait on the Lord to the end.
For everyone born of God overcomes the world and this is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.1 John 5:4.
God always answers prayers offered in faith according to His will.
The enemy will however do everything and anything to make you quit – We call that temptation.
God may also choose to prove your readiness and preparedness – We call that test.
Whichever way your trials come, the way to pass is never to give up on God – We call that faith.
Without faith, it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6.)
The righteous is created to live by his faith (Romans.1:17, Galatians.3:11, Hebrews 10:38.)
There are, however, still some steps of faith to take, while waiting, to keep you rooted to the end.
1) Prepare
I will stand at my watch and station myself on the ramparts; I will look to see what he will say to me, and what answer I am to give to this complaint. Habakkuk 2:1
Are you prepared for the manifestation of your prayers?
Prophet Habakkuk took the personal initiative to prepare himself to receive vision, direction and fulfilment of God’s purpose for his life. I read an interesting story about a church, gathering together to pray for rain and when they all arrived, only a small kid came with an umbrella. Others were praying but were not expecting answers. The truth is that many believers pray in doubt and unbelief. But thanks to God who looks at the heart. Though the first Church was praying for Peter's release, they were not expecting an answer. Yet God who judges not only the strength of our faith but also the motives in our heart honoured their intercession (Acts 12:5-17).
Deeper intimacy with God transforms hearts and prepares us to witness mighty manifestation.
It takes preparation to convert opportunities to success. While waiting, keep growing your faith.
Like with Habakkuk, it is the responsibility of every believer to position self in God’s will.
To get answer to prayers, Bible teaches that we need to pray according to the will of God.
One of those wills is to forgive those who offend us (Matt.6:12, Mark 11:25).
We need to overcome selfishness by putting God’s purpose above personal pleasures (Jam. 4:3.)
2) Proclaim
Have faith in God,” Jesus answered. 23 “Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them. 24 Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. Mark 11.22-25
Does what you proclaim correspond with God's promise?
Living by faith demands that we do not walk by sheer sight (Heb.11:1-3, 2 Cor.5:7).
Triumphant believers always trust the Lord in all situations and circumstances.
They believe that God can not lie or fail (Num.23:19; Heb.6:13-15)
They have confident in the Lord, knowing fully that their prayers shall be answered.
Many believers have ruined their own faith by fully entrusting their destiny in the hands of professional prophets who claim to fast, pray and talk to God for them. If they cannot eat for your strength, how can their fasting affect your own spiritual maturity? Faith walk is do it yourself!
Thank God for spiritual supports from Pastors and churches yet the righteous shall live by his own faith. Proclamation is the height of faith- where you think, believe and act on God’s promise.
Faith is meant to possess what we're yet to receive. Proclamation is an evident of things unseen.
Proclamation is about walking the talk while waiting for the physical manifestation of our prayer.
Faith people creates live by their profession and proclamation (Matt. 12:37, Prov. 18:21.)
For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.
3) Persist
Confess therefore your sins one to another: and pray one for another, that you may be saved. For the continual prayer of a just man availeth much. James 5:16 (Douay - Rheims Bible)
Are you taking persistent actions pertaining to your prayer request?
Daniel took deliverance of the answer to his prayer, 3 weeks after, because he refused to quit. Delayed prayer mostly is a proof of satanic resistance, so quitting should be no option.
Daniel's prayer was hijacked by the devil. It takes persistent faith to defeat a stubborn devil.
The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much, even with God!
It is while you are waiting that God can perfect your character and personality for your throne.
The period of waiting is the time your personality is groomed and the fruits of the spirit is nurtured in you. To wait on the Lord means to yield yourself; will and situation into God’s hand.
Winners do not quit, and quitters do not win. Pray all types of prayer. Doubt not. Only believe!
Hope against all hope by putting your hope in God.
Anything any man says that does not align with the promise of God should be discarded.
Let God be true and every man a liar (Hab.2:3-4, Rom 3:4.) Wait for God’s promise.
It will surely come. Only the one who stands firm to the end will be saved (Matt 24:13.)
4) Praise
Without becoming weak in faith he contemplated his own body, now as good as dead since he was about a hundred years old, and the deadness of Sarah’s womb; 20 yet, with respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God, 21and being fully assured that what God had promised, He was able also to perform. Romans 4:19-21
Are you problem focussed, devil focussed or God focussed?
After 25 years of waiting for God’s promise to manifest, rather than waste time to wallow in frustration, Abraham chose to give praise and glory to the Lord.
His resolve to praise through brought him breakthrough. His decision to praise God while waiting makes the big difference between waiting in vain and winning while waiting. It always takes the lifestyle of thanksgiving and praise to abide in the presence of God (Psalms 100:4.)
Praise is a conscious way of presenting yourself in the presence of God at will.
You can measure the level of a person's faith, in the waiting time, by the depth of his praise.
Wailing in worries, wavering in doubts and wallowing in unbelief are proofs of weak faith.
Some do mistake the Lord for a servant who must deliver their requests at their own timing.
You begin to praise God when you realise that He is your Lord and not a servant to command.
To praise God for things yet unseen is to trust His ability to make things beautiful in His own time. To praise the Lord at all time is to trust His faithfulness and His timing.
5) Pray for others
Therefore I [a]exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, 2 for kings and all who are in [b]authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and [c]reverence. 3 For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, 4 who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. 1 Timothy 2.1-4
Are you operating from a selfish human platform or a selfless godly realm?
After Job had prayed for his friends, the Lord restored his fortunes and gave him twice as much as he had before (Job 42:10-17.)
Not only did God grant him favour through his family and friends who have earlier ignored him, the Lord also blessed the latter part of Job’s life more than the former part.
When you intercede for others , you break the limit of self-centeredness and the yoke of selfishness. When a believer intercedes for others, such enters the passion, the platform and the presence of God in a role of a mediator. Intercession is about mediating between God and man!
God the father interceded for the whole world when He sent God the Son. Jesus (God the Son) interceded for mankind while on earth and is presently interceding on our behalf as our High priest. God the Holy Spirit - the resident God on earth- intercedes for us in our prayers.
God has called all believers to intercede for all men- (1 Tim. 2:1–2, Luke 6:27–28, Eph. 6:18.)
As you interceed, God will surely make to happen for you what you make to happen for others.
6) Patiently endure
But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. James 1:14
Have you left the realm of fear and worries to a place of perfect rest upon God's faithfullness?
Patience is not just waiting but walking and working with the Lord with the right attitude of faith.
Patience lifts our focus above the distraction of devil and the trials of the world to a place of stable and endless joy in the Lord. That our joy may not be in things but be made perfect in Him.
To win while waiting is to patiently endure till you receive answer from the Lord that cannot fail.
Wait with confidence and assurance that Faithful is the Lord who calls and who also will do it.
To wait in faith however does not mean “to do nothing”. That is wasting.
To wait in faith is to do everything you have to do, trusting you will have answer to your petition.
We are equipped with faith to manifest on earth the promise of the Spirit (Heb.11.1-2, Gal.3:14.) You are to keep taking steps of faith while patiently waiting for God’s timing.
You are to keep walking in faith till you reach the destination of good report.
What will you do if you know that God will not fail to answer your prayer? Start doing it now!
Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed (John 20:29.)
Trust God
This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. 16 And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him. 1 John 5:14-15
The scriptural basis of our confidence is that:
a) God hears all prayers - and grants all offered according to His will (John 9:31, 1 Peter 3:12.)
b) God answers all prayers- sometimes with yes and sometimes with no (Jer.29:12-13)
c) God is Lord over all prayers- so He determines the timing of the answer (Eccl.3:11.)
Between the times you pray and receive an answer, faith demands that you trust God. To keep waiting in faith is to keep winning while waiting!
We are confident in our God who answers all prayers (Matt.7:7; John 14:14.)
Whatever we ask according to His will in faith —we know that we shall receive!
If you have offered your prayer in faith, then wait in faith till you receive answers.