The Lord Jesus Christ earthly life was made up largely of hearing and answering prayer.
His heavenly life is devoted to the same divine business of answering prayer.

The miracles He performed show us the matchless power of Jesus Christ, and at the same time discover to us His marvelous compassion for suffering humanity.

When we consider our Lord’s miracles, we discover that quite a number were performed unconditionally. At least there were no conditions accompanying them so far as the divine record shows.
At His own instance, without being solicited to do so, in order to glorify God and to manifest His own glory and power, this class of miracles was wrought.

Many of His mighty works were performed at the moving of His compassion and at the call of suffering and need, as well as at the call of His power.

But a number of them were performed by Him in answer to prayer. Some were wrought in answer to the personal prayers of those who were afflicted. Others were performed in answer to the prayers of the friends of those who were afflicted. Those miracles wrought in answer to prayer are very instructive in the uses of prayer.

Unbelief is the one thing which seriously hinders Almighty God in doing mighty works. “And He did not any mighty works there because of their unbelief.” Lack of faith ties the hands of Almighty God in His working among the children of men. Prayer to Christ must always be based, backed and impregnated with faith.

Answered prayers are sometimes the most convincing and faith-creating forces. Unanswered prayers breeds unbelief and crippled faith. If Christians knew how to pray so as to have answers to their prayers, evident, immediate, and demonstrative answers from God, faith would be more widely diffused, would become more general, would be more profound, and would be a much more n the world.
What a valuable lesson of faith and intercessory prayer does the miracle of the healing of the centurion’s servant bring to us! The simplicity and strength of the faith of this Roman Officer are remarkable, for He believed that it was not needful for our Lord to go directly to his house in order to have his request granted, “But speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed.” And our Lord puts His mark upon this man’s faith by saying, “Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel. The Roman officer’s prayer was the expression of his strong faith, and such faith brought the answer promptly.

The same invaluable lesson we get from the prayer miracle of the case of the Syrophenician woman who went to our Lord in behalf of her stricken daughter, making her daughter’s case her own, by pleading, “Lord, help me.” Here was importunity, holding on, pressing her case, refusing to let go or to be denied. A strong case it was of intercessory prayer and its benefits. Our Lord seemingly held her off for a while but at last yielded, and put His seal upon her strong faith: “O woman, great is thy faith! Be it unto thee even as thou wilt.” What a lesson on praying for others and its large benefits!

In the Old Testament times, the saints of those days were well acquainted with the power of prayer to move God to do great things. Natural laws did not stand in the way of Almighty God when He was appealed to by His praying ones.

What a marvelous record is that of Moses as those successive plagues were visited upon Egypt in the effort to make Pharaoh let the children of Israel go that they might serve God! As one after another of these plagues came, Pharaoh would beseech Moses, “Entreat the Lord your God that He may take away this death.” And as the plagues themselves were miracles, prayer removed them as quickly as they were sent by Almighty God.

The same hand which sent these destructive agencies upon Egypt was moved by the prayers of His servant Moses to remove these same plagues. And the removal of the plagues in answer to prayer was as remarkable a display of Divine power as was the sending of the plagues in the first instance. The removal in answer to prayer would do as much to show God’s being and His power as would the plagues themselves.

God’s praying servants had not the least doubt that prayer would work marvelous results and bring the supernatural into the affairs of the people being prayed for. Miracles and prayer went hand in hand. They were companions. Prayer simply put, causes miracles to happen.
The miracle was the proof that God heard and answered prayer. The miracle was the Divine demonstration that God, who was in heaven, interfered in people’s lives, intervened to help men, and worked supernaturally if need be to accomplish His purposes in answer to prayer.

Looking at the events in the early Church, we find the same divine intervention of prayer miracles. The sad news came to Peter that Dorcas was dead and he was wanted at Joppa. Promptly he made his way to that place. Peter put everybody out the room, and then he kneeled down and prayed, and with faith said, “Tabitha, arise,” and she opened her eyes and sat up. Knee work on the part of Peter did the work. Prayer brought things to pass and saved Dorcas for further work on earth.

Paul was on that noted journey to Rome under guard, and had been shipwrecked on an island. The chief man of the island was Publius, and his old father was critically ill of a bloody flux.
Paul laid his hands on the old man, and prayed for him, and God came to the rescue and healed the sick man. Prayer brought the thing desired to pass.

The answer to prayer among those heathen people convinced them that a supernatural power was at work among them. In fact so true was this that they seemed to think a supernatural being had come among them.

Peter was put in prison by Herod after he had killed James with the sword. The young Church was greatly concerned, but they neither lost heart nor gave themselves over to needless fretting and worrying.
They had learned before this from whence their help came. They had been schooled in the lesson of prayer. God had intervened before in the behalf of His servants and interfered when His cause was at stake.
“Prayer was made without ceasing of the Church unto God for him”. An angel on swift wings comes to the rescue, and in a marvelous and supernatural way releases Peter and leaves the prison doors locked.
Locks and prison doors and an unfriendly king cannot stand in the way of Almighty God when His people cry in prayer unto Him.

 

ANSWERED PRAYER

Answers to prayer are the only surety that we have prayed aright.

There are marvelous power in prayer. It works untold miracles in this world.

It secures untold blessings to those who pray!

Why is it that the average prayer by the million goes a begging for an answer?

Answered prayer is the proof of your real praying.

Prayer moves the arm which moves the universe.

To get an unquestioned answer to prayer is the evidence of our abiding in Christ.

To pray and receive clear answers, not once or twice, but daily, this is the sure test, and is the gracious point of our vital connection with Jesus Christ.

“If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.”

To God and to man, the answer to prayer is the all-important part of our praying.

The answer to prayer, direct and unmistakable, is the evidence of God’s being.

It proves that God lives, that there is a God, an intelligent being, who is interested in His creatures, and who listens to them when they approach Him in prayer.

The clear proof and demonstration that God exists is the answers to our prayers.

This was Elijah’s plea: “Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that this people may know that thou art the Lord God.”

Answer to prayer glorifies God.

Unanswered prayers are dumb oracles which leave the praying ones in darkness, doubt and bewilderment, and carry no conviction to the unbeliever.

It is the answer which brings glory to His name.

Elijah might have prayed on Carmel’s heights till this good day with all the fire and energy of his soul, and if no answer had been given, no glory would have come to God.

Peter might have shut himself up with Dorcas’ dead body till he himself died on his knees, and if no answer had come, no glory to God nor good to man would have followed, but only doubt, discouragement, and unbelief.

Answer to prayer is the convincing proof of our right relations to God.

Jesus said at the grave of Lazarus: “Father, I thank thee that thou has heard me. “And I knew that thou hears me always, but because of the people that stand by I said it, that they may believe that thou has sent me.”

The answer of His prayer was the proof of His mission from God, as the answer to Elijah’s prayer was made to the woman whose son he raised to life. She said, “Now by this I know that thou art a man of God.”

He is highest in the favor of God who has the readiest access and the greatest number of answers to prayer from Almighty God.

Faith teaches God’s praying ones that it is God’s will to answer prayer.

God answers all prayers and every prayer of His true children who truly pray.

All things from God are given in answer to prayer.

God Himself, His presence, His gifts and His grace, one and all, are secured by prayer.

The medium by which God communicates with men is prayer.

The most real thing in prayer, its very essential end, is the answer it secures.

Prayer looks directly to securing an answer. This is what prayer is, if no answer is given, there is no point praying.

The graces of the Spirit in the inner soul are nurtured by prayer, kept alive and promoted in their growth by this spiritual exercise.

The divinely appointed channel through which all good and all grace flows to our souls and bodies is prayer.

Prayer is divinely ordained as the means by which all temporal and spiritual good are gained to us.

Prayer is something we do which brings us something in return, without which the praying is valueless. Prayer always aims at securing an answer.

We are rich and strong, good and holy, beneficent and vibrant, by answered prayer.
The answer sent direct from heaven to us is the benefit of praying.

Conscious, real answers to prayer bring real good to us. It is by these answered prayers that human nature is enriched.

The answered prayer brings us into constant and conscious communion with God, awakens and enlarges gratitude, and excites the melody and lofty inspiration of praise.

Answered prayer is the mark of God in our praying.

It is the exchange with heaven, and it establishes and realizes a relationship with the unseen.

We give our prayers in exchange for the Divine blessing.

God accepts our prayers through the atoning blood and gives Himself, His presence and His grace in return.

By the answers to prayer all holy principles are matured, and faith, love and hope have their enrichment by answered prayer.

The answer is in prayer strongly as an aim, a desire expressed, and its expectation and realization give importunity and realization to prayer.

Answered prayer is a desire realized, a pursuit achieved, an interest secured.

God holds all good in His own hands. That good comes to us through our Lord Jesus Christ because of His atoning merits, by asking it in His name.

Ask, see, knock, - It shall be given – ye shall find – it shall be opened unto you.

O thou that hearest prayer! To thee shall all flesh come.

The ingredients of answered prayers is Justice and mercy.

Our Lord Jesus Christ is most fully committed to the answer of prayer. “Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.”

The answer is guaranteed when what we are asking for is to glorify God the Father.

Jesus is eager to glorify His Father in heaven. So, He is eager to answer prayers which always and everywhere brings glory to the Father, that no prayer offered in His name is denied or overlooked by Him.

Says our Lord Jesus Christ again, giving fresh assurance to our faith, “If ye shall ask anything in my name, I will do it.” So says He once more, “Ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.”

Come, my soul, thy suit prepare,
Jesus loves to answer prayer;
He Himself has bid thee pray,
Therefore will not say thee nay.

Constrained at the darkest hour to confess humbly that without God’s help I was helpless.

God has committed Himself to us by His Word in our praying.

The Word of God is the basis and the inspiration and the heart of prayer.

We can have the whole of Him when He has the whole of us.

“And in that day ye shall ask me nothing; Verily, Verily, I say unto you: Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it to you. “Hitherto ye have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.”

God the Father and Jesus Christ, His Son, are both strongly committed by all the truth of their word and by the fidelity of their character, to answer prayer.

Not only do these and all the promises pledge Almighty God to answer prayer, but they assure us that the answer will be specific, and that they very thing for which we pray will be given.

Our Lord’s invariable teaching was that we receive that for which we ask, and obtain that for which we seek, and have that door opened at which we knock.

This is according to our Heavenly Father’s direction to us, and His giving to us for our asking. He will not disappoint us by not answering, neither will He deny us by giving us some other thing for which we have not asked, or by letting us find some other thing for which we have not sought, or by opening to us the wrong door, at which we were not knocking.

If we ask bread, He will give us bread. If we ask an egg, He will give us an egg. If we ask a fish He will give us a fish. Not something like bread, but bread itself will be given unto us.

Not something like a fish, but a fish will be given. Not evil will be given us in answer to prayer, but good.

Earthly parents, though evil in nature, give for the asking, and answer to the crying of their children.

God will supply all my needs, give me all good things, and enable us to meet every difficult duty and fulfill every law, though hard to flesh and blood, but made easy under the full supply of our Father’s beneficent and exhaustless help.

Just as God has commanded us to pray always, to pray everywhere, and to pray in everything, so He will answer always, everywhere and in everything.

God has plainly and with directness committed Himself to answer prayer. If we fulfill the conditions of prayer, the answer is bound to come.

The law of grace can never fail. There are no limitations, no adverse conditions, no weakness, no inability, which can or will hinder the answer to prayer.

God’s doing for us when we pray has no limitations, is not hedged about, by provisos in Himself, or in the peculiar circumstances of any particular case.

God says, “Call unto me, and I will answer.” There are no limitations, no hedges, no hindrances in the way of God fulfilling the promise.

His word is at stake. His word is involved. God solemnly engages to answer prayer.

Man is to look for the answer, be inspired by the expectation of the answer, and may with humble boldness demand the answer.

God, who cannot lie, is bound to answer. He has voluntarily placed Himself under obligation to answer the prayer of him who truly prays.

The prophets and the men of God of Old Testament times were unshaken in their faith in the absolute certainty of God fulfilling His promises to them.

They rested in security on the word of God, and had no doubt whatever either as to the fidelity of God in answering prayer or of His willingness or ability.

The certainty of the answer to prayer was as fixed as God’s Word was true.

“And being let go, they went to their own company,” they went to those with whom they were in affinity, those of like minds, and not to men of the world.

The answer to prayer responded to their faith and prayer. The fullness of the Spirit always brings boldness.

The cure for fear in the face of threatening of the enemies of the Lord is being filled with the Spirit. This gives power to speak the word of the Lord with boldness. This gives courage and drives away fear.

In his own room in the early dawn a voice was heard weeping and pleading for souls. All through the day, the shut door and the hush that prevailed made you feel like walking softly, for a soul was wrestling with God.

Yet to this home, hungry souls would flock, drawn by some irresistible power. Ah, the mystery was unlocked.

In the secret chamber lost souls were pleaded for and claimed. The Holy Ghost knew just where they were and sent them along.

God does hear and answer prayer. God has always heard and answered prayer. God will forever hear and answer prayer.

He is the same yesterday, to-day and forever, ever blessed, ever to be adored. Amen. He changes not. As He has always answered prayer, so will He ever continue to do so.

God’s Word does not say, “Call unto me, and you will thereby be trained into the happy art of knowing how to be denied. Ask, and you will learn sweet patience by getting nothing.” Far from it. But it is definite, clear and positive: “Ask, and it shall be given unto you.”

“Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, O that thou wouldst bless me indeed, and enlarge my coast, and that thy hand might be with me, and that thou wouldst keep me from evil, that it may not grieve me.”

Hannah, distressed in soul because she was childless, and desiring a man child. For this child I prayed, and the Lord has given me the petition which I asked of him.

“Call unto me, and I will answer thee. He shall call unto me, and I will answer. Ask; and it shall be given you. Seek, and ye shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened unto you.”

This is Jesus Christ’s law of prayer. He does not say, “Ask, and something shall be given you.” But it is that when you ask, the very thing asked for will be given.

Jesus does not say, “Knock, and some door will be opened.” But the very door at which you are knocking will be opened.

Answered prayer is the spring of love, and is the direct encouragement to pray. “I love the Lord because He has heard my voice and my supplications. Because he hath inclined his ear unto me, therefore will I call upon him as long as I live.”

The certainty of the Father’s giving is assured by the Father’s relation, and by the ability and goodness of the Father.

Earthly parents, frail, infirm, and limited in goodness and ability, give when the child asks and seeks. The parental heart responds most readily to the cry for bread.

The hunger of the child touches and wins the father’s heart. So God, our Heavenly Father, is as easily and strongly moved by our prayers as the earthly parent.

If ye being evil know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your father in heaven give you good gifts unto them that ask him? “Much more,” just as much more do God’s goodness, tenderness and ability exceed that of man’s?

Just as the asking is specific, so also is the answer specific. The child does not ask for one thing and get another. He does not cry for bread, and get a stone. He does not ask for an egg, and receive a scorpion. He does not ask for a fish, and get a serpent.

Christ demands specific asking. He responds to specific praying by specific giving.

To give the very thing prayed for, and not something else, is fundamental to Christ’s law of praying.

No prayer for the cure of blind eyes did He ever answer by curing deaf ears. The very thing prayed for is the very thing which He gives.

He who asks for bread gets bread, and not a stone. If he asks for a fish, he receives fish, and not a serpent.

The cravings of hunger, the appetite felt, and the need realized, all create and propel the crying of the child.

Our prayers must be as earnest, as needy, and as hungry as the hungry child’s cry for bread.

Two cases of unanswered prayer are recorded in the Scriptures in addition to the Gethsemane prayer of our Lord.

The first was that of David for the life of his baby child, but for god reasons to Almighty God the request was not granted.

The second was that of Paul for the removal of the thorn in the flesh, which was denied. But we are constrained to believe these must have been notable as exceptions to God’s rule.

There must have been unrevealed reasons which moved God to veer from His settled and fixed rule to answer prayer by giving the specific thing prayed for.

The promise is the ground on which faith stands in asking of God.

Prayer affects God in a direct manner, and has its aim and end in affecting Him. Prayer takes hold of God, and induces Him to do large things for us, whether personal or relative, temporal or spiritual, earthly or heavenly.

Christianity needs to-day, above all things else, men and women who can in prayer put God to the test and who can prove His promises.

These are the sort of men and women needed in this modern day in the Church.

The Church need men and women who know how to pray, who can in prayer lay hold upon God and bring Him down to earth, and move Him to take hold of earth’s affairs mightily and put life and power into the Church and into all of its machinery.

Saint are needed whose faith is bold enough and sufficiently far-reaching to put God to the test.

God is waiting to be put to the test by His people in prayer. He delights in being put to the test on His promise.

It is God’s highest pleasure to answer prayer, to prove the reliability of His promises.

Our gospel belongs to the miraculous. It was projected on the miraculous plane. It cannot be maintained but by the supernatural.

Take the supernatural out of our holy religion, and its life and power are gone, and it degenerates into a mere mode of morals.

The miraculous is divine power. Prayer has in it this divine power.

Prayer brings this divine power into the ranks of men and puts it to work. Prayer brings into the affairs of earth a supernatural element.

The gospel of Jesus Christ when truly presented is the power of God.

Never did the Church need more than now those who can raise up everywhere memorials of God’s supernatural power, memorials of answers to prayer, memorials of promises fulfilled.

These would do more to silence the enemy of souls, the foe of God and the adversary of the Church than any modern scheme or present-day plan for the success of the Gospel.

Such memorials reared by praying people would dumbfound God’s foes, strengthen weak saints, and would fill strong saints with triumphant rapture.

The most prolific source of infidelity, and that which traduces and hinders praying, and that which obscures the being and glory of God most effectually, is unanswered prayer.

Better not to pray at all than to go through a dead form, which secures no answer, brings no glory to God, and supplies no good to man.

Nothing so indurate the heart and nothing so blinds us to the unseen and the eternal, as this kind of prayer less praying.