Scripture: James 4 v 3
"Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that
ye may consume it upon your lusts."
John 14 v 13 - Jesus said:
"And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I
do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son."
Prayer is the heartbeat of our relationship with our
Heavenly Father. Our prayers are conveyed to Him by the Holy Spirit and the
answers come the same way. So our prayers go forth in Jesus' name and must be
in accordance with His will and nature.
Sometimes we miss the mark by praying "soulish
prayers". These prayers are based on OUR will for people, situations,
results of elections, or ourselves. We neglect to determine God's will before
we pray and most often need to cancel this prayer before it becomes an instrument
of harm.
There is a need to pray for "crop failure" for
ourselves as we may have sown many negative seeds at depressed or
self-destructive times in our lives. How many times have we wished we were dead
and an abundant crop of death has grown. Our enemy is only too delighted to
encourage this negativity.
It may not result in physical death yet but it affects
our lives by breathing death on our relationships, finances, careers, children,
health, lifestyles. The desire for death grows with each failure. Jesus says in
John 10 v 10 that the enemy came to destroy but He came to give abundant life.
Abundant means full; more than enough; flourishing. Jesus
wants every good thing for us. He died so we could live. So we need to pray
that He would destroy our backlog of negative prayers that are a hindrance to
this abundance.
Soulish prayers also consist with agreeing with the wrong
opinions of worldly experts. Even doctors who only rely on carnal knowledge, no
matter how sophisticated, when they diagnose ailments. They have no knowledge
or understanding of the spiritual realm.
The woman with the issue of blood had spent every penny
she had on physicians for many years. In a single moment she was completely
loosed of her infirmity when she put faith in Jesus and just touched the hem of
His garment.
Jesus holds the keys to hell and death which means that
He has the final decision to make on who goes where and when. He should have a
say in every decision of our lives too. Where we live, work and play should be
subject to His will and authority. When it is we receive answers to our prayers
that bless us even if the answer is NO.
Soulish prayers put restraints on God's dealing with us.
We put out fleeces like Gideon. God if you make it rain I will know you want me
to get divorced. There is no way God gets any glory out of choices like that.
You cannot play spin the bottle concerning deep issues in your life.
Many years ago South Africa was in the grip of a severe
drought while a neighbouring country was suffering cyclones and floods. There
was a national day of prayer.
My 6 year old son prayed with me and said, Mom I see a
vision of our country and in the sky above is a thick sheet of glass. Water is
falling on the glass and running off the edge. He had no knowledge of the
neighbouring cyclone. We prayed for the glass to break over South Africa. The
next day, without a cloud in the sky, there was a thundercrack and a sudden
hailstorm but no rain. My son said, Mom the glass is broken now! And so it was
because within days the rain started to fall.
This was a prayer initiated by God through a vision to a small boy, and
which brought glory to Him.
Soulish prayers commonly have selfish intent "that
you may spend it on your own lusts". So be careful what you pray
concerning yourself. These selfish prayers become a barrier to true prayer as
when they go unanswered you begin to believe God does not answer prayer.
So to know your prayers are heard and answered first
determine God's will for that person or situation before you pray about it. God
may show you a vision or give you a verse of scripture or speak into your heart
to show you what you need to pray. It will be heard and the answer will come.
Prayer: Heavenly Father You delight to give us good
things and perfect answers to our prayers. Help us to think and ask before we
pray so that Your will can be done on this Earth as it is in Heaven. In Jesus'
name. Amen.