I’m now working on a post, trying to answer this question – “Does prayer change the will of God?”

What do you think? Does prayer change God’s will? Have you ever experienced it?

Posted by Keith Roberts

I wrote about a fascinating creature called an Ichneumon in my book, Why God Waits For You To Pray. This small weasel-like creature can murder poisonous snakes up to a yard long, even after being bitten repeatedly.

So, how does this tough little character survive? Well, it never attacks a snake unless he’s near a certain plant whose leaves produce anti-venom sap. When bitten, the ichneumon rushes to the plant, nibbles the leaves, recovers and then attacks the snake again.

I’m trying to pattern my prayer life after that animal’s survival tactics. You see, when I’ve been too involved in life, in the problems of people and ministry, in combating the Serpent, etc. – then I need a prayer-break.

I’m not much good to anyone when I’m tired, discouraged, beaten down and generally overwhelmed by too many demands. Sometimes I even find myself avoiding people because of the drain on my spiritual electrical system.

And sometimes I’m like a kid on a carousel who wants off, but can’t jump because it’s still moving. I have to wait… wait for those times when I can retreat into prayer – that sublime land where all cares melt in the glow of the Father’s warm acceptance.

Jesus had the same need. In the middle of crushing demands on his time, when news about him had spread throughout the land and crowds tugged at him to heal their kids and lead them out of Roman slavery, the word says, “But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed”. (Luke 5:16 NIV).

And the Lord demanded the same of his own disciples: “Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, ‘Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.'” (Mark 6:31 NIV).

Jesus knew that a warrior’s time spent sharpening his sword isn’t wasted. In the battle, the time-investment pays off. That’s why he told the disciples, “Pray that you will not fall into temptation”. (Luke 22:40 NIV).

Maybe I should try that spiritual anti-venom stuff before the battle begins…

As a young preacher trying to get traction at my first church, I was assigned to visit a tough character who’d quit attending services… years before. I look back on it now and wonder if the folks thought, “He’s new, let’s see what he can do… we can always get another preacher!”

Anyway, I hesitantly agreed to go, but I had enough good sense to pray first. And as I prayed for this man, whom I barely knew, the tears inexplicably began to flow. I wanted him to find his peace in God. And it mattered to me.

When I arrived, he met me in the front yard of his modest, working class home. He’d been a highway worker for the state. Now retired, his health had begun to slip. I noticed that he limped, favoring one leg that had obviously been damaged sometime in his seventy-plus years. (I found out later that he had been run over by a highway department truck and lived to tell the tale.)

He and his wife seemed happy to see me. They soon invited me in, where we had coffee and I popped the question.

“If the Lord were to return right now, do you think you would go to heaven?”

He quickly admitted, “No, I know I wouldn’t.”

His refreshing honesty caught me a little by surprise (preachers regularly hear some quite creative excuses), but his answer was in character for a tough, no-nonsense working man like Jack.

In response to his candid remark, I said, “Did you know that you can be certain that you’re going to heaven?” Then I read 1 John 5:13 to back up my point.

I continued to read verses and explain while he listened politely. Then I said, “Jack, if you’d like to be sure that you’re going to heaven, and if you’d like to make things right with Jesus right now, I’ll pray with you and then be on my way.”

He agreed and wanted me to pray (but he wasn’t ready for me to leave, yet).

When I finished praying, I looked up to see tears flowing down Jack’s weather worn face.

Jack was a different man from that day forward. After that, he never missed an assembly of the church, and radiated a joy noticed by all.

He died six months later, assured of his place with Jesus. The gentle hammer of prayer had hit its mark – on both of us.

Are we looking at the horizon of religion’s demise? Many experts predict the coming flat-line, at least the death of a certain kind of religion that has drawn the wrath of modern media & the culture it produces.

Several blogs I recently read encapsulated these feelings by pointing to a coming “collapse” of evangelical Christianity.*

Just one quote from “The Evangelical Collapse: A Statistical Analysis” will sum up the point: “According to George Barna: ‘With its 195 million unchurched people, America has become the new mission field. America has more unchurched people than the entire populations of all but 11 of the world’s 194 nations.'”

In other words, religion, as we know it in the western world, has fallen on hard times and ever-hardening hearts. Our culture pays less and less attention to religious ideals, opting rather to almost-daily invent our “values” as we desire.

Maybe the idea of “religion” itself can’t any longer juice up the imagination of postmodern mankind.

The word “religion” comes from the old Latin language meaning “to bind again” (cousin to the word “ligament”). And what culturally aware person today wants to be bound by anything? It doesn’t seem to be in our 21st Century genes to accept restrictions, limits or chastisement of any kind.

So, if religion itself is a culturally endangered species, what will replace it?

Well, I think we can make an educated guess because it’s happened before. Although ancient religion was never totally erased, it did have to move over and give way to a more powerful force (until that force was co-opted by religion itself and watered down to resemble the same old, same old).

The day Jesus arrived, the world was already swimming in religion. He didn’t need to come here to start another one, not even a better one. Religion had failed. It had failed completely to bridge the breach between God and His corrupted creation. Ancient religion had littered the world with violence, gruesome sacrifices, racism, fear and hopelessness. So much for man’s attempt to fix his problem with Divinity.

If you don’t believe me, read the Apostle Paul’s masterful analysis in Romans chapters seven and eight. Or read Jesus’ laser-like summation in the Gospel of John: “You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.” (5:39-40 NIV).

So what did Jesus think should replace “religion”? Relationship. A relationship based on mutual love between Jesus and His disciple.

Religion binds. Those who aren’t good at it soon lose hope; those who are talented at it soon develop spiritual pride.

But true relationship frees. It frees God to embrace us despite our evil, and it frees us to be embraced without fear.

“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:23 NIV).

*”Why Do They Hate Us?” “The Coming Evangelical Collapse” “The Evangelical Collapse: A Statistical Analysis”

Atheists like Christopher Hitchens often argue that if God really exists, then why are so many religious people unhappy, partisan, mean-spirited and even sometimes violent?

They have a point. But it’s based on a false assumption. The assumption is this: if a real God really operates in a person’s life, then that person will be perfect, living as if he or she is already in Paradise, without any temptation to sin or moral failings.

This spiritually naive view can’t grasp a basic phenomenon of interaction between God and man. That basic phenomenon is this – a man who walks with God, still walks on this earth. He is still human. And he has a spiritual enemy called Satan, who is trying to win him back to the dark side.

Trying to live the religious life on this fallen planet can be messy. That’s because the spiritual quest to know God is a human endeavor. Although a real God is in it, so are real humans.

I know what you’re thinking. Some claim the Name but don’t walk the talk. Not all believers try sincerely. Hypocrisy abounds, but hypocritical behavior itself is a spiritual illness. Even if you subtract the hypocrites (which the Lord Himself will do – Matthew 13:24-43), that still leaves many sincere believers who struggle. Spiritual life on this planet doesn’t happen in a vacuum, but in the middle of flawed human life.

Even prayer is a human exercise, finite man trying to communicate with the Infinite. Sometimes it can be sublime; sometimes it fails miserably.

And it fails, not because God isn’t powerful enough, but because even redeemed man still has a sometimes-stubborn will. And God won’t violate that sacred thing He created in us called sovereignty – our freedom of choice.

All of Jesus’ great disciples, from Peter to John to Barnabus to Paul, exhibited flaws. The Bible pull no punches, but shows all the Messiah’s followers to be human, moral warts and all.

In fact, Jesus didn’t die for our good deeds but for our sins. He knew what He was getting. He isn’t naive about who we are, yet He died for us anyway. And He continues to work with us despite the flaws, mistakes, sins, missteps and spiritual ignorance… and even those days when we don’t feel like praying.

Terry Rush’s recent blog post, Pray it forward, hit the mark.

He said that he’d often prayed and thanked God, in advance, for his children’s future. He thanked God several years in advance for their successful job interviews, and for keeping them from taking jobs that would harm them or diminish the kingdom of God.

What a powerful principle! And you find it sprinkled throughout the Bible.

When King David found out that God had plans to build a dynasty for David and his descendants, he thanked Him by saying, “Who am I, O Sovereign LORD, and what is my family, that you have brought me this far?… For the sake of your word and according to your will, you have done this great thing and made it known to your servant.” (2 Samuel 7:18-21 NIV).

Notice he said, “you have done this great thing”. Actually, God hadn’t done it yet. It was still in the future, yet David considers it already accomplished. Why? Because it was “for the sake of your word” – when God says it, it’s already done!

Only faith motivates one to speak as David did (and to pray as he did). Faith comes by hearing, and faith also has a voice to speak what it hears – “‘I believed; therefore, I have spoken.’ And with that same spirit of faith we also believe and therefore speak…” (2 Corinthians 4:13 NIV).

Like David, mature people of prayer know this principle. They know how to “pray it forward”. They’ve learned how to pray (and speak) as if the future is already here.

Jesus highlighted the principle when he said, “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.” (Mark 11:24 NIV).

One thing you can say about this brave new world… everyone seems to be struggling to find some faith.

We hunger for hope. I’m sure you noticed the theme of President Obama’s campaign. Agree with him or not, he touched a nerve and got elected.

People seem to be growing sicker of the strife, bickering, pessimism and hopelessness we’ve produced as a by-product of our secularized lives. We all crave to believe in something… something greater than ourselves, bigger than life, something that will bring inner peace and contentment.

Many are afraid no such thing exists. Thus the angst of this present culture reflected in the post modern morass of pointless (even by design) TV shows, cynical comedy, crooked leaders and the tendency to put thugs and gangsters on a golden pedestal. The earth seems to be spinning in the wrong direction; we call evil “good” and label good “evil” (or at least not very cool).

We can’t even watch the Super Bowl without some manufactured “wardrobe malfunction” popping up just to make the point that the barbarians rule now and civilization has left the building.

Scientists, intellectuals, philosophers, mythologists, celebrities and even some clergy try to convince us that it doesn’t matter, that nothing really has meaning, that nothing exists outside this natural world anyway. But how would they know? They’ve never been there.

They’re like a school of fish trying to comprehend New York City. They have no frame of reference for it. Likewise, the un-spiritual man has no way to truly evaluate the spiritual, trans-natural world.

That’s because it comes through revelation, not information.

And that’s why prayer is so vital; revelation comes only after seeking and asking. Prayer opens the door to relationship with God.

So, to find a solid footing for your faith, put yourself in a subordinate position to God and ask. Then something remarkable happens. A whole new person is born inside you.

Jesus said, “Flesh gives birth to flesh, but Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.'” (John 3:6-7 NIV)

Keith Roberts

I heard a man say, “There are no accidents; just premeditated carelessness.”

Makes sense to me. And it makes me wonder if the same holds true for disasters. It seems that most disasters in this world grow to maturity slowly, although they hit with shocking speed.

That’s true of volcanic eruptions. And of cancer. And maybe even of attacks like Pearl Harbor and 9/11. Disasters take years to ferment and grow. If we could just learn to kill the thing in its growing stage…

Did you know that there were at least ten disasters in the Bible that grew directly out of the prayerlessness of God’s people? You can look them up.

1. Israel under Joshua’s leadership made an unauthorized treaty with the Gibeonite tribe because they didn’t pray about the decision. And it came back to haunt them, causing war and plague for several generations. (Joshua 9:1-14).

2. Israel abandoned their prayer life and asked for a king (instead of Jehovah) to rule over them. Samuel warned them of their downfall, calling prayerlessness a “sin”. (1 Samuel 12:6-23).

3. King Ahaziah died because he consulted an idol but refused to pray to his own God – Jehovah. (2 Kings 1:1-17).

4. King Saul lost his kingdom and then his own life due to prayerlessness. (1 Chronicles 10:13-14 & 13:3).

5. Uzzah fell dead and the Ark of God wasn’t moved for three months due to prayerlessness. King David later admitted that they hadn’t prayed about how they should move the Ark. (1 Chronicles 13:9-14 & 15:13).

6. King Asa’s reign failed and he died in pain because he refused to pray. (2 Chronicles 16:7-12).

7. Jerusalem fell to Babylon and the people were taken captive because God couldn’t find enough intercessors to pray for the city. (Ezekiel 22:30-31).

8. Jesus’ disciples failed to cast out a demon because their prayer lives weren’t up to the challenge from Satan. (Mark 9:28-29).

9. Jesus’ disciples denied him and scattered because they failed to pray in the Garden. (Mark 14:37-38, 50).

10. Jesus condemned the church at Laodicea for their prayerlessness. They said, “I am rich… and do not need a thing”. (Revelation 3:14-22).

It makes me wonder what good things I’m missing by neglecting prayer… and what disaster might be headed my way for the same reason.

Because I teach on prayer, people often ask me to pray for them, saying “I know you have an inside track with God.”

It might surprise you to know that I don’t. God will listen to your prayers just as quickly as to mine, or to anyone else’s—if you know the key.

So what’s this “key” to getting prayers answered?

The Key

Here’s something I’ve discovered that will make your prayers more effective—the principles that cause success in life, will also bring success in prayer.

That may not sound right to some, but here’s what I mean.

Whether you’re a believer or not, if you fall from a tall enough building, you’ll be killed. The Law of Gravity works for everyone.

Whether you’re a Christian or not, if you don’t pay your bills, you’ll soon be bankrupt. The laws of finance apply to all of us.

Even though you’re a believer, if you ignore the basic principles of prayer, you won’t get answers. God created prayer to operate based on certain principles, just like the rest of life.

Jesus’ disciples understood that. They once asked, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.” (Luke 11:1.)

What did they want to be taught? Specific principles about successful prayer, which both John the Baptist and Jesus taught regularly.

How Prayer Works

And here’s one of those basic principles we often overlook—your prayers filter themselves through your spirit. There aren’t any “generic” prayers. Your prayers approach God from within you, and filter themselves through your attitudes and expectations, not anyone else’s.

That’s why it’s important for your thinking to be right. If you contaminate the attitudes of your inner life, your prayers will be shredded before they ever reach God’s throne.

Don’t misunderstand. I’m not saying you have to be perfect. But you do have to be willing to learn certain key attitudes if you want your prayers to be effective.

So what set of attitudes does one need in order for prayer to be successful?

Principles of Successful Prayer

(1) BE SPECIFIC. Instead of just praying, “Lord, bless me today” have goals in mind.

When blind Bartimaeus cried to Jesus, “Have mercy on me!” the Lord asked, “What do you want me to do for you?” (Mark 10:51.)

That’s a strange question to ask a blind man! But Jesus wanted him to be specific. And when he told Jesus, “I want to see” he got his prayer answered.

We understand the disaster of a ship without a rudder, a car whose steering fails, or an airplane that loses its guidance system. But too much of the time we’re cruising through life without any specific direction. And if that’s how you’re praying, you won’t see many answers.

(2) PERSIST. When you complained that your prayers weren’t being answered, was it because you quit too soon? Remember, when Jesus’ own disciples said, “Lord, teach us to pray” he immediately taught a lesson on persistence.

He told of a man who had visitors late at night needing a place to sleep. The man had no bread to feed them, so he went next door to borrow some. His neighbor wouldn’t give him the bread at first, but because of his persistence he soon got it (Luke 11.)

And later Jesus told them another parable “to show them that they should always pray and not give up.” (Luke 18:1.)

Understand this principle; if you quit too soon, your prayers will fail.

(3) PRAY IN FAITH. Here’s one of the most common mistakes in prayer—assuming that prayer will work despite one’s attitude. When your prayers become a whining “pity party” God won’t listen. That’s why Israel wandered in the desert for 40 years and lost their inheritance (Numbers 14:22-35.)

But when your prayers drip with optimistic faith, mountains move. Jesus taught the principle in Mark 11: 22-25—“whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.”

In other words, what you believe about the future influences it in that direction. (That works for both fear and faith; fear the worst and it will happen, but have faith in God for the best and it will happen.)

So since faith is “being sure of what we hope for, certain of what we do not see” (Heb. 11:1), you must see the outcome before it happens, and you must believe God will answer before He answers.

That’s why James, the Lord’s brother, said the man who prays without faith “should not think that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.” (Jas. 1:7.)

So, how would you describe your prayers? Like this? – “God, I don’t know why you don’t answer me. I try and try, but I still have a terrible life. I try to live right, tithe, go to church, but everything is still against me. I don’t know why I bother…”

Obviously, that’s not a prayer of faith. A mountain-moving prayer of faith sounds like this—”Thank you God that you’ve given me everything I need for life and godliness through Christ—I can do all things through Him who gives me strength…”

What’s the difference, and how can you pray with more faith? Notice the next principle.

(4) PRAY SCRIPTURE. Here’s an ancient method for praying with more purpose and faith—pray the Scriptures.

Even Bible characters prayed the Scriptures: the prophet’s prayer in Daniel 9:1-19

was based on Jeremiah 29:10-14. And King Jehoshaphat’s prayer of faith in 2 Chronicles 20:6-12 grew out of Solomon’s dedication prayer for the new temple in 2 Chronicles 6:14-42.

It’s fairly common in the Bible to see people pray by using Scriptures that were written before their day.

So how can you do that? By scanning the word of God for the prayers found in it—they number around 600! (Write to us at the address on the front and ask for a free listing, 40 Days With The Bible’s Great Prayers.)

If you’re overwhelmed by the Bible, start with the Psalms, and make each prayer fit your situation. This will increase your faith, since “faith comes from hearing the message… the word of Christ.” (Romans 10:17.)

4) RESPECT PEOPLE. Remember, your prayers approach God from within you, and filter themselves through your attitudes and expectations—and that’s also true of your attitude toward other people.

Jesus himself said “And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him…” (Mark 11:25.)

If you want your prayers to be powerful, get rid of the bitterness that comes from past hurts. Consciously forgive, in prayer, anyone who has harmed you.

If you don’t treat your husband or wife with proper respect, it will hinder your prayers (1 Peter 3:7.)

In fact, Jesus said that we should be willing to pray for even our enemies, asking God to bless them and forgive them (Matthew 5:43-47.)

So be careful in your relationships. Lack of respect for other people can quickly put the brakes on your prayer life.

Use these keys to success in prayer, making your prayer life a tool in building a better world.