1 John 5:14-15

"This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know he hears us—whatever we ask—we know we have what we asked of Him."

Have you ever heard the statement "God answers all prayers with a yes, no or wait"? Do we really believe that God is listening when we pray? I remember my niece trying to get her mother's attention one day. She was asking for something her mother had already told her she couldn't have. Finally her mother held up her hand and she told her daughter to talk to the hand because the ears weren't listening. Her ears were stopped up when it came to hearing what her daughter was saying. As God's child we know that we have an advocate sitting at the right hand of the Father making intercession for us in the person of the Son of God, Jesus Christ. But does God hear me every time I call on Him or are there times when His ears are closed to my prayers? The scriptures are clear that sometimes God will not hear our prayers. What causes this silence from God? What causes His ears to be stopped up? Ken began this series on prayer last week and focused on confession as a practice we need to incorporate in our times of prayer and confessing all through the day as we realize each time we stumble and sin. But why is confessing so important? Lack of confession is the Cause of Silence—Our Problem is Sin. Psalms 66:18 says "If I regard iniquity in my heart the Lord will not hear me" and Isaiah 59:2 says "But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear you." James 4:3 says "When you ask, you do not receive because you ask with the wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures." You see, God closes His ears to us when we close our confession to Him. Every one of us wants to know God is listening and ready to respond to our call. But for so many their prayers are coming up against a brick wall because of their unwillingness to confess their sins. Sin separates us from the fellowship and benefits of our relationship with the Father. We are still His children. We may not be acting like it but we are still His.

If the cause of God's silence is my sin, then what must I do to get His attention? Is just telling God that we know we have sinned enough? God has given us the Condition for Success in praying and His Promise is Simple. One of my favorite passages in the Old Testament is 2Chronicles 7:14. As I was growing up in the Church you could always count on having two revivals each year, one in the spring and one in the fall. Whether we thought we needed it or not (and we always needed it) we had one and whether we were revived or not (most of the time we weren't) we closed right on time. Almost always it seemed like the visiting preacher would preach from this passage. It clearly spells out God's plan for success if we want Him to hear us when we pray. This passage says "If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and will heal their land." When will He hear? When we do what He asked! Notice here He is talking to His people. We're not outsiders looking in. We are His people. He ask us to humble ourselves (get self out of the way), pray and seek His face (Lord I want to know you more each day), and turn from their wicked ways (stop doing what we know is not pleasing to Him). I'm reminded of a song that often comes to my mind when I am praying. I never was much of a fan of Carmen until I heard him sing this song. Since that day I can't get it out of my mind. I think the name of it is "Lord I hunger for Holiness." But I know the phrase that I can't forget goes like this; "Lord I hunger for holiness, and I thirst for the righteousness that's yours; that my mind would be cleansed and my spirit renewed and this temple that you dwell in would be pure." When was the last time we truly hungered for holiness? Are we ready to do it His way? Do we really want to unstop the ears of God? Jeremiah 29:13 says "You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart." What we want is to live the way we want to and expect God to take care of us and fix everything when we screw it up. We think we can give Him what we want to and He is supposed to be there whenever we call. God want all of us not part. What's not clear about the words "all your heart"? He can never complete in us all He wants to do until we surrender all we are to Him.

What is our example of this kind of surrender? We see this kind of surrender in Christ's Submission. His Prayer is the Standard and example we are to follow. Look with me at Luke 22:41&42. Jesus had entered the Garden with His disciples before His arrest. This passage says "He withdrew about a stone's throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed, Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done." He was about to be sacrificed for your sins and mine. He really didn't want to go through this but He was willing. It has often been said that the only reason Jesus went to Calvary's cross was so we could be saved. That was the result of this act of amazing grace. But He actually went to the cross because that is what the Father sent Him here to do and it was more important to Him to be obedient to the Father than it was for Him to be delivered from this trial. Remember He said "Not my will (get me out of this mess) but Thy will be done" (pay the penalty for the sins of my children). All we think about most of the time is what we are going through and how much we want God to deliver us from it. We don't ask what is your will Father. Sometimes God will delay the answer to our prayers just to help us grow. It may just be He is trying to teach us something from the trial we face. We should always ask Him if He is leading us through our trial for something special and if He is He will show us the reason why we are being tested. But if His ears are closed because of sin—confession and forsaking will have to take place if we want Him to hear us when we pray. We often want Him to help us in spite of how we are living and what we are unwilling to confess. Jesus didn't have any sins to confess but He certainly had a trial He didn't want to face. However, He still wanted to do whatever the Father wanted Him to do ("Not my will but Thy will be done").

Are we willing to pray that same prayer ("Not my will but Thy will be done")? Imagine for a minute that you are praying. I can hear some of the prayers being prayed right now.

"Father, I want you to help me right now. I'm in a mess with my finances. I know your Word says that if I bring my tithes (the first ten percent) to the store house You will meet my needs. But right now I just don't know if I can do that. I don't have anything left after I pay my bills or buy what I need." What is God doing? He's waiting to hear you say "Not my will but Thy will be done."

"Father, do you really want me to forgive (my friend, my child, my parent, my co-worker, my sister or my brother)? Don't you know what they have been saying about me and how they have treated me? Isn't that asking a little much?" What is God doing? He's waiting to hear you say "Not my will but Thy will be done."

"Father, I know I'm really not doing what I should be doing. (I been having this affair for so long I can't really stop now) or (I've been abusing my body with alcohol or drugs so long I can't break this habit) or (I just can't stop gossiping about other folks) or (I really don't like change I just want things to stay the same way they have always been). I think you understand what I'm getting at here. What is God doing? He's waiting to hear you say "Not my will but Thy will be done."

I can hear you—He is beginning to meddle now. I'm not meddling I'm simple trying to help you understand how to tap in to the presence and power of God when you pray. If you want to unstop the ears of God you have to be willing to follow His will not your own. You have to be willing to confess your sins, ask for forgiveness and stop what you are doing that is keeping the ears of God stopped up.

How many of us really do hunger for holiness? Do we really want His power to rest on us fresh and new each day? If we want this kind of power, if we want this kind of prayer life, if we want His holiness we have to submit to His will and give up our own.

Go back for a minute to the verse we started with in 1John 5:14&15.

"This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know he hears us—whatever we ask—we know we have what we asked of Him." We can have anything we ask for when we ask in accordance to His will because we won't ask for anything that is not in His will when we pray "Not my will but Thy will be done."