I've been doing a lot of study on this lately, but I thought I'd ask this question here...
Is there anything that happens TO us?
What happens IN us?
This covers that:
Knowing God Through Answered Prayer - Steps 1, 2, 3
Long answer:
One has to "make a request" and continue making the request over and over and over.
Eventually, you realize that your request focused on what
you want.
Is what you want
really the best for you?
Then you have to understand that The Father already knew about the request before you started.
At some point, you need to stop pushing your own agenda and fully release the results over to God and
KNOW that your request has already been fully answered.
So we should pray as Jesus instructed us to. In the same
framework as the Lord's Prayer.
Lord's Prayer Explained
Yes, at the instant that you fully
release your ego from the results
the Father will instantly fill your mind with relief. Usually, you get the relief and "knowing He has heard you" and your eyes open in search of His answer to your prayer that He planned out long ago.
So the next passage explains why this happens:
John 3:21
But whoever practices the truth
comes into the Light, so that it may be
clearly seen that what he has done has
been accomplished in God.
Practice the Truth that God knows you full and knows fully what is best for your life.
Do this and He will open your eyes to His answer for you.
It is done. It is a done deal.
I've reached the point of
fully removing my ego from the prayer a few times, but the results were quite dramatic as if God has reached in and changed the world around me,
it seemed in that minute.
The landscape and the weather changed in one instant, one time. While I was flooded with relief of "It is Done" the clouds cleared, the rain ended, and the place my wife and I needed to have suddenly appeared. We got out of our car into the sunshine after hours of pouring rain.
On continued analysis in the years since, what I discovered was that God had
changed my prayer to match what was about to occur and made sure the timing was correct,
just to let me know He was there.
In one case, I needed dramatic help.
In another, my wife needed dramatic help.
In another, the request was stupid but still granted.
The commonality between all events was the total release of the request from my ego that called for
me to have control over the outcome.
This is the method needed to allow the Spirit in:
Suppress your desire to control the outcome and even your insistence on controlling the request.
The Father already heard your past and future prayers before He formed the World. Then He set up the entire world to answer each one of your prayers and conversations with Him.
Again:
He then set up the entire world to answer each one of your prayers and conversations with Him.
Now, all one has to do is trust
His judgment to either get their prayer changed, or their prayer answered as He wills it. But on the occasion of true surrender, He steps in AS IF with a magic wand and grants your prayers.
On one occasion, God answered my prayers weeks before I prayed for somebody else's benefit. He then handed me the prayer in those minutes before answering it just so I would know He was with there and was the "God With Us". He fill my mind with the message "It is Done."
Now...skeptics have informed me that of my thousands of prayers, I only recall the 3 answered ones. That's not the case. I only remember the times that I totally committed the outcome to God and KNEW that my prayers were answered, well
before they were answered. God mentally informed me that He had taken care of my problem. Then He took the next few minutes to show me what He had already done hours or weeks before.
And this explains that:
Ephesians 2:10
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works,
which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Getting prayer answered is as simple as looking forward.
Mark 11:24
Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer,
believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.
(It is done. The answer is already in front of you. God heard your request and
already acted on it.)
Jeremiah 33:3
Call to me and I will answer you and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known.
(It is done.)
Matthew 6:5-8
“And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. “And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
Colossians 4:2
Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.
(It is done.)
Matthew 7:7
“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. (It is done.)
John 9:31
We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him.
Psalm 55:17
Evening and morning and at noon I utter my complaint and moan, and he hears my voice.
(It is done.)
