Introduction

It is my desire to share with you something that recently has had a powerful impact on my prayer life, and I am fully confident that if you are able to grasp the truths that I am going to share, that it will impact your prayer life as well. Psalm 21:2 says, "Thou hast given him his heart's desire, and hast not withholden the request of his lips. Selah." I have heard this verse quoted often, and always thought it to mean something different from what I understand it to mean now. I used to think that this verse meant that God would give to me whatever I asked for, and thus, I would oftentimes be discouraged and faint in my prayer life when I did not get what I asked for. But that is not exactly what this passage is saying. What you are actually seeing is that God placed the desire on David's heart, and it moved David to pray for it! Now before you shut this off, please understand, it may not sound so great that our desires come from God when we have certain things that we want now...but I assure you, the desire God places on your heart will exceed twenty-fold the burden that you are yearning for at this present moment! If you believe all good things come from God, then surely HIS desires are better than any desire you could come up with! It is the most amazing experience! Okay, so how can I be so sure that my desires are from God or not? There must be a few things that come before these two steps to seeing answered prayer can happen. The particular steps mentioned in Psalm 21:2 was FIRST a response, and SECOND a request. So the confusing part is that oftentimes Christians are waiting for something to respond to! How does this happen? How do we respond to something if nothing is what we are getting? Please understand that this was a question that I have asked VERY frequently. I want to share with you seven steps that will guarantee answered prayer EVERYTIME! And just think, you don't have to scroll down and find out you have to purchase a book in order to find out! Isn't that wonderful? It's so good...and it is so GOD that I could never make money on it! What I'm about to share with you is BETTER than money! First, here are the seven steps IN THIS ORDER: 1) Repentance 2) Resignation 3) Relationship 4) RESPONSE 5) REQUEST 6) Resistance 7) Rejoicing Please understand that the Bible NEVER says that God will simply give you WHATEVER you ask for, and I will make this clear in a little bit.

Repentance

But first, I want to divide the first step, REPENTANCE into two sub-steps, if I may say it that way! SUB-STEP 1: Repentance that leads to salvation—If you are a sinner, and you do not know The Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, how can you ever expect Him to answer any prayers that you make? I will say that God is SO merciful that He does indeed send rain on both the just and on the unjust, and we even read in Psalm 145:16, "Thou openest Thine hand, and satisfiest the desire of every living thing." If you KNOW that you've been born again, you need not read the following. You may skip to the second sub-step of repentance. But if you are not sure, I suggest you read this before anything else. When it comes to getting ALL of your prayers answered, you must belong to Him! Have you been truly BORN AGAIN? Was there a day when you realized that death is coming and that hell is moving to receive you into its dark and horrible, eternal bowels; and that you feared only to hear THE GOOD NEWS that you could avoid it? Have you not? LET NOT YOUR HEART BE TROUBLED! Make Jesus Christ yours today.

•  There are stipulations on how to receive Him however. You must first recognize that you are a sinner. Do you know what sin is? Well, the Bible tells us that sin is the breaking of God's law (I John 3:4). That law tells us not to lie. And if you've ever lied, that makes you a liar. Have you ever lusted after a woman. Have you undressed her with your eyes? That's adultery. Have you ever wanted something that wasn't yours? That's coveting. This is the law of God, and unfortunately, the Bible says, "All have sinned and come short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23).
• There is also another thing you need to realize. You need to realize that there IS a penalty for all you have done. The Bible says, "For the wages of sin is death..." (Romans 6:23) Does this mean physical death? No, and I'll tell you why:
  1. The Bible says, "And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear Him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell" (Matthew 10:28).
  2. The Bible says, "But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and ALL LIARS, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second DEATH" (Revelation 21:8).
• Obviously Romans 6:23 is not referring to the physical death. And it is apparent that all die. The Bible makes this very clear! "As in Adam all die..." (I Corinthians 15:22)
• You must realize that ALL means you and everyone else, and ALL have sinned, and you need to realize that because of this, you are doomed for Hell!
• Finally, you need to recognize the payment that was made. "Christ DIED for our sins." For what reason? "Christ died FOR our SINS."
  1. Sinner, do you realize what this means??? It means that Jesus Christ took upon Himself YOUR SINS, that you would not have to!
  2. You ask, "What must I do to be saved?" It's SIMPLE! DEPEND on The Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved! Notice, I did not say BELIEVE. It's obvious that you have to do that! But dependence is realizing that you are doomed...PERIOD! And that the only way you can escape this doom, is by asking The Lord Jesus Christ to save you with the precious blood He shed on Calvary. He will save you. You cannot save yourself. This is what it means to BE SAVED. If you are taken to work, that means someone else did it. If you are married, that means someone else married you to another. If you are saved, then that means SOMEONE ELSE did it.
  3. Simply ask The Lord to do it! Dear Lord, I know that I am a sinner, and I realize that I am on my way to Hell because of it. But Lord, I am choosing to place my complete dependence upon Jesus Christ. I'm asking Him to come into my heart and to save me. AMEN

SUB-STEP 2: Repentance on a daily basis—The Bible clearly states in Psalm 66:18, "If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me:" If you have truly been born again, then it is very important that you abstain from all that is evil! We are transformed into the image of God in order to prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God to this lost and dying world so that others may come to discover what you discovered (Romans 12:1-2)! Is Psalm 66:18 saying that if an evil thought enters, or if we did something wrong like lose our temper, or shout at someone on the road that God will not hear us? Not exactly. When the Bible speaks of regarding iniquity in our heart, this means clinging to something that we know we ought not to be clinging to. In order for you to understand what I mean, I must mention that the Holy Spirit must be involved in this predicament. If you have truly been born again, the Holy Spirit dwells within you. Pray, and ask Him to reveal to you any sin that He is displeased with, and I promise you that He will show it to you! And the best part is that He will be specific about it. He will not be vague! He will show you EXACTLY what you need to do to make it right. Any vague convictions or any feelings of guilt without SPECIFIC perception is CLEARLY of the devil. Refuse him, and ignore these feelings of despair, for they are only intended to bring you down. Remember, life's obstacles are intended by Satan to make us failures, but are intended by God to make us VICTORS! I remember I used to love to listen to U2. Some of you may be familiar with this rock group. At the time, I could not point out to you anything that ultimately stood out that made it wrong...it's just that the living Holy Spirit within me was displeased and I knew it! I remember taking a sledge hammer to the FIRST CD; yes, the urge to listen to them returned, and I bought the SAME CD AGAIN! Conviction arose, and I destroyed the SECOND CD. I bought three of the same CD before I at last grew tired of throwing away my money! Now this is not the way to get victory, but that situation was true! There is a way to get victory over sins that you can't seem to conquer! And it's A LOT cheaper! That way is JESUS CHRIST! The very same way that you were saved:

• You realized that you were doomed, and that there was NO WAY you could make it to heaven on your own merit.
• You completely depended upon Jesus Christ to save you, because you could not do it yourself.
• In that VERY SAME WAY, you must realize that you will never be able to conquer the sins that still abide in your sinful flesh. You must pray and tell The Lord, "There is no way that I can conquer this sin! I am weak! Deliver me, Lord, for I am depending upon THY RIGHTEOUSNESS to deliver me from committing this sin!"
• More about this can be found in Charles Trumbull's article, The Life that Wins. If you would like, you may CLICK HERE to read it. Sin is a barrier that will always stand between you and the God Who hears you until you do away with it. Isaiah 59:1-2 says, "Behold, the LORD'S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither His ear heavy, that it cannot hear: But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid His face from you, that He will not hear." Yes, the first and MAJOR step to seeing your prayers answered EVERY TIME is REPENTANCE.

Resignation

The second step is RESIGNATION. Are you fully surrendered to God? One of the greatest books I have ever read was by Andrew Murray. It is called Absolute Surrender, which is also available on our website. You may CLICK HERE to read it! What do I mean by being fully surrendered? Are you willing to forsake your opinions, your hopes, your dreams...and place them into the hands of your blessed Savior, Who knows what is best? Believe me, friend, this was a very hard lesson for me to learn! Why? Because I was unwilling to let God carry me through a path that was foreign to my own reasonable understanding of how things ought to be done! But yet I wanted this! And so I asked God to help me! He did, but it was with many trials and valleys that eventually led me to finally trust Him. Andrew Murray used the most peculiar verse to begin his book, Absolute Surrender, but in that verse, we find the attitude that every RESIGNED Christian ought to have before God: “And Ben-hadad the king of Syria gathered all his host together: and there were thirty and two kings with him, and horses, and chariots: and he went up and besieged Samaria, and warred against it. And he sent messengers to Ahab king of Israel into the city, and said unto him, Thus saith Ben-hadad, Thy silver and thy gold is mine; thy wives also and thy children, even the goodliest, are mine. And the king of Israel answered and said, My lord, O king, according to thy saying, I am thine and all that I have” (I Kings 20: 1-4). Peculiar INDEED is this verse, yet how true! Everything we have is God's! I saw a sign on a church one day that said, "Everything we have is on loan from God." How true! Yet in order for us to TRULY be resigned, our attitude must reflect this truth! Everything we have is God's! And we must live like this is so! This is the second step to seeing our every prayer answered!

Relationship

The third step is RELATIONSHIP. Now I know that we have a relationship when we were born again, but do we fellowship like we have a relationship with Him? What is your relationship with God like? Do people know that you have a relationship with Him? Can they see that you've truly been with God? I read an interesting question recently based on Romans 1:8, which says, "First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world." The question was, "Can the people in our lives thank The Lord for our faith?" I had to think on this. It almost sounds silly, but if I knew of someone who truly had GREAT FAITH in The Lord, so much so that it would compel me to give thanks to God for that faith...it would be AWESOME! Can you imagine giving thanks for someone's faith? In order for one to have faith in God, they first need to KNOW GOD, and it’s not simply knowing about Him, it's KNOWING HIM ON A DAILY BASIS! The Bible speaks of dying on a daily basis several times...and what do we replace that with? KNOWING GOD! This is the third step to seeing answered prayer! David knew God! Just read his Psalms! He spoke of God in many ways! He wrote about how BIG God was, and how MINDFUL God was of David's existence, even stating that God knew him even before he was complete in his mother's womb! When David inquired of the Philistine, Goliath, he did not say, "Who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of Israel?" No! He said, "Who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of THE LIVING GOD?" Yes, David had a RELATIONSHIP with God. David was called a man after God's own heart. Do you know right off who called him this? GOD HIMSELF DID! To be in the presence of God on a daily basis is to become more like Him! What are some of the ways that we become more like Him? We begin to share the same burdens that He has. We begin to see things the way God sees them! We begin to yearn for the things God knows will help this wretched world. Yes...HIS DESIRES BECOME OUR OWN! What an amazing concept! And how many problems might we see solved if we had the same desires of the ONE that can do WHATEVER PLEASES HIM? This is ultimately where we begin to RECEIVE the very intents of God's own heart! The more we pray and commune with Him; the more we become more like Him, and the more His thunderous voice becomes still and small and UNDERSTANDABLE! It is really quite amazing when we read about how the children of Israel interpreted God's voice and how Moses did. Moses spent vast amounts of time with God and could understand Him...but to the people, His voice was as BLASTS OF MIGHTY THUNDER! I have truly learned that those thunderous fearful times of trial are the times when God was drawing me closest to Him! Why such THUNDEROUS noise? Because we're so far away from Him! Only when we are WITH HIM will we understand Him by a STILL SMALL VOICE of a gentle soothing whisper within a heart FINALLY at peace with Him! Yes, this is where we are able to comprehend and know the intents of God's heart! So first, there must be REPENTANCE, then RESIGNATION.

Response

We must understand that all belongs to Him, and our ATTITUDE reflects this; then follows RELATIONSHIP, and the more we are with Him, the more we become like Him; and this ultimately leads to the fourth step, RESPONSE. So let's look again at Psalm 21:2, "Thou hast given him his heart's DESIRE..." So now here's the question, how did I come up with the order that relationship and fellowship must come first before receiving anything from The Lord? I'm glad you asked! Look at Psalm 37:4, "Delight thyself also in The Lord and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart!" There it is, plain and simple! There must be a DELIGHT to be with Him before He can give us our heart's desire! Now, I also want to clarify that this is not the item of desire yet! It is the desire itself! If you have gotten this far in the article, it's about to get really exciting! I want you to understand that when you receive this desire, that you will be ready for it to be fulfilled TODAY! It is very important however that we recognize that this desire that we have received came from God Himself, and therefore, it will also be in His timing! Ezekiel 36:37 says, "Thus saith the Lord GOD; I will yet for this be enquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them." Did you see that? God obviously had intentions to do something, but in this verse, we find that He would not do it until the house of Israel enquired Him about it. Isaiah 41:21 says, "Produce your cause, saith the LORD; bring forth your strong reasons, saith the King of Jacob." The Lord desires for us to discuss His plans with Him! I have recently been preaching a series on prayer at the church, and I have likened our RESPONSE to that of a husband-wife relationship. When a man chooses to marry, he has chosen to become ONE FLESH with the one that he is planning to spend his whole life with. That means a oneness in EVERYTHING, including DECISION MAKING. 1 Peter 3:7 says, "Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered." How interesting! God desires for a husband to communicate with his wife SO MUCH, He threatens that the man's prayers will be hindered if he doesn't! When a man goes looking for a house, he is not going to buy it until he DISCUSSES it with his wife! He made the initial search, but his wife also has the say so! Why? Because this man chose to limit his decisions to the approval of the other person in the relationship! Likewise, God will not do anything He intends to do until He has our approval! And isn't it wonderful that we are HIS BRIDE??? Wow! "THY WILL BE DONE" makes a lot more sense now doesn't it? When we say, "Thy will be done," we are saying in essence, "Lord, You do what You are planning to do! I agree with You!" When we see our desires as the very will of God, it makes 1 John 5:14-15 that much sweeter! Look at what it says! "And this is the confidence that we have in Him, that, if we ask any thing according to His will, He heareth us: And if we know that He hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of Him." I used to get so frustrated with this verse! I would always complain to God and say, "How do I know if it's Your will or not! YOU HAVEN'T TOLD ME!" But guess what! I never spent enough time getting to know HIM to LET HIM tell me! I was always busy making requests and NEVER taking the time to know God! But once I finally began to develop a relationship with Him, suddenly, I began to understand His will...through my very own desires!!! Isaiah 45:11 says, "Thus saith the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker, Ask Me of things to come concerning My sons, and concerning the work of My hands COMMAND YE ME." Now this is not saying that we are to behave in a domineering way, but just as a wife says to her husband, "I need this and this and this from the store," the husband, if he's a decent husband at all, will simply take the list and do what she COMMANDED! It is the very same with us! Why does she command such things? Because that list is to help the ENTIRE HOUSEHOLD, of which they are both a part! "Honey, the garage needs to be re-painted." "Honey, the car needs an oil-change." "Honey, help me set the table." Do you see how that these are commands, and how that they fulfill a common goal for the both of them? Only a dead-beat husband would say, "WOMAN, WHO DO YOU THINK I AM?"

Request

This ultimately leads to the fifth step to seeing our prayers answered EVERY TIME, REQUEST. Let's look at the second part of Psalm 21:2, "...and hast not withholden the request of his lips." Do you know why so many preacher boys who are "called to preach" fail in the ministry? Because they never had that relationship with God to know if He was really calling them or not! They skipped the most vital points of having a successful ministry! I tell you now! Any of you even THINKING of getting into the ministry need to make sure that it is something that God is calling you to do, and you will never know THAT until you know HIM! If a preacher boy were ever to ask my advice about what they should do first, I would say, "Make sure you know Him enough to know that it's really God calling you!" The ministry is NO CUPCAKE, and as Clarence Sexton said it, "Preachers are NOT made, they are CALLED!" So make sure it's actually God calling you, and not the devil, or pressure, or anything else! So when you receive the desire, you respond...that is, you begin to search the scriptures and to make diligent inquiry. You muse over what it is that God has placed upon your heart, and it is THEN, that you open your mouth before God, and ask Him to DO IT! Psalms 39:3 says it wonderfully! "My heart was hot within me, while I was musing the fire burned: then spake I with my tongue!" You will find yourself arguing and reasoning with God through the scriptures! You will be so burdened to see that desire that is in your heart fulfilled! It will even bring you to tears! But let not those tears be tears of doubt! For the desire God placed upon your heart to pray about was authored by Him, and it WILL come to pass, but it will only be so with PRAYER! Matthew 7:8 says, "For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened." Many Christians do not realize it, but this verse is saying, that whoever keeps on asking, and keeps on seeking, and keeps on knocking...that kind will be the answer! Yes, let God give you that desire, pray on it, fast, find promises...discuss this wonderful proposition that you have received from your FRIEND!

Resistance

It doesn't end there, I'm afraid. There is an element that sadly many Christians leave out...and that is the satanic element. This is the sixth step—amazingly enough—to seeing our prayers answered every time. It is the step of RESISTANCE. Yes, beloved...when those desires have been long time prayed over, and still, the fulfillment is delayed...it is then that Satan begins to mock, scoff, jeer and laugh. It is a time when it seems that God is no longer talking, it is a time when it seems that all of your prayers are in vain, for the dark foe, the adversary, Satan, has arrived to weary you and to tell you how futile your prayers have been...how WORTHLESS they've been. It is a time when he will convince you that you must take matters into your own hands, for God has left you for dead. It is a time when he will use people to mock you, he will use circumstances all about you to convince you that what he says is true. Was this not the case with poor Hannah? We all realize that it was Peninnah who ridiculed Hannah, and reminded her that she was barren, but notice how 1 Samuel 1:6 is worded! "And her ADVERSARY also provoked her sore, for to make her fret, because the LORD had shut up her womb." Do you see that last part of the verse? I truly believe that her "adversary" was trying to convince her that her God had FAILED her. O beloved! Take heart! God is still on the throne, and you don't have to listen to that wicked foe, Satan. Did you know that Satan means adversary? But can I also remind you that he is defeated? Yes! Colossians 2:15 says very plainly, "And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it." This was at CALVARY! Satan was defeated at Calvary! Can I share something else with you? The Bible plainly says that we are ONE SPIRIT with Jesus Christ in 1 Corinthians 6:17! Now why is this so important? Because you need to understand that your battle is spiritual. Satan will try to convince you that your problems are all around you, but your battle is with him. It says very plainly in Ephesians 6:12, "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." It is important that I clarify that "high places" can also be called "heavenly places," for reasons I'll explain in a moment. But first, you must see this, that it is not against people or problems, no matter how frustrating things may get...your fight is with Satan. You need to also realize that Satan is a spirit, and thus, you are experiencing spiritual warfare, but Satan doesn't want you to know this. Few Christians know this...and those who do, dare not talk about it for fear that the rest of us will think them mad! Now, I want you to notice Ephesians 2:6 which says, "And [Jesus] hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places IN CHRIST." That last part is VERY IMPORTANT, because the previous chapter states that Jesus is FAR ABOVE all principalities and power and might and dominion. If Satan is a spirit, and if we are ONE SPIRIT with Him Who is far above the enemy, then that means, we have SPIRITUAL authority to shut Satan up...if I may put it so bluntly! He has no rights to taunt and torment you! He has no rights to discourage you with constant words! RESIST HIM! And the Bible clearly states this TWICE, and many more times in different ways. First, James 4:7, "Resist the devil, and he will FLEE FROM YOU!" And then 1 Peter 5:9 says—speaking of Satan, "Whom RESIST!" Yes, there will be times when our prayers are delayed, and there are times when hope will be deferred by falsified news that will make the heart SICK, and at our weakest is when we can be sure that Satan will fight hardest! Now why is all of this in this order? I will be brief and to the point; more than anything else that you can possibly imagine, SATAN FEARS A PRAYER WARRIOR!

Rejoice

Finally, the seventh step is to REJOICE! And this, too, is two-fold! Let us rejoice even before the desire is fulfilled, KNOWING that it will be, for the desire was a sure indicator in the first place that it would come! Then, be sure to rejoice and give thanks when it arrives! Yes, that adversary made Hannah fret, but alas, we see the happy ending, "For this child I PRAYED; and the LORD hath given me my petition which I asked of HIM!" TRULY, SUCH A SEQUENCE WILL GUARANTEE THAT OUR PRAYERS ARE ANSWERED EVERY TIME! ~By Michael G. Barnett Written 2/8/13