The Bible says that, “The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much” (James 5:16). For that reason, we dedicated the last two Sundays to learning how to pray effectively. Seven foundational principles of effective prayer were taught (Foundational Principles of Effective Prayer, Part 2 (30th Jul 2023) (lat.church)), which if practiced will yield more answers to our prayers. The purpose of this article is to put emphasis – because God is calling for that emphasis – on just two of those principles: Forgiveness of sins, and doing a specific condition God requires of us for a certain prayer to be answered.
Concerning the forgiveness of sins, Jesus made a connection between it, and the receiving of answers to prayer. When teaching His disciples how to pray, He told them to ask the Father to forgive them their sins (Matthew 6:12). Then He also told them that God forgiving them of their sins was premised on them first forgiving those who sin against them (Matthew 6:14-15). Now, since “The eyes the eyes of the LORD are on the righteous, and His ears are open to their prayers” (1 Peter 3:12), it is biblically sound to say that God will not answer prayers of unforgiving Christians because those Christians are laden with unrighteousness (the sins God has not forgiven because they have not forgiven others).
I have a personal testimony regarding this issue. In two dreams that I had more than a decade ago, God clearly revealed to me the importance of forgiving those who sin against me. In one of those dreams, He told me that He wouldn’t answer my prayer for Him to wake me up very early in the morning to pray, until I forgave a certain in-law of mine who had terribly wronged me, moreover for no reason at all. I pray you learn from my testimony.
Now, regarding doing a specific condition God requires of us for a certain prayer to be answered, we should learn from Cornelius. This man “Gave alms generously to the people, and prayed to God always” (Acts 10:2). Then one day, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a vision and told him that, “Your prayers and your alms have come up for a memorial before God. Now send men to Joppa and send for Simon whose surname is Peter . . . He will tell you what to do” (Acts 10:4-6). The day for Cornelius to receive what he had been praying for had come, but God required him to do something – send for Peter – in order to receive his answer. Cornelius obeyed God, and thereby received his answer to prayer. If he had not obeyed God, he would not have received that which he had been praying for, yet God was ready to grant it that day.
I have a personal testimony regarding this issue as well. When Roberts Liardon was eight years old, he was taken to heaven for a tour, with Jesus as his tour guide! Then at twelve years of age, Jesus appeared to him while he was watching television, and told him to study the lives of certain great preachers so that he would teach the younger generations why some of those preachers failed in their callings, and why others succeeded. Because Liardon faithfully carried out that assignment, he gained a lot of spiritual wisdom regarding Christian ministry. When in 1998 I got to know of Liardon and his great wisdom, I prayed to God for many years to give me all the wisdom that Liardon had. Then after eighteen years in 2016, God gave me an opportunity to have a holiday in California. The moment I landed in San Francisco, I got an email notification that Liardon was going to minister there for two nights! When I met Liardon again (I had met him twice in 2006), the first night after his preaching, I gave him one hundred dollars in recognition of the blessing he was to me. When I went to bed that night, I dreamt that if I was to receive the wisdom I had prayed for for eighteen years, I had to give Liardon another one hundred dollars. In fact, when I did so in the dream, the Spirit of the Lord – the Spirit of wisdom – came upon me so strong. Therefore, when I met Liardon the following day before he went to the pulpit, I obeyed God and gave him the money. You can guess what happened immediately thereafter, or what wouldn’t have happened hadn’t I done the specific condition God required of me for my eighteen-year prayer to have all Liardon’s wisdom be answered.
God bless you.