Heaven’s Response Of Answered Prayer

I’ve spent a major part of my life trying to understand how God answers prayer. We all face the same issues when it comes to our prayers. Some are easily answered. Others, though we agonize over them, appear to receive no response, at least not to our satisfaction. Recently in intercession, I have seen the glorious wonder of many prayers being answered instantly, even before coming out of my mouth. What I have learned must be taken in patience, until your senses have exercised the difference between good and evil and you can come to God’s perfection.

When I pray, I picture myself in the court room of heaven, a large stadium. The stands are filled with a cloud of witnesses, the Father is on a throne, and Jesus, (my lawyer) is at His right hand. On the arena floor are the issues which I am presenting before the Lord.

In my own position in Christ, He has asked me not to pray about the issues I am dealing with in San Francisco. Those issues are put under the umbrella of, “God has taken care of every personal issue.” This is a very important part of my heart, mind, thoughts and intents. My heart must be pure when I stand before the Lord in intercession. The Lord has already told me that He has taken care of every outstanding problem in San Francisco; if I bring it up again, I become like the waves of the sea driven and tossed by every wind. As the Word says, “Let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord.”

At first, you might not understand the importance of setting aside the things that God has already answered. Although you see no “proof” of an answer, your yet-to-be-answered prayers are seen daily by that same cloud of witnesses in Heaven. They are  observing the tension caused by the forces of darkness by satan’s fiery darts at God’s anointed leaders. You cannot believe or listen to the words that the media (or sometimes even friends) advise, especially when it comes to making prayer requests before the Lord. I try to listen to the small, gentle voice of the Holy Spirit, which is speaking according to the will of God. When I can verbalize His will in prayer, my prayers are literally answered at the speed of thought.

The hardest issue I have had to deal with is conforming my will to His will. God’s will always turns out to be a better version of life than my will. Imagine a little boy told by his father to do something. He has so much fun doing it, and wants to take credit for the whole idea, although he never even considered it before the father suggested it. This is the phenomenon of answered prayer.

I am learning to pray “Thy will be done”. This alignment of harmonizing with Heaven results in prayers answered at the speed of thought. Do not take what God shows you today, and turn it into resistance against His voice tomorrow. To be consistently in harmony with God, you must be willing to blow with the wind of the Spirit, not knowing where it came from or where it is going. So it is with everyone that is born of the Spirit. Daily innocence in prayer requests and expectations is extremely important and may even determine Heaven’s response. Heaven reads the intentions of your thoughts; those can have as much weight toward your request as your words.

Please pray with me everyday on the Periscope App.

-Pastor Richard