65 - Prayer: Why Prayer Isn't Answered

Prayer; Why Prayer isn't Answered; 1 John 3:21-24

1 John 3:21 ^NASB "Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God." Here the word "heart" is the Greek word kardia [kardia], meaning the innermost thinking part of the soul, the innermost seat of human thinking. So John is saying that if the innermost thinking part of our soul does not condemn us "we have confidence before God." What gives us confidence before God is our being in fellowship. We are living inside of the soul fortress, and what keeps us in there is the ten spiritual skills, ten problem-solving devices or dynamics that God has provided for us in Scripture.

1.  Confession.

2.  The filling of the Spirit, the means of maintaining fellowship, and that is the dynamic of learning the Word. We learn the Word under the teaching ministry of God the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 5:18); we are filled by means of the Holy Spirit, cf. Colossians 3:16 ^NASB "Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you…" By comparing the two we see that the filling of the Holy Spirit is related to learning the Word of God. As we continue this process and maintain it on a momentum basis, it is called walking by means of the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:16).

3.  Faith-rest drill.  As we learn the Word of God we begin to recognise that God has provided numerous principles for us, numerous promises in His Word, and we claim those promises as we face different problems in life. This is the faith-rest drill. When we use the Word of God and claim the promises we stay in fellowship and we don't sin.

4.  Grace orientation, where we have to learn that everything in life is not who I am and what I have done but on who Jesus Christ is and what He did on the cross. It is all grace; it never has anything to do with me. We have to recognise that growth comes by grace. 2 Peter 3:18 ^NASB "but grow in [by means of] the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ…" Grace is a means to growth. We understand what grace is an apply it in our dealings with people. It is foundational to love which is 1 John 3 & 4.

5.  Doctrinal orientation. We grow by means of grace and by means of knowledge. That is why it is important to learn God's Word. We can never learn enough of God's Word. If we don't know the Word of God and understand the Word of God then we can't grow.

6.  Personal love for God the Father—the motivation. A new believer has a very basic and limited love but as there is growth and advance in doctrine and an understanding of grace, then there is a realisation of just how obnoxious we really are to God and that God saved us anyway, and it has nothing to do with who and what we are. Then we begin to develop a love for God that is based on knowledge and not just based on realising that we are not going to spend eternity in the lake of fire.

7.  Impersonal love for all mankind. Personal love for God then becomes a motivator in the spiritual life and we develop and impersonal love for all mankind. As we understand the love for God and God's love for us that becomes the standard for understanding for how we are to love one another. This is the principle we saw in 1 John 3:16 ^NASB "We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren." …..

The issue is our volition. We use the term soul fortress because when we are living inside it we are completely defended by the Lord Jesus Christ and protected from any adversity we might face in life. So when we are inside this soul fortress we have confidence toward God. Confidence comes from being in fellowship, abiding in Christ, walking by means of the Holy Spirit, all of which are synonymous terms. It is being in fellowship and having this confidence towards God that produces another attribute, and that is courage towards people. We define courage as the state or quality of mind that enables one to face danger, fear or adversity with self-possession, confidence and resolution. Courage enables the believer to face people who oppose him, who may despise him, who seek vengeance, who maltreat or abuse him. Courage enables the believer to face someone like that with the ability to love them on the basis of God's immutable, perfect love and character, and not on the basis of who that individual is and what they have done. 

Notice: Don't reverse the two. Courage towards God is blasphemy and confidence toward people is foolishness. You can't be confident toward people because all people are sinners and sooner or later, no matter how wonderful they may be, even the most mature of believers can fail miserably and disappoint us. That is why we have to use impersonal love. That is where our ability to handle the situation is determined by understanding Jesus Christ's love for us when we were the most obnoxious.    

Our confidence toward God is going to impact our communication with God. 1 John 3:22 ^NASB "and whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we [continue to] keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight." Too often people want to take a verse like this, a promise like this, and just sort of yank it right out of context so that we have some sort of carte blanche blank check from God in terms of prayer. The problem with this is that it leads to disappointment because we ask God for certain things and he doesn't come through so we think prayer really doesn't work, and therefore we just forget about it. John is going to come back to this theme in 1 John 5:14 ^NASB "This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us." The first thing that should come to mind in the statement "in Him" is that it means abiding in Him. "According to His will" isn't an escape hatch. Too many people use that phrase and say: Well Lord, I would like this, but only if it is your will. They ask God for something but they don't have the courage of Hebrews where we are to come boldly before the throne of grace. What John is saying here that we know what His will is. Why? Because we have mastered those spiritual skills; we have doctrinal orientation, i.e. our thinking is aligned with His Word; because we have taken in the Word we understand what to pray for and what not to pray for. So we know that when we come to prayer we are going to pray within the context of God's revealed will—not His sovereign will, we don't know what that it. So we can ask for things according to what He has made clear in His Word. 

1 John 3:22 ^NASB "and whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight." The word "ask" is the present active subjunctive of the verb aiteo [a)itew] which means to ask, to make a request, and the subjunctive mood indicates potential. The problem that the recipients of James' epistle had is that he said: "You have not because you ask not" – indicating that prayer does change things and that the reason prayer wasn't changing anything in their life was because they weren't praying. So prayer is a potential for the spiritual life. You may pray or you may not pray but when you do pray God will answer you if you are in fellowship and according to His will, according to 1 John 5:14. Whatever we ask were receive, "because we keep His commandments." Keeping His commandments is living inside that soul fortress—we keep His commandments, we apply the spiritual skills. That is, we are staying in fellowship. And we "do the things that are pleasing in His sight." That is, when we obey Him, we keep His commandments, that pleases Him. On the contrary, when we disobey Him He doesn't hear our prayers. Psalm 66:18 ^NASB "If I regard [perceive] wickedness in my heart [thinking], The Lord will not hear." When we are in fellowship and applying those spiritual skills, then we are in a position where God answers our prayers.

John 14: 13 ^NASB "Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son." The key phrase is "in my name." That doesn't mean closing a prayer with a formulated statement like In Jesus name" or "the name of the Son," etc. The concept of name in the biblical era reflected character. The character of Jesus of Nazareth means that He is the Son of God, He is undiminished deity united in true humanity in one person forever, and because He is undiminished deity and true humanity He is sinless and was qualified to go to the cross. All of that is wrapped up in His name, so when Jesus uses the term here, "whatever you ask in my name," He is talking about whatever you ask that is totally consistent with my character. It is just another way of saying, "when you ask according to my will."

John 15:7 ^NASB "If you abide in Me [inside the soul fortress], and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you." Notice the mutuality here: "abide in Me" and "My words abide in you." Fellowship isn't one-sided." 

John 15:16 ^NASB "You did not choose Me but I chose you [the disciples—not a term for election], and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and {that} your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you."

John 16:23 ^NASB "In that day you will not question Me about anything. Truly, truly, I say to you, if you ask the Father for anything in My name, He will give it to you. [24] Until now you have asked for nothing in My name; ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be made full…. [26] In that day you will ask in My name, and I do not say to you that I will request of the Father on your behalf." So the issue is asking in Jesus' name.

Why people don't pray

1.  People don't pray because they lack confidence in being heard. They don't know anything about being in fellowship or 1 John 1:9, or anything about the spiritual life. They don't understand confession and cleansing.

2.  Because of ignorance of what the Bible teaches related to prayer.

3.  They are ignorant of the mandate to pray without ceasing, i.e. continuously. It means that you are in fellowship with the Lord so that you can at all times carry on a conversation with God. 1 Thessalonians 5:17.

4.  They doubt God. They doubt that prayer changes things and they lack faith.

5.  They have experienced some disappointments in life, difficulties in life, and they have become embittered toward God. So they are in reaction to God.

6.  They have sucked up fatalism somewhere along the line and think that prayer really doesn't change things. But James says you have not because you ask not.

Reasons why prayers are not answered

            Opening principles: a) Prayer is the most powerful asset in your spiritual life. It is the tool that we use many times to apply the faith-rest drill, doctrinal orientation, and various spiritual skills. Prayer in and of itself is not a spiritual skill but it is the means of implementing those spiritual skills; b) Prayer is an awesome privilege that brings us immediately into the throne room of God and we can present all of our petitions to Him; c) Prayer is a vital communication link to our heavenly Father and we don't need to break our communication. Yet for all that very few believers are engaged in real biblical praying.

1.  Prayer isn't answered because people are not filled with the Spirit, because they are not in fellowship with the Lord.

2.  Because our thinking is based on the arrogance of the cosmic system or worldly thinking. We base our requests on human viewpoint concepts. E.g. Job 35:12, 13; James 4:2, 3.

3.  Because we fail the test of the faith-rest drill. Mark 11:24 ^NASB "Therefore I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they will be {granted} you."

4.  When a husband as a Christian is not fulfilling his responsibility. 1 Pet 3:7 ^NASB "You husbands in the same way, live with {your wives} in an understanding way, as with someone weaker, since she is a woman; and show her honor as a fellow heir of the grace of life, so that your prayers will not be hindered."

1 John 3:23 ^NASB "This is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us." There are two commands here. The first relates to entering the spiritual life and the second relates to advancing in the spiritual life. The first commandment is to believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ. That gets us eternal life. And then loving one another is a term that summarises the entire Christian life because it is reflected in the mature spiritual life, utilising unconditional love for all mankind. When we maintain that we stay in fellowship and He hears our prayers.

Then we have a summary statement: This is a conclusion to the section preceding this and is a transition to the next section beginning in the next chapter. Notice how John links and defines vocabulary here just keep us from making the mistake of thinking that keeping His commandments is necessary for salvation. 1 John 3:24 ^NASB "The one who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. We know by this that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us." Keeping His commandments = abiding in Him. Abiding is not salvation, it has to do with fellowship. The second thing we see is that abiding is two-way. The one who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him, i.e. Jesus Christ in the believer. When we are in fellowship with Him He is having fellowship with us. Third, abiding is further characterised by a relationship with the Holy Spirit: "by the Spirit whom He has given us." So abiding in Him is related to, signified by, a relationship with the Holy Spirit which in other passages is referred to as the filling of the Spirit or walking by means of the Spirit.

The doctrine of the indwelling and the filling of the Holy Spirit

1.  Indwelling and filling both occur at salvation.

2.  Indwelling is related to our position in Christ; filling is related to our day-to-day experience.

3.  Indwelling is related to the dwelling of Christ, that God the Holy Spirit indwells us and that the body is the temple of the Holy Spirit; filling is related to the abiding of Christ.

4.  Indwelling is related to positional sanctification; filling is related to experiential sanctification.

5.  Indwelling is a one-time event that remains throughout our spiritual life, and it is the basis for all of the other ministries of God the Holy Spirit to us.

6.  Filling is related to learning, understanding, storing and recalling Bible doctrine for application.