How to Get Your Prayers Answered and Touch Heaven
For many of us, prayer has become the national anthem before a sporting event. Before a major game, they play the anthem, everyone stands, and then the moment passes. But the anthem has absolutely nothing to do with what is getting ready to happen on the field. It does not affect the football game. It does not change the points scored in the basketball game. It is a place of honor, but it is totally unrelated to what you came there for. You did not come for the anthem.
That is exactly how too many believers treat prayer. It gets things started, but it has no connection to what is actually happening in our lives. We do it because it is tradition. We are supposed to. We are paying homage while remaining totally disconnected from the field of play of our daily lives. And yet prayer is one of the dominant themes of Scripture.
Is Prayer Your National Anthem or Your Lifeline?
Before we can learn how to get our prayers answered, we have to be honest about what prayer has become for us. If prayer only opens and closes our day like a ritual with no bearing on our circumstances, then it is functioning like an anthem and not like a lifeline. James writes to believers who were suffering and being persecuted, and he keeps pulling them back to the same theme on purpose.
POINT
A
Prayer is not a formality we perform; it is relational communication with God.
POINT
B
Prayer is meant to be connected to the real field of play of your life, not detached from it.
POINT
C
When prayer disappears, so does much of what God wants to do through you.
Prayer is relational communication with God, and the goal of prayer is to draw from Heaven to history.
Biblical Context: The Greek word for prayer running through this passage is proseuchomai, which carries the sense of coming toward God in worshipful petition. It is not a magic formula or a chant; it is relational address to a Person. James, the brother of Jesus, was writing to scattered Jewish Christians facing trials, which is precisely why he refuses to let prayer stay ceremonial. For a people under pressure, prayer had to be a lifeline, not a liturgy.
PRACTICAL APPLICATION
Action Step
Audit your prayer life this week. Ask yourself honestly whether your prayers actually touch your real problems, your finances, your relationships, and your fears, or whether they are polite bookends you recite out of habit. Pick one real situation you are facing and bring it to God in specific, honest words today.
If prayer has quietly slipped to the sidelines, learn how to break the bondage of prayerlessness and move it back to the center of your life.
2
God’s Conditional Will: Why Your Prayers Matter
To understand why prayer carries such weight, you have to understand that God has two kinds of will: an unconditional will and a conditional will. His will is what He determines to happen, but it can come to pass in one of two ways.
God’s unconditional will is when He determines that something will happen irrespective of what anybody else does. It is not conditioned on us or on anyone. He is the Sovereign, and He sovereignly decides to bring it to pass all by Himself with no human involvement. But God’s conditional will is different. There are many things He has decided not to let happen until He gets cooperation from earth. There are many things He will not bring from Heaven into history unless there is a human being who will cooperate with His desire.
POINT
A
God desires all men to be saved, yet people are only saved when they believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. His will is real, but it is tied to a condition.
POINT
B
Many things in your life are tied to God’s conditional will, so they happen or do not happen based not on God’s decision but on your cooperation.
POINT
C
One of the primary mechanisms God has established to determine much of what He does on earth is the absence or presence of prayer.
“You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives.” (James 4:2-3, NKJV)
In other words, God is saying, “I wanted to give it to you, but you never came to Me for it. It was not because I did not want to give it. It was because you did not cooperate with getting it, because it was part of My conditional will.”
Biblical Context: The Greek word James uses for ask in 4:2-3 is aiteo, the term for a lesser party requesting something from a greater one, the way a child asks a father or a subject asks a king. It assumes a relationship of dependence. God built that dependence into His dealings with us on purpose, which is why Paul tells us in 1 Thessalonians 5:17 (NKJV) to “pray without ceasing” so that, whichever way God is working, we miss nothing.
PRACTICAL APPLICATION
Action Step
Stop assuming that whatever God wants will simply happen on its own. For the blessings, breakthroughs, and changes you long for, ask specifically and keep asking. Because you cannot always tell what is conditional and what is unconditional, bring everything to God in prayer so that nothing He was willing to give slips past you.
If you have been waiting on a breakthrough that has not come, consider these signs that God may be waiting on you to pray His will down.
3
Prayer Draws Heaven Into History
The goal of prayer is to draw from Heaven into history. It is to get eternity to make a statement in time. It is to make Heaven visible on earth, to get God to touch humanity, so that what is up there might do something, fix something, or change something down here. When God makes a big deal about prayer, we are essentially asking Him to release His will from Heaven to earth. We are giving Him our okay, cooperating with the part of His will that He conditioned on us.
“Prayer does not get God to do something He does not want to do, because you cannot make God do anything. What prayer does is access what He already wants to do, what He has already conditioned on your participation.” ~Tony Evans
“It will also come to pass that before they call, I will answer; and while they are still speaking, I will hear.” (Isaiah 65:24, NASB)
That means you are not praying to get God to do something; you are praying to pull down something He has already predetermined to do. If He has already answered before you asked, then why do you not yet have it? Because it still has to be pulled down, drawn from Heaven into history through prayer.
- Prayer is the mechanism by which the Kingdom of Heaven invades the kingdom of earth.
- The goal of prayer is that up there might do something, fix something, or change something down here.
POINT
A
If Jesus Himself had to pray to get His Heavenly Father to change something down here, how much more do you and I need to pray?
PRACTICAL APPLICATION
Action Step
When you pray, shift your posture from begging a reluctant God to drawing down a willing one. Pray God’s revealed promises back to Him with confidence, and then watch expectantly for the answer that He says is already prepared. Your job is not to convince Heaven; it is to pull Heaven’s answer into your history.
4
Prayer Is a Lifestyle, Not an Event
In the mind of the Bible, prayer is a lifestyle and not merely an event. If I told you, “Breathe without ceasing,” you would understand exactly what I meant, because if you cease breathing, you cease living. So when Paul says to pray without ceasing, he is saying this is just how you roll. Prayer is meant to be your spiritual breathing, the constant background rhythm of your life, not a scheduled appointment you keep and then forget.
“Pray without ceasing.” (1 Thessalonians 5:17, NKJV)
There is another picture that makes this even clearer. When you travel into another country, you must show a passport. The passport gives you permission to enter a new realm, a new locality. God has given every believer a toll-free number, an open line that grants you permission to leave earth and enter the sphere of Heaven through the mechanism of prayer. So prayer is not just saying some words; it is changing locations.
- The moment you pray, you leave the physical and enter the spiritual.
- Without prayer, you become limited to the physical realm alone.
- The only reason you pray is to get the spiritual God to enter into the physical situation.
“The passport to leave the physical and enter the spiritual is one word in Scripture, and that word is prayer.” ~Tony Evans
Biblical Context
The phrase “without ceasing” translates the Greek adialeiptos, which did not mean nonstop talking without a single pause. It was used of a hacking cough that keeps recurring. The idea is recurring regularity, a constant returning. Prayer, then, is not meant to be one long unbroken monologue but a continual coming back to God throughout the day, threading Him into every situation.
PRACTICAL APPLICATION
Action Step
Build short, recurring returns to God into your ordinary day. Turn your commute, your chores, and the pauses between tasks into moments of quick conversation with Him. Treat prayer like breathing and like a passport you keep using, not like an event you attend once and leave.
5
Suffering and Cheer: Always Communicate With God
Whether you are hurting or happy, there is no circumstance that leaves you with nothing to say to God.
“Is anyone among you suffering? Then he must pray. Is anyone cheerful? He is to sing praises.” (James 5:13, NASB)
Suffering means you are going through a difficult period, that something is hurting you. It could be physical hurt, financial hurt, circumstantial hurt, or relational hurt. All you know is that you are in pain. And notice the force of James’ command: he must pray. Not that he should pray, not that it would be nice if he prayed. If life has fallen on you, you better pray.
- Pain, in whatever form it takes, is always an invitation to pray.
- If you are hurting all the time, that simply means you should be praying all the time.
“One of the reasons God lets pain linger is to draw more prayer out of us, so we can actually shorten pain time by lengthening prayer time.” ~Tony Evans
If you are cheerful, you are to sing praises. A praise is an expression of value to the Lord, honoring Him physically and verbally. There is no such thing as silent praise; you can have silent worship, but praise is always visual and vocal.
If you are in pain, talk to God. If you are not in pain, praise God. Either way, you always stay in communication with God.
PRACTICAL APPLICATION
Action Step
Stop waiting for a crisis to pray and a holiday to praise. When pain hits, immediately turn it into a conversation with God instead of a complaint to people. When things go well, do not simply enjoy it silently; vocalize your gratitude and sing His praise out loud. Keep the line open in both directions.
6
When You Grow Weary, Call for the Elders and the Oil
A weary one, the person who, because of what they have been carrying, is not sure they can go on any further.
The Greek word for sick here means to be weary. The idea is not merely physical illness; it refers to its effect, the weariness it creates. It is the feeling behind “I’m sick and tired,” “I’m sick of this job,” “I’m sick of this circumstance.” You have been beat down, broke down, and torn up by the weight of life, and you are just tired. When life beats you down long enough and deep enough, you can even get tired of talking to God. The telephone line feels busy, and you feel like you are talking to yourself.
- When you hit that weariness, you need more than you. So you call the spiritual leadership of the church to pray for the breakthrough you cannot reach on your own.
- This is why you must be part of a local church, so that when you cannot go on, somebody else can keep you going on. You are not meant to be a Lone Ranger Christian.
- The elders are then told to anoint the weary one with oil, ministering to them at the point of their need.
❖ Writter’s Note
Special Spotlight
Oil had many uses in Scripture. It was medicinal, applied to wounds. It was used in massage to refresh and relax. In Psalm 23:5, when David says, “You anoint my head with oil,” he is describing the refreshing and encouragement he received from God in a hard situation. In the church, oil represents real ministry poured out on hurting people. Think of the paralyzed man in Mark 2:1-12. He could not get up on his own, but he had four friends who picked him up, carried him to Jesus, and lowered him through the roof.
Jesus healed the man for the sake of the four who carried him. When you cannot get up on your own, you need some people in your life who care enough to carry you to Jesus.
PRACTICAL APPLICATION
Action Step
When you are too weary to pray for yourself, do not isolate. Call your spiritual leaders and trusted believers and ask them to pray over you, carry you, and minister to you. And when you have strength, be the oil for someone else, whether that means driving them to the doctor, sitting with them in grief, or praying them through. Everybody here ought to be helping somebody.
7
The Prayer of Faith Restores and Forgives
God is a restoring God, and in the weariness of life He promises to restore. We need to clarify this honestly: not everyone who is physically sick gets completely well, and perfect health is not always restored in every situation. People in the will of God still got sick. Job was in the will of God when he got sick. All physical sickness is not due to personal sin.
POINT
A
Since the word sick means weary, what God guarantees to restore is the weariness while you wait for the circumstance to change.
POINT
B
Sometimes God takes you out of the trouble; other times He walks you through it, restoring you emotionally even while you wait for Him to restore you physically or circumstantially.
❖ Writter’s Note
Special Spotlight
- The prayer of faith is a prayer that acts like God is telling the truth.
Think of the people praying for rain during a drought. The adults prayed, and no rain came. Then a little boy came out to the center of town, prayed, and it rained. What was the difference? The little boy brought an umbrella. He was not just talking; he was expecting.
The prayer of faith is a prayer that acts like you believe God can actually do what you are asking.
All sickness is not due to sin, but sin can keep you sick. In 1 Corinthians 11, Paul says many are weak and sick among the believers because of unaddressed sin. That is why you need spiritual people around you who will help you face sin so you can get over being sick.
Biblical Context
The Greek word for restore is sozo, the same word used for “save.” It means to heal, preserve, make whole, and deliver, which is why it stretches beyond the body to the whole person. The verb “raise up” is egeiro, used of lifting someone who has fallen. God’s promise is not a guarantee of flawless health but a guarantee that He will lift and make whole the weary soul who trusts Him.
PRACTICAL APPLICATION
Action Step
When you pray, bring an umbrella. Ask God for the change you need, and then live and act as though you expect Him to answer. At the same time, let the Holy Spirit search you. If there is a sin keeping you weary and defeated, do not hide it; repent and deal with it so that healing and restoration can flow.
8
The Effective Prayer of a Righteous Man
Confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.” (James 5:16, NASB)
You only confess to someone who is going to pray for you, not talk about you. If they are not a prayer, they should not be your confessor. The one you open up to must be someone who will wrap themselves around you and walk with you spiritually, not someone looking for gossip, news, and information.
Then comes the word effective, which means energized. This is not the half-hearted, habitual prayer we rattle off before a meal without even caring whether God is listening because we want to get to the food before it gets cold. An energized prayer is a focused, God-centered prayer, accompanied by righteousness.
- A righteous person is not a perfect person; nobody is perfect. A righteous person is someone living to please God.
- The effective, focused, energized prayer of such a person can accomplish much, which means a whole lot, not just a little.
- Focus and faith, not fancy words, give prayer its power.
❖ Writter’s Note
Special Spotlight
Years ago, a member’s daughter was dying of cancer and the situation looked hopeless. Two pastors drove to the hospital straight from the office in suits and ties. When they saw the desperate situation, they both unbuttoned their jackets, took off their coats, loosened their ties, got down on the floor, and cried out, “God, we need You to come down now and intervene.” Through some supernatural means, things turned, and the cancer disappeared. They did not have anything special; they simply went to God with their minds, hearts, and focus fully in gear.
This is not “bless this food to my body.” This is focused, energized, God-centered prayer that can accomplish much.
PRACTICAL APPLICATION
Action Step
Choose your confessors wisely, trusting your struggles only to people who will pray for you rather than gossip about you. Then stop praying on autopilot. When you pray about something that matters, get your mind, heart, and focus fully in gear, strip away distraction, and pour your whole self into it. Energized prayer from a surrendered life accomplishes much.
9
Pray Like Elijah: Earnest, Biblical, and Persistent
Elijah was not from Krypton. He was not a super-prophet. He was a regular, ordinary flesh-and-blood man with no unique advantage over any other human being. So whatever is true about his praying is available to your praying. By prayer, he closed Heaven for three and a half years, and by prayer he opened it again. Heaven did not close and open on its own; he prayed and it closed, he prayed and it opened.
He prayed with earnest travail. On top of Mount Carmel, Elijah crouched down and put his face between his knees. That is the posture of a woman in labor in biblical days, who would crouch down, put her head down, and push until the baby came. Elijah was in labor, pushing until the rain came.
- You are called to birth God’s will from Heaven into history by calling it down and pushing it down until the baby of deliverance, healing, or victory comes.
- Like DirecTV signals already broadcast but unseen until the receiver is turned on, God’s answer is already out there, but it is not seen on your screen until prayer pulls it down.
People often ask how long they should pray. God only has three answers: yes, no, and wait. If He has not said yes and has not said no, then you keep praying until you get a yes or a no. You pray to completion.
PRACTICAL APPLICATION
Action Step
Pray with your Bible open, pointing God back to His own promises about your situation. Pray with earnestness, willing to travail rather than mumble. Listen for God’s voice so you can hear the rain before you see the cloud. And refuse to quit at the first look of “there is nothing.” Keep praying until Heaven gives you a clear yes or no, then move the moment you see even a fist-sized cloud.
Faith that heals is faith that acts; see what it takes to take a step of faith when God calls you forward.
Final Takeaway
Prayer is not the national anthem of your spiritual life, a tradition that gets things started but stays disconnected from the field of play. Prayer is the passport that moves you from the physical into the spiritual, the mechanism by which the Kingdom of Heaven invades the kingdom of earth. Because much of what God does is tied to His conditional will, your prayers genuinely matter. So pray when you suffer, praise when you are cheerful, call for help when you are weary, confess your sins, and pray with the earnest, biblical, persistent faith of Elijah, an ordinary man whose prayers closed and opened Heaven. If Jesus Himself prayed to get His Father to act, how much more should you? Keep praying until you draw Heaven into your history.
“
PERSONAL REFLECTION QUESTION
Where in your life have you been quietly waiting for God to act on His own, when He may actually be waiting on you to pray His will down from Heaven into your history?
