The problem with not having revelation is two-fold: we ask for the wrong thing and we fail to ask for the right thing.
We read in Mark 11:24 NKJV: 24 Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them. To believe implies being aligned with God’s principles and asking in line with His heart for our lives and those we are called to minister to. It is only then that we can believe that we shall have the answer to our prayer and it will be done for us. God wants to answer our prayers and give us our heart’s desire but His desire is that we tune into His heart first so that everything we desire may be manifested.
We Ask Amiss
God wants to answer our prayers; he wants us to have the best blessings possible. Like a loving Father, He watches over us desiring to show us the way that leads to eternal life.
However when we walk in this world, we are often taken in by the lusts and the desires of the flesh. This is the reason we ask amiss. If we were perfectly aligned with God’s plans, we would ask for the right things at the right time, and God would answer our prayers.
Biblical Examples On How Not to Ask and How to Ask
While explaining the principle of seeking God, James says in chapter 4, verses 2-4: “2You crave what you do not have; you kill and covet, but are unable to obtain it. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask. 3And when you do ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may squander it on your pleasures. 4You adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore, whoever chooses to be a friend of the world renders himself an enemy of God.…”
We see numerous examples in the Bible—take the example of Saul whom Samuel anoints as king after the people ask for a king to fight battles for them (1 Sam 8:19). Saul is anointed king by Samuel and the people rejoice greatly. He starts out well and Samuel says to the people, “Do you see him whom the Lord has chosen, that there is no one like him among all the people?” So all the people shouted and said, “Long live the king!”
Soon after, the Ammonites besiege Jabesh-Gilead and ask for disgraceful terms to make peace with Israel. Saul burns with anger after the Spirit of the Lord comes on him in power and he breaks into the camp of the Ammonites and slaughters them until the heat of the day (1 Sam 11:11). Thus the Lord rescues Israel.
Shortly after, Saul’s son Jonathan attacks the Philistine outpost and the Philistines assemble for war with soldiers as numerous as the sand on the seashore. Saul’s troops start quaking with fear on seeing them and hide themselves in caves and thickets and cross the Jordan. When Saul waits for seven days and Samuel does not come to offer the sacrifices to the Lord to give them victory, Saul takes the burnt offering and offers it himself.
When Samuel arrives, he rebukes Saul for disobeying the command of the Lord because only the priests were entitled to offer sacrifices to the Lord. He pronounces, “Now your kingdom shall not continue. The Lord has sought for Himself a man after His own heart, and the Lord has commanded him to be commander over His people, because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you.” 1 Sam 13:14 NKJV
Saul disobeyed God in the moment of testing and thus lost alignment with God because He was not aligned with God’s ways or His timing. So he could no longer stay in the position of king because he had failed to fulfill the objective of being aligned with God’s heart. Therefore God had to choose David to take his place because God knew that no matter how successful David would become, he would always remember his God and get back in alignment with Him.
We are not validating any of those occasions when David slipped and compromised on godly values, but we must also recognize that he would not stay in his fallen condition but would humble himself each time—take on the punishment that God gave him and move on with God. He could not stay in sin for long but was always repentant of the evil he had done and cried out with many tears seeking God’s forgiveness.
A child of God is always aligned with God’s perfect plan and vision for his life. Even if we stray out of God’s will at times, God will help bring us back as He did with David. God sent prophet Nathan to rebuke David for his sin with Bethsheba and Uriah (2 Sam 12:1-10). He speaks to him about his sin and gets him to know that he had moved out of God’s will. David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” (vs. 13)
This is why David was called by God as a man after God’s own heart. God can only bless those who are totally aligned with Him in His ways and His manner of thinking and doing things. God could use Jesus His Son perfectly to do His entire will because Jesus was always aligned with the Father’s heart and would not do anything out of God’s will. This is the reason Jesus’ prayers were always answered. So we too must align our hearts and minds to seek God’s will at all times so that our prayers will be answered. Let us not ask amiss so that God is obliged to answer our prayers. Amen.