Breakthrough PrayerIhe Atụ

Praying According to the Will and Word of God 

One of the fundamental purposes of prayer is that the will of God be done on earth as it is in heaven. Jesus was a Man of prayer, and what characterized His life was His strong desire to please His Father and do His will. (See, for example, Matthew 6:9–10; 26:39, 42; John 4:34.) Therefore, when someone merely prays that God would fulfill their own desires, they demonstrate that they don’t really know Him. The more intimate our communion with Him is, the more clearly we will understand His plans and purposes.

For us to pray from heaven to earth, we have to be in unity and harmony with the Father. Accordingly, the objective of prayer is that our spirits be aligned with God’s Holy Spirit, who dwells in us, so that the divine within us calls to the divine from heaven. Our prayers must seek to accomplish God’s will as revealed to us by the Holy Spirit through His Word. For example, the Word teaches it is God’s will for all people to repent and be reconciled to Him. The apostle Peter wrote, “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).

Our ability to influence our situations and the world around us will increase as our knowledge of God’s Word increases. We will never rise or grow beyond our level of knowledge; therefore, we must continually seek to increase our knowledge of God and His Word, for the purpose of being established in the truth.

God’s Word alone justifies and endorses the petitions and declarations we make in prayer before His throne. Praying from the soul, or from the center of our desires and emotions, is not the same as praying from the Word. Our souls are not always aligned with God’s purposes, so when people pray in this way, they often ask God for things He has not promised to give, or they declare things that are not in His Word. These prayers are usually based in self-pity, and they are attempts to control or manipulate a situation. Additionally, they are subjective because, depending on the emotion of the moment, a person might ask for one thing or the other. What they ask for has no stability to it, much less any divine foundation or kingdom purpose.

What should we do in order to pray correctly? We must stop praying from the center of our emotions and start praying according to the solid foundation of God’s Word. When we go before God, we must remain in Him and hold on to what His eternal Word says—even in the middle of the worst situation we may be going through.

Four Principles for Receiving Answers to Prayer

How can we become better aligned with God’s purposes and receive immediate and accelerated answers to prayer? We need to know—and act on—the revelation contained in the following four principles of God’s will, which will enable us to break through all spiritual stagnation:

1. Know the Will of God

The will of God is not something we can know in a natural way. There is no scientific method for comprehending it. Neither does the human mind understand it instinctively. It is something the Holy Spirit reveals to us when we maintain a relationship with Him. For us to know God’s will, it is first necessary to know Him as a Person. For that, we must walk with Him daily, dedicating time for intimacy with Him through prayer, as well as for reading and studying His Word.

2. Remain in the Will of God

Knowing the will of God is one thing, but remaining firm in it is another. Jesus said, “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you” (John 15:7). To remain in the Lord is to walk in His will. To do this, it is necessary to abandon ourselves completely to Him, allowing Him to work in all His fullness. When we get to that point, we no longer assert our own will over His will; rather, we freely surrender to His purposes and desires.

3. Do the Will of God

“But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves” (James 1:22). It is not enough to know the will of God; it is necessary to do it. If we don’t act on it, we will become merely “religious” and our faith will fade, no matter how much knowledge we have. When we do His will, we are synchronized with the rhythm of faith. “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17)—but we see the manifestation of our faith by acting on what we have heard from God. Not doing God’s will is the same as never having heard it. When someone doesn’t act according to the spiritual knowledge they have received or learned, the devil comes and makes them doubt, and the rhythm of faith is lost. (See, for example, Matthew 13:19.)

4. Speak According to the Will of God

The fourth fundamental principle for having our prayers answered is that we must speak the will of God. This refers to declaring and decreeing His will. If we know God, His will has been revealed to us, and if we remain in His will and act on it, then when we speak, His answer will be immediate. When Jesus performed miracles, He didn’t pray and ask God to heal the sick; instead, He declared, “Be healed!” or “Rise up and walk!” When we are living in unity with God’s will and we declare something, it is as if God Himself is speaking, because we decree on His behalf, with His authority and from His identity.

If your life is aligned with the above four principles of God’s will, you have access to the power and authority of God. You now have the same power that Jesus had when He was on earth, in order to act in His name. Jesus said, “I can of Myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me” (John 5:30). Again, this knowledge of the Father’s will was the secret of His success when He had to demonstrate the power of God.

It is necessary to examine our hearts to make sure we have truly aligned ourselves with the will of God. If we haven’t been speaking and acting according to His perfect will, we are in sin due to disobedience; therefore, we must repent and line ourselves up with His purposes and desires. The moment we repent, we will be in harmony with heaven.

Thought: We don’t remain in God’s will by accident, but by intentional obedience to the revelation of His purposes.