I suppose it really depends on who you ask as to what kind of response you will get. Some will answer with a hearty amen. Others may be more hesitant, while some may betray their doubt. “God seems to hear the prayers of others but for me it’s like a brass ceiling. Nothing seems to get through.” So, what about you? How would you or how will you answer that question, “Does God hear my prayers?” 

It may seem presumptuous to us when we read biographies of men like John Hyde, known as Praying Hyde or Smith Wigglesworth, who was said to have an open heaven or even George Mueller, who prayed in the resources for his orphanage. Yet, as one reads the biographies of these and many others, there was a progression in their spiritual development that moved them to a place of absolute certainty in the question of answered prayer. Not only did God hear their prayers, but they could walk in the confidence that their prayers would be answered.

“A HUMAN life, filled with the presence and power of God, is one of God’s choicest gifts to His church and to the world.” (Pierson, “George Mueller of Bristol“)

Can we also walk with the same confidence that these saints had? Can you know that you both have an audience with God and that He is answering your prayers? If the biographies are any indication, then the answer is yes. We will be exploring together how we also can have a rich and effective prayer life, walking in certainty that God both hears and answers our prayers!

When you approach the discipline of prayer, for it is a discipline, what is your starting place? Do you begin with the Lord’s Prayer? Do you begin with the Gospel of John or 1 John? Maybe you begin with the words of James. Does it really matter where you begin? I think it does. As with saints who have gone on before us, we also can pray with full assurance that God hears and answers prayers.

“Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him”. (1 John 5:15-16)

Are you at that place in your spiritual journey? Would you like to be?

Blessings!

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