How to Get Your Prayers Answered Through God’s Word Mark 11:24
Have you ever prayed about something you needed from God and wondered why you weren't getting results? You prayed. You believed. You asked God to meet the need. But what did you base your prayer on? Did you find scripture that covers what you're asking for? You see, many people pray about their needs without first finding out what God's Word says about them. And even when they do know a scripture, they may simply be repeating something they've heard somebody else say. That's not what we're talking about. If you're going to believe that you receive from God, you need to know what His Word says, find it FIRST in YOUR Bible, get that Word down in your spirit, and don't ignore the Holy Spirit who lives in you to help you. So how do you do that? That's what we're going to look at today so grab your Bible and let’s talk about How to Get Your Prayers Answered Through God’s Word on this week’s Light on Life.
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This Week: This week on Light on Life, discover why receiving answers to prayer begins with finding what God’s Word says about what you are asking for and following the Holy Spirit’s help.
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Accept the Challenge
Find the Word. Then Believe You Receive.
What are you believing God for right now? This week, ask the Holy Spirit for His help, then get your Bible out and find the scripture that covers your case.
Don’t just take somebody else’s word for it. Find it FIRST in YOUR Bible.
Find the Word. Then believe you receive.
Scripture:
Mark 11:24 (NKJV) —
Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.
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Each week's podcast also contains a question designed to encourage testimony. Testimony is vital to a believers life. We overcome by it (Rev. 12:11).
This week's question:
Join This Conversation
Question:
What are you believing God for right now, and have you found Scripture that covers what you are asking for?
Share:
How has finding what God actually says in His Word changed the way you approach prayer?
Remember:
Don’t simply take somebody else’s word for it. Find it FIRST in YOUR Bible. Ask the Helper for His help.
Find the Word. Then believe you receive.
About Emery and Sharon
For nearly five decades, Emery has devoted his life to helping people grow in Christ through the power of the Word and the leading of the Holy Spirit.
Together with his wife, Sharon — his partner in life and ministry for 44 years — he equipped believers to live Spirit-filled, practical lives of faith.
At the heart of the mission is this: helping believers apply God's words so faith becomes active and unstoppable.
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Podcast Notes:
Well again, welcome.
Let’s talk to the Lord.
Father God, thank you for your Word. You have shown us how to receive answers from you. You have shown us the way of faith, the way of believing to receive. Increase our understanding and our spiritual perception of these truths. Thank you for helping us in our interactions with you. We give you all the praise, glory, and honor in Jesus’, Amen.
The Prayer of Believing That You Receive: What Does It Mean to Ask?
1 John 5:14–15 (KJV) — 14 And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: 15 And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.
Last week, we began a series that focuses on some steps you can take to receive a direct answer in prayer from God.
Remember, don’t get hung up on the steps.
The steps are just an organization piece.
Steps help organize our thinking.
We began by laying a little groundwork and looking at the nine kinds of prayer that a Jesus follower could pray.
What happens with a lot of Bible subjects is that people make beef stew out of them.
We just throw it all in the same pot.
But there are different kinds of prayer with different purposes.
Believing you receive is not the Prayer of Consecration.
The Prayer of Commitment is not the Prayer of Agreement.
Supplication is not Intercession.
Praying in the Spirit covers all realms of prayer.
That’s why we need to know what kind of prayer we’re praying and the principles from God’s Word that govern that particular kind of prayer.
Know what you’re praying. Know how it works.
If you get loose and sloppy here, confusion is going to be the result.
Get clear about these kinds of prayer and then you can pray with understanding.
You can pray with faith.
You can pray knowing what the Word of God says about the prayer you’re praying.
And that’s where we’re headed.
We’re going to take one of these nine kinds of prayer—believing that you receive—and begin looking at the steps that will help organize our thinking so that we can receive direct answers to prayer from God.
Remember, God is our focus.
His Word has the answer.
So get your Bible and let’s go to Mark eleven and verse twenty-four because that verse houses the Prayer of Believing that You Receive.
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.
Let’s start with the Word ’ask’ and with that thought here is the Definition of the Day.
The Greek word ’ask’ [αἰτέω] means to ask or demand one’s share.
The word is used seventy times in the New Testament.
What is helpful to know is that Jesus NEVER used this word when talking to God the Father.
John 14:16 (NASB 2020) — 16 “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, so that He may be with you forever;
Here we have the word ’ask’ again but, it’s a different Greek word.
This word ’ask’ [ἐρωτάω] means to ask in an intimate conversational manner.
The manner of asking is based on the relationship and the shared values of both parties.
So, Jesus is not demanding anything of the Father—He has the closest relationship you can have to God and so based on that comes His request to His heavenly Father.
Now, if we bring this into the fact that people have different levels of fellowship with God, we can see the need for these two words.
The truth here is that no matter what level of relationship you enjoy with God, He has provided a word for you that meets you where you are so that you can get an answer to prayer.
You don’t have to wait until you have the highest fellowship to get your need met.
God came down to meet you with a word for where you are.
Marvelous.
Rightly Divide the Word: Cut a Straight Path to the Truth
These next two passages will lay some additional groundwork for us for understanding the Prayer of Believing that You Receive.
2 Timothy 2:15 (KJV) — 15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
The passage in the King James starts with the word ’study.’
So here’s what you have to understand about the KJV of the Bible.
At the time it was written the word **’study’ [spoudazo] meant to make haste, or be eager about doing something or applying oneself to a task with diligence.
Study the Bible so you can show yourself approved.
Many translations, like the NASB and the ESV pick this definition up by replacing the word study with the word diligence.
But now, here’s the thing, you end up at the same place without the word ’study.’
Because the Word of God says that a person who is approved is one who ’rightly divides’ the Word of truth.
That’s the next word we should take aim at.
I tell you, you are in for a treat—what a great Greek word ‘rightly dividing’ is.
The ’rightly dividing’ [ὀρθοτομέω] means to guide the word of truth along a straight path (like a road that goes straight to its goal) without being turned aside by debates or disrespectful talk.[1. Karl C. Ellis, “The Nature of Biblical Exegesis,” Bibliotheca Sacra (1980), 154].
Think of a forest that’s wooded and you are there cutting a path in a straight direction to get through to the treasure on the other side of the trees.
Why are you doing this?
Well, you’re not just doing this for yourself.
You’re doing it so that the person that is coming behind you can get straight to the truth without having to deviate all over the place.
These truths are precious pearls in the economy of God.
I’m doing this for you here in this podcast—cutting a straight path to the truth.
Now you need to go and do likewise for the people that are in your world so that they can come to the knowledge of God as well without deviating all over the place.
The Lasting Impact and Power of the Word
1 John 1:1–2 (KJV) — 1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life; 2 (For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;)
Notice these four witnesses to the life of Jesus given to us by John.
I put them in bold print for you to see them in the verse.
Have heard.
Have seen.
Have looked upon.
Have handled.
In our English translation, all of these appear in the past tense and they should because they are.
But there is something else that the Greek shows us about the first two in this list: have heard and have seen.
They are in the past tense with ongoing influence.
Ongoing influence means what we have heard in the past is still ringing in our ears.
Ongoing influence means we have seen Jesus and we can’t get what we saw out of our minds.
Then John says they looked upon Him and handled Him.
These were actual historical experiences with Jesus.
Those are things John and the other apostles actually did when Jesus walked with them on the earth.
But John is writing this letter almost 65 years after Jesus went back to heaven.
So more than six decades later, what they heard and saw and handled was still with them.
That’s the lasting impact and power of Jesus, the Word made flesh.
Now this brings us to the Prayer of Believing that You Receive.
What Is the Prayer of Believing That You Receive?
This is a prayer that you pray whereby you ask God concerning your needs.
It is a prayer that you uniquely pray for yourself.
Before you pray this prayer understand that all prayer must be based on the Word of God.
So, before you pray this prayer, find scripture that covers the thing you are asking for.
That’s why 2 Timothy 2:15 and 1 John 1:1 are vital for you to know and walk in.
It’s important that you rightly divide the Word.
It’s vital that you hear, see, gaze upon, and dare I say it? — handle the Word of God.
Why is all of this so critical?
It’s because the Word of God IS the will of God.
You can’t believe you receive from God if you don’t know from His Word that what you’re asking for is His will.
Find the Word. Then believe you receive.
Isaiah 55:11 (NKJV) — 11 So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.
And if you need another witness from the New Testament.
John 15:7 (NKJV) — 7 If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.
It’s when your will aligns with His words that ‘it shall be done for you.’
So the Word must abide in you, that’s heard, seen, gazed upon and handled.
Once you are convinced that you have scripture that covers the thing you are asking for, you are in great position to take the next step.
Find the Scripture First in Your Bible
But before you do, let’s clear up some misconceptions about ‘finding scripture that covers your case.’
Finding scripture does not mean ACT on what you heard a pastor, an evangelist or any other minister say.
It does not mean act on what you heard any person say, no matter how well you may respect them.
Find scripture means exactly that, find it FIRST in YOUR Bible.
Take the time to find it.
Find the Word. Then believe you receive.
Proverbs 4:20–22 (KJV) — 20 My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings. 21 Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart. 22 For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh.
To have the result you are looking for from God, you must allow the Word to abide in you and to do that, you must FIND the scripture that covers what you are asking.
Finding the scripture means you should be able to know where it is if not be able to quote it.
Note, what I said — quote it.
I didn’t say memorize it.
Memorizing puts the Word in your head.
It is better to have the Word of God—that particular scripture, in your spirit.
Find the Word—but Follow the Holy Spirit
Find scripture that covers your case.
Finding scripture also does not mean ignore input from the Holy Spirit of God who is abiding in you.
Proverbs 3:5–6 (AMP) — 5 Lean on, trust in, and be confident in the Lord with all your heart and mind and do not rely on your own insight or understanding. 6 In all your ways know, recognize, and acknowledge Him, and He will direct and make straight and plain your paths.
What does lean on, trust in, and be confident in the Lord with all your heart and mind and do not rely on your own insight or understanding, mean?
It means ask Him for direction, and wait to hear His answer.
I practiced this exact thing just recently and with that thought, here is the Illustration of the Day.
I developed some shooting pains in my ear and some corresponding throat symptoms to boot.
As I sat in my room, I asked the Lord how He wanted me to handle this.
For years and years, I have quoted healing scriptures: “Himself took my stripes and bore my sicknesses and by your stripes, I was healed. If I was healed, I am healed now.”
That’s Matthew 8:17 and 1 Peter 2:24 stitched together.
I could have gone that direction.
Those words abide in me.
But I know and you should know as well that God the Father has a variety of ways to do things.
Just look at the ministry of Jesus for a moment.
One day, He spit on the ground and made mud of the spittle and put it on a blind man’s eyes.
That blind man was healed but did Jesus ever do that again?
To yet another paralyzed man who was let down through the roof of the house where Jesus was teaching — to that man Jesus said, “Son, your sins are forgiven you.”
That man was healed.
Did Jesus ever do that again?
You see there is absolute virtue in asking the Father how He wants to handle something in your life.
John 5:19–20 (WUESTNT) — 19 Accordingly, Jesus answered and was saying to them, Most assuredly, I am saying to you, The Son is not able to be doing by himself anything except that which He is seeing the Father doing; for whatever things that One is doing, these things also the Son in like manner is doing. For the Father is fond of the Son and is constantly showing Him all things which He himself is doing.
Let me get back to where I was with shooting ear ache pain and a sore throat.
As I waited, and in this case it was just a matter of a few minutes, the Lord said, “Double up on your Bible reading.”
Well, I had read one chapter that morning, so double your Bible reading meant read two chapters.
So I picked up my Bible and began to read a second chapter in the New Testament and I didn’t get but two or three verses into it and all of a sudden my nose started running.
The pressure relieved on my ears.
I went to bed a few hours later, woke up the next morning I was about 60–70 percent better.
The day after that, I was completely well.
I never had to take any medicine.
What does reading an extra chapter of the Bible have to do with healing?
We already looked at that verse.
Proverbs 4:20–22 (KJV) — 20 My son, attend to my words… For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh.
Now, here’s the point I was making earlier.
You’re hearing me give this testimony.
Some will hear it and then just imitate it.
“Well, if you got healed reading an extra chapter, then that’s what I’m going to do.”
You know what will happen when you do that?—nothing.
Do you understand?—you need to not ignore the Holy Spirit of God in you.
John 16:13–14 (AMP) — 13 But when He, the Spirit of Truth (the Truth-giving Spirit) comes, He will guide you into all the Truth (the whole, full Truth). For He will not speak His own message [on His own authority]; but He will tell whatever He hears [from the Father; He will give the message that has been given to Him], and He will announce and declare to you the things that are to come [that will happen in the future]. 14 He will honor and glorify Me, because He will take of (receive, draw upon) what is Mine and will reveal (declare, disclose, transmit) it to you.
The Holy Spirit Is Your Helper in Prayer
Earlier in this podcast, we looked at the word ’ask’ in John 14:16 but, there’s another valuable nugget in this verse and the one that follows.
John 14:16–17 (AMP) — 16 And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Comforter (Counselor, Helper, Intercessor, Advocate, Strengthener, and Standby), that He may remain with you forever— 17 The Spirit of Truth, Whom the world cannot receive (welcome, take to its heart), because it does not see Him or know and recognize Him. But you know and recognize Him, for He lives with you [constantly] and will be in you.
So, I just read to you from the Amplified Translation because it blows up for us the seven-fold meaning of the Comforter.
The word to focus on in our context is the word Helper.
The Holy Spirit of God is your Helper.
Now, we have already established from Proverbs 3:5–6 that we are not to lean on our thinking.
Here’s a thought, instead of leaning on your own insights, ask the Helper for His help.
Say to the Lord, the Lord who is the Spirit, ‘What scripture do you want to stand on to handle this need?’
To reinforce you in this acknowledge the back half of verse seventeen.
The Spirit of Truth, Whom… you know and recognize, for He lives with you [constantly] and will be in you.
Jesus was talking to the disciples here.
They were eyewitnesses to the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of Jesus.
The disciples were in the ’know’ [ginōskō] and they recognized Him.
The Greek word ’know’ [ginōskō] is a present tense verb and it means an ongoing spiritual experiential knowledge.
It means that you don’t have a momentary recognition of the Holy Spirit but an active ongoing one.
The point is, don’t ignore the Help.
Make it a lifestyle choice to always trust in your Helper, the Holy Spirit.
You are not alone in your prayer life.
The Parable of the Sower: How to Receive the Word
Now one last thing before we close out this podcast on finding scripture that covers the thing you are asking for.
And that’s having a basic understanding of the Parable of the Sower.
Mark 4:13–14 (NKJV) — 13 And He said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables? 14 The sower sows the word.
Jesus told us very clearly that we must know the meaning of this parable.
The parable is about the Word of God and how people engage it.
Since you are engaging the Word so that it helps you with your prayer life, this parable then must become important to you.
How does the Word work?
Well if you read what Jesus said in Mark four, you will see how the Word doesn’t work in the first three cases: the Word sown along the wayside, among rocky places and, thorny ground.
The ground we want to look at today is the Word sown in good soil or the fourth kind of ground.
Mark 4:20 (NASB 2020) — 20 And those are the ones sown with seed on the good soil; and they hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirty, sixty, and a hundred times as much.”
Notice, they didn’t just hear the Word, they accepted the Word.
The Greek word ’accept’ [paradechomai] is the one we want to look at and with that thought, here is the Definition of the Day.
The word ’accept’ [paradechomai] means more than simply to “receive” or to “hear”.
The implication is that people believe the Word, put it into their hearts and take it as truth[2. Robert G. Bratcher and Eugene Albert Nida, A Handbook on the Gospel of Mark, UBS Handbook Series (New York: United Bible Societies, 1993), 143.]
We are to receive the Word of God with approval.
We are to say yes to the Word with corresponding action.
We’re not talking passive ‘in-one-ear and out-the-other’ kind of hearing.
Passive hearing is super-bad news.
It does not produce the results you are looking for.
So, what is your attitude concerning God’s Word?
The people in Berea during Paul’s day nicely modeled the right approach and attitude for what constitutes good soil: the kind of heart that receives the seed of God’s Word that produces results.
Acts 17:10–11 (NASB 2020) — 10 The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews. 11 Now these people were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so.
The phrase ’more noble-minded’ is one word in the Greek and it describes a person who has a willingness to learn and evaluate something fairly.
This indicates an open minded person who maybe has their inclination toward prejudice checked.
Now, there are two dispositions that the people of Berea had that gave credence to their listening posture: great eagerness and a daily examining of the scriptures that they heard.
The phrase ‘great eagerness’ captures a people who are wholeheartedly receptive.
They were completely open to what they were hearing.
The word for ‘eagerness’ [prothumia] describes the disposition or attitude with which you go at the Word of God.
It’s an attitude of receptive willingness.
So for you and me who are endeavoring to receive from God, attitude is of prime importance.
Great eagerness means great receptivity.
Finding a scripture that covers your case is not drudgery.
If you find the Word, you found the answer.
Isn’t that exciting to you?
The second thing that marks the noble-minded soul is that they, examined the Scriptures at the rate at which they heard them.
This is most critical if you want to receive from God.
Examining the scriptures means you do not take what people say about the Word at face value.
No, you must do the examining.
The word ’examine’ [anakrino] means to judge something deeply below the surface.
So can you picture a person, eager and intense in focus trying to grasp the meaning of a verse of scripture?
The people of Berea are an active example of good soil in that they accepted the Word with the right attitude and the right focus.
That kind of soil or heart produces.
If you want to believe that you receive from God, find a scripture that covers your case.
Find the Word. Then believe you receive.
Find the Word for Yourself
So, let’s bring all of this home.
What are you believing God for right now?
What is the thing you have been praying about?
Do you know what to do?
Don’t just automatically do what you’ve always done.
Ask the Helper for His help.
Ask Him, “What scripture do You want me to stand on to handle this need?”
Then listen and obey.
Agian, find that scripture FIRST in YOUR Bible.
Then stay with that scripture.
Hear it.
See it.
Look at it.
Handle the Word of God until that Word gets down in your spirit.
Let that Word abide in you.
You have the Word of God and you have the Holy Spirit of God living in you to help you.
Find the Word. Then believe you receive.
Because, if you find the Word, you found the answer.
As we close today, here this word of exhortation via tongues and interpretation.
Tongues and Interpretation
A great, great error amongst my people.
They’re too casual about what they hear.
They don’t take what they hear and examine and search, and look at and see.
They hear it, but they don’t hear it so it rings in their ears.
They see it but they don’t see it enough so that it penetrates their thinking.
They gaze upon it but they wonder more than they believe.
This is most critical unto them and unto you.
That you take the Word of God and see it through.
And understand and know that the things that I say.
Coming through the mouth of my servant is for you today.
So walk in the light of that which you know.
But also examine the scriptures to see and know the things I am saying to you now.
So teach this; it is most critical for them to know.
Find scripture that covers that which you are requiring of Me.
If this podcast helped you, consider sharing it with someone else.
These and other podcasts are available at emeryhorvath.com.
While you are there check out the Bible Study Courses and the downloadable PDF guides for personal study, as well as a Teachers Guide for group Bible studies.
How to Get Your Prayers Answered Through God’s Word.
You guys have a great God week and we will see you next time for another edition of Light on Life.
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