How to Receive an Answer from God
Luke 1:5-23
Today I want to talk to you about how God answers prayer or "How to Receive An Answer From God." There are four attitudes I believe we need in order to have answers to our prayers.
I heard a story one time about a young girl who wrote a letter to a missionary. It was a prayer letter and she was trying to lend her support to the missionary. Evidently she'd been told not to request a response to her letter because the missionaries were very busy. So the missionary got a kick out of her letter. It said, "Dear Mr. Missionary, we are praying for you. But we are not expecting an answer."
I think that little girl summarized the prayers lives of most Christians. We do a lot of praying, but we don't expect an answer. Why doesn't God answer? We're going to look at that today. How does God answer? We need four attitudes in order to receive an answer from God.
1. You must be willing to let God answer in His own time.
That means according to His schedule, His timetable. In other words -- whenever God thinks it's best. The fact is, God often delays answers to prayers. He doesn't answer everything immediately. Why? Why does He wait? Why does He withhold the gift sometimes for a period of time?
I think that was the reason Zacharias was so skeptical. Sometimes I have a hard time believing God's going to answer my prayers. But I believe if God sent a special deliverer angel to meet me face to face and say, "Jim, I'm here to tell you, God has answered your prayer." I think I'd be convinced. I think I would be pretty certain it was going to happen.
Zacharias was an amazing guy. An angel comes and says, "God sent me here. I am Gabriel, the archangel and you're going to have your prayer answered." Then Zacharias says in v. 18 "How can I be sure of this?" He's the ultimate skeptic. Why didn't he believe it?
Because he had stopped praying that prayer years before. If you read the passage casually it looks like "He went into the temple. He prayed. And the angel came and said, `Your prayer’s been answered.'" But the fact of the matter is, they had given up on this prayer years earlier. Zacharias said, "I am an old man and my wife is well along in years." (That's diplomacy!) He says, "We gave up on that prayer a long time ago."
Luke 1:7, 18
The fact is, God often delays. And the first principle is you've got to let God answer in His own time. v. 13 "The angel said to him, `Don't be afraid Zacharias, your prayer had been heard'" The tense of the word "heard" literally means it's already happened. It happened a long time ago.
God answers our prayers immediately, but sometimes there's a delay in the giving of the gift. He hears it immediately. There's no problem with it taking time for your prayer to get to God. It is there instantly. But sometimes He delays the giving of the answer for a period of time and that is one of the hardest things we have to learn.
Sometimes, the hardest concept for us to learn is this. We don't understand the difference between "no" and "not yet". It's hard for us. Immature people don't understand the difference between "no" and "not yet". The mark of maturity in the Christian life is this: How long can you wait? That's a mark of maturity in life. Babies always have to have it immediately. But a mature person can wait.
I talked to a person once who said, "I tried prayer. I prayed for two weeks and nothing happened so I've given up on prayer. I've lost my faith in prayer." No, you haven't lost your faith. You've lost your patience.
Why does God delay our answers to prayer? Usually it's because He needs to prepare us first. He needs to get us ready. He wants to bless us and in order to give that blessing to us, He has to prepare us for it. Many times we are asking like a little child that wants everything now. It's like when a 4-year-old is asking the parent to drive the car. She can't do that because she is not mature enough. She has to grow up. God waits many times to answer our prayer for us to grow up. Some of our prayers require us to grow up to get the answer.
Sometimes I kind of feel like Habakkuk. Habakkuk's big question was "Why?" "How long, Lord?" he says in Habakkuk 1:2. Have you ever said that? "How long are You going to let me go through this?" You wonder, "If God sees everything I'm going through and if God really cares about what I'm going through and if God has the power to help me get out of what I'm going through, what's up, God? Why aren't You working?" That's a legitimate question. If He sees and He cares and He's got the power to do something about it, why doesn't He? Why doesn't He work it out?
The answer is, He usually wants to change you first. God wants to change your attitude. After you've learned the right attitude, then God's free to go to work on the problem. But God is more interested in making you mature than He is about making life easy.
So He starts by saying, "You get your life changed and then I'll help you work on the problem."
Do you have a financial difficulty? Maybe what God's saying is "I want you to learn the right attitude about money first and then I can help you out." Is there a problem in your marriage? Maybe God's saying, "First you need to change your attitude and then I can start working in your marriage."
The fact of the matter is this: God is never late. His timing is perfect. We may think He's late but He's never late. God's delays are not God's denials. "Not yet" does not mean "No".
What do I do? How do I pray when prayer is being delayed? I've prayed and it's not been answered immediately, what do I do? How long should I pray?
You keep on praying until one of three things happens:
You get the answer. When you get it then you can stop praying. Obvious.
You get the assurance that you're going to get it.
And sometimes God does that. He says, "I'm going to give you this" and you're sure of it and you stop asking God for it and you start thanking God for it and you start acting on it. Mark 11:24 says, "When you pray believe that you've receive it, and you'll get it." You believe it in advance.
When I was accepted to seminary, I got a letter one day that said I had received admission and a partial scholarship. I didn't wait for the money to come in to start acting on it, I started getting ready. I bought some new clothes for seminary. I got ready and said goodbye to my friends and I took off. I acted in faith. I had the assurance that it was coming. We can act that way with God.
So you keep praying until you get it or until you get the assurance.
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You keep praying until God reveals to you that it's not His will.
When you figure that out, you become uncomfortable praying about it and you don't have any peace so you stop praying. When God reveals to you that it is not His will, He will make you uncomfortable until you discover His will.
One example of this was Paul and Silas. They kept praying about where they should go. But the Holy Spirit prevented them from going into a certain region.
Now when they had gone through Phrygia and the region of Galatia, they were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach the word in Asia.
(Acts 16:6 NKJV)
So in order to receive an answer from God, one, we must be willing to let God answer in His time.
2. We must be willing to let God answer in His own way.
Not only whenever He thinks best but however He thinks best. God's ways are always better and usually bigger when He answers. The Bible says in Isaiah 55:8-9, "My ways are not your ways." My ways are higher, God says. The reason God often delays an answer to prayer is so He can answer in a way bigger than you thought originally.
What would have happened in this story if God would have answered Elizabeth and Zacharias' request for a baby immediately? What would they have gotten? A little Jewish baby. And they would have loved him or her. They would have cherished the baby and it would have been great. But God delayed the request for a number of years and then when He answered He gave them John the Baptist, cousin of Jesus Christ. The last Old Testament prophet, the only prophet able to see the prophecies of Jesus fulfilled, the forerunner of the Messiah. John the Baptist was like the announcer. He was the forerunner saying, "Here He is!" and is pointing to Him. Because God delayed the request, He didn't just give them any old baby. He gave them a John the Baptist.
God delayed Hanna's request for a son many years. But when He finally gave her a son, He gave her a Samuel, the greatest Old Testament prophet. God does this.
The prodigal son. What did he say? "Give me my inheritance!" He got it and it ruined him.
Sometimes, when God wants to do something great in our lives, it takes time. When we are impatient with our prayers, then we can get into trouble.
God says, "Let me answer in My time and My way." You're praying about a job. You want to get this job change and all of a sudden it falls through. Don't sweat it! God's got a better idea. You're praying about a situation. All of a sudden, it doesn't work out. Don't worry about it. God's got Plan B. Actually it is Plan A -- yours was Plan B! Let God answer in His time and His way. Sometimes the worst thing in the world for us is to get our requests answered.
3. You must be willing to let God answer in His own power, in His own ability.
Don't try to help out God. Don't ask for it and then you go out and try to work it out on your own. Let God answer in His own power. That's called a miracle. And God says, "Let Me do it in My own power."
There's an important truth in this story about Zacharias and Elizabeth. The fact is this: God often waits until the situation is humanly impossible before He answers. When did God give Zacharias and Elizabeth a baby? After they were beyond childbearing years. They said, "We're too old!" They were physically unable to have kids. Then God answered.
Why? Because when God answers an impossible situation, who gets all the credit? Who gets all the glory? It's a greater miracle.
The same thing happened to Sarah and Abraham. One day God came to Abraham and said, "You're going to be the father of a great nation." Abraham said, "I don't have any kids, but that's great!" So he waited and waited... All of a sudden Abraham is ninety-nine years old and still nothing's happened. In the meantime, he has decided he's going to help God out instead of letting God do it in his own power. So he goes and gets a second wife and has a child by her. God says, "That's not My plan! Let Me do it in My time, My way and My power." So at age ninety-nine and His wife is ninety, an angel comes to him one day and says, "Abraham, you're going to be a Father." Romans 4:20 says, "Abraham staggered not." I think I'd have staggered if I heard that at ninety-nine. He goes to his home and says, "Honey, you're never going to believe what I just heard. You're going to have a baby." That's got to be the first time in history that the man knew first. What was Sarah's reaction? She started laughing. We know she didn't believe it because she laughed. A ninety-year-old woman who hears she's going to be pregnant would not laugh, she'd cry if she believed it. She laughs. Then God gives a child.
The point is that God waited until it was humanly impossible, hopeless, then He answered the prayer with a miracle.
Warning about prayer: If you start praying about something, particularly a problem, do not be surprised if it gets worse before it gets better. You're having problems in your marriage and you start praying, and your mate gets more hostile, or you're praying about a financial problem and all of a sudden it gets worse, or you're praying for somebody to get well, and they get sicker.
Why? Because sometimes God will let things get to the point of hopelessness in order that He might gain the most glory out of it. Let God answer in His power. His plan is to let the thing get out of our control and when you're about ready to give up hope, that's an opportunity for a miracle.
Mark 5:21
A story in the Bible. Jairus had a twelve-year-old daughter who was sick, dying. One day, he comes to Jesus in a crowd and says, "My daughter is dying, she's very sick. Please come." So Jesus starts walking and as he's walking, there's another lady who had a problem -- there is also the twelve years. The daughter was twelve years old and this woman had been ill for twelve years. She had a hemorrhage in her body and she could not stop bleeding and it had bothered her for twelve years. She comes up behind Jesus and touches Him on the back in the crowd. Jesus is walking to Jarius' home and stops and turns around and says, "Who touched Me?" The disciples are saying, "What do You mean, `Who touched Me?' You're in a crowd." But He felt this woman's touch.
What would you do if you were Jarius? Your daughter's dying and Jesus says, "Who touched Me?" -- "Jesus, who cares who touched You. My daughter is dying. Get on the stick! Let's move it. There's everybody all around You. Let's go." Jesus stops and hears the woman's story and He heals that woman right there on the spot!
That means there was a delay. He starts up again after this interruption and Jarius' servants come from the home and tell him, "Forget it! It's too late. Send the Master back. The girl's died. It's too late." Jesus turned around to Jarius and says, "Jarius, don't worry about it. Just keep on believing." And He goes in and raises the girl from the dead.
The point is, Jesus waited until the situation was humanly impossible and then He bailed him out. He did it in His own power.
Another point of that story is this: While you are waiting for God to answer your prayer, keep your eyes open to see confirmations of God's power in other people's lives. Jarius got a living example. It didn't matter if the girl were alive or dead. Jesus was going there. He turned around to the woman as if to say, "Jarius, hold your horses! Watch this. You ain't seen nothing yet." And He heals the lady.
When you are waiting for a prayer that's been delayed, you keep your eyes open to watch God at work in other people's lives and it will build your faith.
Do you want to have an answer from God? Be willing to let God answer in His own time. Be willing to let God answer in His own way. Be willing to let God answer in His own power.
4. Be willing to let God answer for His own purpose.
Not only whenever He wants, however He wants, but also for whatever reason He chooses. Why does God answer prayer? What are His reasons? The entire Bible summarizes why God answers prayer in two statements: For our growth, and for His glory. That's why God answers all prayer. First, for our growth, for our gain, for our blessing. Two, for His glory. He answers a prayer when He can be glorified in that answer. Then He answers.
Why did God answer Elizabeth's and Zacharias' prayer for a son? Because He needed a John the Baptist. He had a purpose for that little boy. He knew that Elizabeth and Zacharias would raise him well.
Remember the story of Joseph in the Bible? God said to Joseph in a dream, "You're going to be a ruler one day. You're going to be the ruler of a great county." Then what happened? Joseph was promptly sold by his brothers into slavery. He goes as a slave into his master's home, his master's wife tries to seduce him, he would not give in, so the wife has him put in jail. That's not exactly the way to build a political career. Sold into slavery and then maligned and put in jail. His whole career is downhill. But God made him second in command in Egypt in His own time, in His own way, with His power -- Joseph had nothing to do about it -- for His purpose.
When you pray and the request is not right, God says "No." When you pray and you're not right, God says, "Grow." When you pray and the timing is not right, God says, "Slow." When everything's in place, God says, "Go." He gives the green light and you're able to move.
(Sermon inspired by Rick Warren's sermon entitled "How to Receive an Answer from God")
