How to Pray in the Will of God

Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Thursday, August 31st. The Bible instructs believers to pray and not give up. But how do you know if what you ask is within God's plan? Today, you'll hear how to pray in the will of God.

Is this the will of God? How do I know that I have the right to ask this of God? And how do I know that God's going to answer my prayer?

Well, I'm not even sure that what I'm asking for is legitimate as far as he's concerned. So I think all of us have come to times in our life and recognized when we knelt to pray, we were sort of shooting in the dark. That our first request to God about a given situation was something that we had no earthly idea at the moment. Whether it's God's will or not. So we just sort of had to shoot out in the dark and listen to hope that God heard us and made some kind of response.

I don't believe that's the way God wants his people praying. And when you think about it, we've talked about it. Here is an omnipotent, that is an unlimited, powerful God who is loving in his spirit, who is forgiving toward his children, who desires to meet our needs. And we have the privilege of talking to him personally and expecting him to be personally involved in our life. He's made a promise and I want us to see three things in this message. And first of all is the promise he makes here, the problem you and I have to deal with. And thirdly, the proper approach to praying in the will of God. So I want you to look at these two verses and follow along with me, if you will. First of all, here's the promise he makes and the promise is threefold.

Watch it in this verse. This is the confidence that we have in him that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. So the first promise he gives us is he's going to listen to us if we pray according to his will. Second promise, and if we know that he hears us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petition. So first of all, he says, he's hearing us. Secondly, we are having or possessing what we've asked for. And the third thing he says here is this, we know that we have the petition that we desire to him.

So when we come to him asking according to his will, he says there's a threefold promise. First of all, he hears us. Secondly, we have what we ask for. And thirdly, we know that we have it. And it is present tense, not we shall know, not we're going to know, not we hope we know.

He says, but what? We pray and what? We know that he hears us. Secondly, we have what we ask for. And thirdly, we know that we have it. So here is a promise, a threefold promise in these two verses. There's something I want you to notice here.

Look, if you will, in verse 14. This is the confidence because his promise affects our praying. This is the confidence. The word confidence is boldness or assurance. And here's what the word means.

You trace it all the way back and it was used among the Greeks for a political term. And what it means is this, the freedom to speak publicly. And what he's saying is this is the confidence that we have in him.

That is, and the word in him means toward him. It means as a child of God, this is the open, confident, bold freedom that you and I have that we can come into the presence of God and make a personal request. Listen, when he says uses the term, if we ask the mood of that verb there means I am asking something for myself. Now you and I must get off the idea that we cannot ask anything for ourselves.

It must always be for someone else. That is not what the Bible teaches. These two verses are dealing with your capacity in mind to approach God openly and freely and confidently and boldly with assurance that he's going to hear, we're going to have what we ask for, and we're going to know that what we ask for we have. So he's building up our confidence, motivating us to pray, desiring that you and I would come to him. There's one stipulation and he makes that when he says that our asking must be according to the will of God. We say, oh, but that's the catch. That's the whole thing that bothers me that many other things don't bother me. It's just simply knowing whether a thing is the will of God or not.

So let's deal with the problem here. And the second point, the problem of knowing about God's will. Now, somebody asked the question, can you always know the will of God in prayer? And the answer is no and yes.

And I think it has to be in that order. But many times when you and I come to ask him, we're in the dark. We don't know what to ask for. So sometimes we come to him. The answer is no. But I believe that ultimately, if you listen carefully what I'm going to say, ultimately, the answer is yes. Every time we can know ultimately what the will of the Lord is as to how we ought to pray about a given situation. Now, let's analyze the problem for just a moment.

Here you are coming to the Lord. And there may be one of many things that you're asking for. You may be asking about your vocation, for example. Whatever it is, there are problems that you and I have to deal with.

One of the first ones is this. We ask the question, how can I come to the Lord in faith making a request when I don't even know if what I'm asking is God's will or not? So that sort of weakens my faith if I don't know that what I'm asking for is pleasing to him. A second thing we ask is this. We say, well, you know, if you don't know the Lord's will and you're not sure that what you're asking of is of him, it's sort of discouraging because you think, well, you know, why should I pray when I don't even know that what I'm praying for is right or wrong?

So let's look at it for a moment. In Colossians chapter one, verse nine, Paul prayed a prayer for the Christian believers there in Colossae. And he prayed his prayer and he said in verse nine that you may be filled, now watch this, that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding.

So Paul prayed for those Colossian Christians that they would know the mind of God. Listen, to know the will of God is to know the mind of God about a given situation. In James chapter one, if you'll recall when he is beginning this book and on the fifth verse, he says, if any man lack wisdom, what is wisdom? Wisdom is seeing things from God's perspective. When you don't know what God thinks about a given thing that you're praying for, he says, if any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God who gives wisdom, his perspective to all men liberally and it should be given to him. So he says we have the right to ask God for knowledge of his will and spiritual understanding.

He promises to give us wisdom, God's perspective about things. Then Romans chapter eight for a moment in verse twenty six, look there if you will. And here in this eighth chapter, verse twenty six, when he begins the passage by saying, likewise, the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities. He's not talking about sicknesses.

He's talking about a weakness here. He's talking about our inability to understand or to know how to pray in a given situation. So he says, likewise, the Spirit also helpeth, assist us when we don't know what to pray for. For we know not what we should pray for as we are. But the Holy Spirit himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And there have been times when you and I have faced situations we've said, Lord, I don't even know how to pray.

I don't even know what to say. And so he says the Spirit of God who indwells us, who is our helper, intercedes before our loving God. And what does he do? The Holy Spirit intercedes before the Lord Jesus Christ and God the Father to interpret to him. Listen, to interpret to him the pleadings of our heart when we don't even know what they are. With groanings and utterings which you and I cannot utter. There have been times when I've faced situations and I just had to say, Lord, I don't have any earthly idea how to pray. I'm just going to have to trust the Holy Spirit to intercede in my behalf and to bring to you the petitions of my heart that I right now don't even have any earthly idea how I even feel about this. That's why that God gave the Holy Spirit to us to empower us, to teach us, to guide us, to lead us. And to stand before the Father through the Lord Jesus Christ and to plead our cause when we don't even know how to plead it ourselves.

So we have the assurance of that. So what is the proper approach when you and I come to him? Now, let me give you several things and you want to jot these down then I may come back and interpret them according to different perspectives because what I want to give you are the steps. Now, it depends upon what you're asking for.

Let me give you a few varieties. Let's say, for example, that you have a financial need this morning and you know that it's a need. So there's no question in your mind that you need a sum of money.

No doubt in your mind about that. You know that God knows you have a need. Okay, that's one situation. Let's say, for example, that a job opportunity comes up and I don't like to use the word job because Christians don't have jobs.

Christians have vocations whereby they can make enough money to serve the Lord. So suppose, for example, that you have a vocation, you have a particular area of work and another opportunity arises. You don't have a desire about it and you don't have a need for it. It's just an opportunity. So that's another situation. What do I do? What shall I do when an opportunity arises when I don't particularly need it and I don't particularly want it? But there it is and I have to deal with it. Or it may be here's a college student and you've got one of three majors and you're trying to find it. Lord, what do you want me to do? I've got to make a decision.

I'm a junior and so forth. So there are many different aspects that you and I may have to look at. What is the first step?

Step number one is this. You want to distinguish between one of three things. Is this request I'm bringing to God? Is it a need? Is it a desire or is it an opportunity?

And I think it's very important that we understand that. Is it a need? Is it a desire or is it an opportunity?

Somebody say, well, now wait a minute now. The Bible promises to meet my need but not my desires. Then you need to read the 37th Psalm. Delight thyself in the Lord and he shall give thee what? The desires of thine heart God loves us and wants to bless his children. So I need to distinguish, Lord, here is a need, here is a desire, here is an opportunity. The second step, once you've decided that, is to get in the Word of God and say, all right, Lord, I want you to give me some passage of scripture that deals or relates to that in some way, something that I can meditate on, something that you can speak to my heart through. Now, this is why it's so important for us to walk in the Spirit and to live in this book. If you like many people, maybe you memorize a verse a month, a verse a week, a verse a day, or you've got a particular book that you'd like to do, whatever it might be, just get in the book because the more familiar you are with the Word of God, the more easily you're going to find the passage that may deal and surround and give you the spiritual environment in which you can talk to God about the given need that you have. You say, well, I always turn to Philippians 4.19, my God shall supply all of your needs. Suppose it's not a need. Then you've got to find yourself another verse. If it's a desire, you can't go to Philippians 4.19 and say, well, can't you just sort of mix up desires and needs? No, you need to find the passage that deals with that. So you say, well, suppose it's an opportunity.

All right. Then you need to find the passage of scripture where God promises you direction. He says, trust in the Lord with all thine heart, lean not to thine own understanding and all thy ways acknowledge him. He will direct your path.

But listen, you must not take a passage that I give you. You must find the passage that when you're reading, God says, and somehow that passage grabs your heart and you have to feast on that. There's something about hanging in there with the same passage and letting God begin to work that into your life and osmose that into your thinking and you begin to meditate and chew it up till it becomes an anchor.

And I mean something that you deal with every day. That is, you're thinking about it and praying over it. When you're praying about your prayer request, you're saying, Lord, in the light of this, what are you trying to say to me?

Something that holds you to your attention to what you're talking about. Now, notice we haven't even begun to pray yet. We've asked the Lord to show us what kind of desire it is and then to come to him and ask for a particular scripture. Now, if you have a particular passage that definitely says that God promises to do so and so, there's no question about it. Secondly, if you've committed yourself to him, he's given you a passage, you know whether it's a need or desire or an opportunity, you've claimed this promise and you are committed to being obedient. And you see, commitment is a part of it. You're committed, Lord.

You know, I'll take it either way you want. I just want to know how to pray. Then you've said, Lord, I need you to show me how to ask you about this thing.

All right, one or two things are going to happen. You're going to start praying for God to supply this particular need. If what you're praying for is the Lord's will, and let's say, for example, that you have a need. If you have a need, it is the Lord's will to provide you a need.

There's no question about that. What you have to distinguish is, is this a need or is this a desire? All right, here's what will happen. Now watch me carefully. As you begin to meditate on the passage of Scripture, and I cannot tell you how important that is because meditating on that passage is a cleansing, sifting process. Sifts my mind, cleanses my heart, focuses me upon him. And if there are things that I think are important in reading that passage and talking to him about that passage and about my life and getting me ready to talk to him about it, he's going to sift those things out. So what we're doing, we're asking him to show us how to pray.

Lord, here is a definite need that I have. I'm submitting myself to you that I'm asking, Lord, here's my need and I'm willing for you to answer that need through me or any way you want to. And the only way I know how to pray at this time is, Lord, would you meet my need? And I'm trusting you to do that. All right?

Your life is clean. You've got a passage of Scripture. You're waiting upon him to show you. Here's how you must pray. Lord, I'm going to obey you.

I'm trusting you to show me how to pray about this whole situation. And so since I don't know what your will is in this situation, I do know this is your will. Lord, I will obey you when you show me the decision that I'm to make. And so as I bring it to you day by day, I'm going to be waiting for you for direction, waiting for you for guidance.

You know what you've done? When your heart's clean and you've committed yourself to obey him and you don't have any earthly idea what God wants you to do, listen, you mark this down. Almighty God and everything in holy heaven is responsible for showing you unquestionably without a doubt which one of those choices is the will of God. And he will do it in one of several ways. Number one, he will show you through the Scriptures or through circumstance that something's wrong with that decision.

So you check that one out. Or as you pray and seek his face asking for his direction, what will he do? You lose interest over here in this one and so the only one that's left is God's will. Or what he may do, he may show you quickly, this is what God wants me to do. So that what we must do is we must approach the prayer with absolute confidence. God's going to show me, but now listen, the waiting is the important thing. I must wait for him to show me what his will is in a given situation when he chooses to do it. I must wait for him to show me how to pray when he shows me. Once he shows me how to pray in a given situation, then I just pray about the details of how he's going to work it out, to give me wisdom to know what to do at this step and that step and the other. But I want to tell you that you don't have to wring your hands and wonder, well how in the world am I to pray and to know the mind of God in a given situation when I don't even know it's his will?

I cannot tell you enough, he will show you, show you, show you clearly, unquestionably, and then there's one thing I think you'll know for sure. Remember what he says, don't be anxious about anything, the second verse of that says, and the peace that passeth all understanding shall guard your heart. You know what God does? As you have sought his mind as to even how to pray about a given situation, the peace of the Holy Spirit will come into your life, confirming. This is how I'm to pray.

This is what I'm to pray for. And you see there are times when we pray for other people, we don't know how to pray for them. As we say, Lord, I don't know how to pray, please show me how to pray, we wait upon him in the verse claiming his promises and his will happen.

Very quietly, sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly, you will arrive. Just like God evolves, it's spiritual in you and you will know very clearly exactly how you to pray. The waiting and the trusting, God will clarify the questions you have when you come to him with your petitions. Let's pray together.

Father, you didn't make it complicated, we've made it complicated. You didn't mean for us to be confused, you meant us to be very clear about our coming to you, for we have no greater privilege than the privilege of bowing our heads and our hearts and our spirits before omnipotent, holy, loving, gracious, generous, kind God. You, Father, and knowing in our heart that you want to answer our prayer, you surely want to instruct us as to how we are to ask. Would you grant each one of us the desire in our heart to really want to know your will in every given situation?

For sometimes you do show us very quickly, sometimes you wait. We don't know how to pray. Our hearts may be in turmoil, in frustration, we may become anxious about a given situation, but you've promised us it will weigh upon you that you will clear up all the anxiety and you'll show us exactly how to pray. Now, Father, we pray for somebody who's unsaved, somebody who doesn't know you personally. Would you help them to see that there is no answered prayer until first of all they're willing to ask you for the forgiveness of their sins, bringing them into the kingdom by the adoption as sons, and until our soul has been saved by thy grace through the blood shed at Calvary, can we ever call you our Heavenly Father? Would you clarify that in the hearts of many people who are deceived who think that their prayers, all for that of hearts of rebellion and disobedience, would ever be answered? Thank you for loving us enough to come down here and get involved in our life, and then to go back up there and to remain involved in every single interest we have. Praise you, bless you, hallelujah, 10 million times, to your wonderful name is our prayer. In the Savior's blessed and holy, righteous, all-providing name, amen. Thank you for listening to How to Pray in the Will of God. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or In Touch Ministries, stop by intouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.